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Sunday, July 17, 2022
Constructor: Greg Slovacek
Relative difficulty: Shrug ... hard, easy, I dunno
So there are, I think, four "hands" laid out in the grid (each hand consisting of two cards appearing in the same Across answer), and then there are five communal cards laid out diagonally in the center of the grid. The best hand among the four is the hand in 123-Across, where a King and Jack of hearts can combine with the Queen, Ace and 10 of hearts in the communal cards to make a ROYAL FLUSH (39D: 123-Across's holding that wins this puzzle's game). There's also a cutesy little reference to the two-card "hands" in this variety of card game (42D: Indicator on a clock ... or one of four in this puzzle?) (MINUTE HAND). Then there's a reference to a movie that "featured" Texas Hold 'em (???) (131A: 1998 Matt Damon film featuring this puzzle's game) ("ROUNDERS"). There's probably other stuff crammed in here too that I'm just not seeing right now. Anyway, in case it wasn't clear, each "card" in this "game" is a rebus square where the suit works for the Down answer and the value (e.g. 2, 10, King, etc.) works for the Across.
The "hands":
- QUEEN (of clubs) ANNE'S LACE (of spades)
- NETWO (of hearts) RKING (of clubs) EVENT
- SURFACE (of clubs) TEN (of spades) SION
- SMOKING (of hearts) JACK (of hearts) ETS
The communal cards:
- TEN (of hearts) DS BAR
- SMITTEN (of clubs)
- PLACE (of hearts) BO
- 7 (of diamonds) SEAS
- WHITE QUEEN (of hearts)
Rounders is a 1998 American drama film about the underground world of high-stakes poker, directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. The story follows two friends who need to win at high-stakes poker to quickly pay off a large debt. The term rounder refers to a person traveling around from city to city seeking high-stakes card games.
Rounders opened to mixed reviews and was moderately successful at the box office. Following the poker boom in the early 2000s, the film became a cult hit. (wikipedia)
• • •
Mostly this was a slog. That is, it was slow-going because I had to keep checking to see which rebus was working in which direction. It was complicated, but not complex, or particularly difficult. The hardest "card" for me By Far was the 2 of hearts, specifically HIGH-EARTH (!?!?!). Yeeesh. I didn't even know that was ... a thing (12D: Like a geocentric orbit in which the orbital period is more than 24 hours). Based on how long and highly specific the clue is, I'm guessing that is a thing only to the NERDIER among you (38A: More versed in esoterica, maybe). Not sure what else there is to comment on here. I had SLOVAK before SLAVIC, that was fun (80A: From Serbia or Croatia, say). Big geographical blind spot when it comes to central Europe. I remember during the Balkan crisis in the early '90s, my head just refused to take in all the names and places. Just ... wouldn't process it. But to be fair my brain wouldn't do much in the early '90s except wonder why I decided to go Michigan instead of Texas where it was warm and they had actually offered me funding (I eventually got a tuition waiver and stipend at Michigan, too, but not after ... let's just say, some heavy mental and emotional dues). So I remember CNN's Lynne Russell saying "Bosnia-Herzegovina" a lot, and not much else. Can you feel me not wanting to write about the actual puzzle today? Can you? DOEST thou feel it?! The kindest thing I can say today is that it seems like it took a lot of thought and work to make this. And I am simply not the audience this puzzle is looking for. I hope this puzzle finds its fans. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. if you're wondering what the hell you're supposed to enter in the "card" squares in order to preserve your streak on the app or whatever, it looks like the first word of the card value should work. When I hit "reveal all" in my software, that's what showed up (see posted grid). There's also this:
Save And Share :
230 comments:
Ok, Rex, I'll volunteer to be a fan of this puzzle. I 'll admit that it took me longer than usual to suss out the theme, but once I got it everything fell into place... no naticks, relatively low PPP quotient.... what's not to like? Mr Shortz, you are on a roll!
I don’t get MINUTEHAND. Anyone understand? It says “one of four” so I figured maybe it was a nickname for one of the 2 card hands (like Big Slick) but couldn’t find it on a page that had dozens of Hold ‘em nicknames…
I enjoyed this. I did it on paper first then tried it online to see how the cards would be, uh, dealt with. I entered the first letter of each value and suit into the rebus square, or the numeral and first letter of the suit, i.e. QC,AS,2H,KC,10H, and so on. All were accepted no problem.
On NYT website I entered the rebus answers as I think they should have been, like "QUEEN OF HEARTS", and it didn't like that. Took an extra two minutes to convert them all to "HEART" or whatever, and that was acceptable.
The UI really made me hate this more than the overwrought theme. My pace stat got yanked because of all the rebus annoyance and the fact that longer answers are in such a fine print that I have to wonder whether it’s trespassing the ADA.
I'm not a real poker fan, but not hating it quite like Rex. I found it tough; just so much a-figuring and a-rebusing. I also eventually gave up and hit "Show all" from the menu. (Wierdly, it shows numerals, so we get 10NDS BAR and SMIT10.) But I'm really hoping that for some it was a rewarding solve?... the theme was novel and ambitious, I'll give it that.
I am pretty nerdy... my first degree was in physics, and I really get off on astronomy, and orbits and all that. (Fun orbit trivia: if you want to catch up to a spacecraft that's ahead of you in the same orbit, you... fire your rocket to slow down. Truth!) But I was baffled by 12 down too! The only word I could think of for the clue was RETROGRADE, which is actually something else entirely. HIGH EARTH orbit actually makes sense... the longer the orbit takes, the higher it is.
112 across is another physics answer, and I knew it right away but it was too long... so where the heck is the rebus? Oh, there's 2 of them... yikes!
[Spelling Bee: Sat currently pg-1, missing a 4er, of all things!]
I like poker. I did not like this crossword. For several reasons. Most of all, I should not have spend metal energy in a crossword thinking so much about how to put a playing card value into a rebus form that the app will accept. That is not what a pleasurable crossword is supposed to be about. Sure, maybe both “acespade” and “aceofspades” would have worked. But why should I even have to worry about the formatting of a rebus answer when doing a crossword? I have no problem with rebuses. I like them. But for heaven’s sake they ought to be letters or words. Not verbal descriptions of an object. Next, someone is going to try doing a rebus where you have to enter something like “prayinghandsemoji”.
There are four minute (meaning small, not the unit of time) hands in the puzzle, each consisting of two cards
Minute as in small. The hands are tiny, aka minute.
It’s the “other” MINUTE. The one that means ‘small’ (meye-NOOT). They are minute (small) hands.
I found it annoying and gave up. I tip my hat to people who actually finished it!
I read "minute" as a synonym for "small" since the cards each fit into one square. Love the multi-pronunciation puns
I like poker and this puzzle was a pain in the ass. The vast majority of solvers have to be doing this on a computer, if not on the NYT app. Just adds unnecessary, time-consuming difficultly to the solve. When I got the trick, I immediately dreaded trying to figure out what would go in the rebus. And the rebuses (rebii???) we’re so small that they were unreadable.
Fill is fine. Whatever. I would just like a Sunday that doesn’t annoy me. Asking for something that I enjoy is too much for a Sunday apparently. Just give me something that doesn’t make me hate crosswords. Is that too much to ask?
I know someone has already written about solving on the New York Times app, but it still wasn’t clear to me how to fill in the rebus squares. In case it’s helpful, you need to use the actual slash in between words, and you need to spell out the number. So, QUEEN/CLUB, SEVEN/DIAMOND, TWO/HEART, and so on. At least for me, the numbers were NOT accepted, and I needed to write out the number in letters (i.e., 7/DIAMOND did not work for me). I spent way too much time trying to fill in the rebus squares! I even found this New York Times page on rebus squares, which I had never seen before. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/crosswords/yes-you-can-write-more-than-one-letter-in-a-square.html?_r=0
All I can saw is whew!
Agree totally with rex. I hate poker. Puzzle was an annoying slog. Somehow I finished it.
Easy-medium? It’s hard to tell because rebus typing, but it didn’t offer a whole lot of resistance. The app had nice visual after I finished, but this was more slog than fun and I like poker, although not so much Texas Hold’em.
I caught on fairly quickly with Queen ANNESL ace and IN ace S, but quite the slog after that hopeful beginning. I love playing poker and I did finally finish this, but too many layers and I’ve got the headache to prove it. I’m sure I have a bunch of errors, but I’m too tired to find them.
Goodnight all.
Thanks for the helpful hints, Rex. That was tedious beyond belief on my laptop. Clearer instructions would be really helpful.
I figured that must be what they meant, "minute" as an adjective so "small hands" in the grid. But that is just quite dumb. The squares that hold the poker cards are the same size as the rest of the squares in the grid. If you write "Queen of Hearts", et all, in the squares, then sure your writing will have to be very minute, but if you write QH, not so much. I feel like any (minute) amount of effort could have found a better revealer (?) than MINUTE HAND.
I'm a big fan of poker but I'm mostly with Rex here, this just makes for a very messy solving experience, even besides the challenge of figuring out how to denote the rebus squares in the software in order to get the magical correct solution. Makes more sense in some kind of puzzle hunt setting where to get a final answer you have to analyze each hand and figure out which player has the best holding. But here obviously you're going to enter royal flush once you have a few of the letters in that entry so the actual hands being held by any of the nonexistent "players" are just meaningless in the long run.
I think this was quite a feat. I couldn’t figure out how to write the content of each rebus but I didn’t care. It works perfectly well for what it presents and visually (once it’s solved) it’s really neat!
Kudos to the new constructor!
I thought the theme was clever … but the app made solving this one more challenging than it needed to be. I solved everything correctly but, at first, the app made it look like I had mistakes even though I didn’t. The app itself shouldn’t get in the way of the solving. This puzzle would have been more enjoyable to solve in print. It’s always galling when the app tells you something is wrong when it’s not … leaving you to futz around re-entering the same correct answers.
How do I fill this in on the NYT app? I tried everything I can think of and can’t get it to say I solved it. I have a streak going for over a year and don’t want to mess it up!! Thanks for any help from anyone ❤️
As I've mentioned here before, I hate rebopodes. And I hate crossing, different rebopodes even more. Add that I share @Rex's hatred of poker and I hated to the infinity power.
On the good side, the NYT Crossword App accepted either the spelled-out card values or the suit names in the rebus squares, and the cluing was relatively straightforward. No overwrites.
Aw @Rex—can’t you at least try to imagine how someone who is not exactly you, and who isn’t biased against the constructor, might respond to the puzzle? I too have no interest in or knowledge of poker, but was amazed by—AGAPE at—the construction feat here. And I thought the clue/answer pair for MINUTE HAND* was hilarious—especially given that the many letters in each of the rebus squares on my phone were so minuscule as to be completely unreadable. Not sure how paper solvers would have handled this…
*FBO @Burghman 12:09 et al—I assumed the phrase was meant to have the alternative meaning minute = tiny, hand = cards held.
I thought it was great.
Really enjoyed it but wasn’t sure what would be acceptable for keeping my streak alive. Ended up rebus-ing the face value of the cards for the across answers and omitting the down suit from the rebus and it worked so it’s all good. Nice challenge.
Super fun Thursday puzzle on a Sunday!
I enjoy poker. I like rebuses. This puzzle sucks.
This puzzle is affected adversely by two factors outside its control:
(1) The reluctance of the NYTXW staff to "push"- when needed- the pdf alternative; and
(2) Thursday's (7/14) BEQ xword puzzle has the same theme (but tighter)
Oh, oh, oh! Or ooh, ooh! I LOVED every aspect of this puzzle! Moved around a bit with odd holes that I couldn't figure out. But kept working in almost drunken stumblings around the grid until I stumbled onto 123A. With the reference back to Royal Flush, which I had partially filled in, the cards clicked into place! At this point I still hadn't figured out that we were playing a game I like and watched on TV in the aughts (sorry Rex), so kept trying to make royal flushes fit into each corner for a while until I got to the undeniable 7SEAS (7 not being part of a ROYAL FLUSH). Still didn't get the poker hand holdings but eagerly enjoyed looking for all the card/suit combinations! My only nit would be that I never heard of 1D and it's not very inferrable. Also tried biscoTTI at 1A, so that's another reason I got spun out of the NW to try and find traction elsewhere. I very much enjoyed the rest of the fill, too. Often complicatedly constructed puzzles give us dreck or super easy fill. This one just played real nice, IMHO. Even things like 46A DOEST over YAKS, well it gave me a mental juxtaposition image of a refined ROYAL speaking over the head of some teen/tween who is YAcKing with their buddy on the phone, like, all day. As for the NERD-appealing 12D, HIGHEARTH, I somehow had Inner Solar System/Outer Solar System on my mind from a recent bit on NPR about the Webb telescope so I kept wanting something with outer there for a while, but the brain easily clicked into the solution when I looked at it with card suit goggles after grokking the theme. Running 'spades, club, diamond, heart' through my brain at all my open Down holes in the grid to see how they could fit into neat words and phrases was lots of fun for me. Just super, super enjoyable! Thanks, Greg/NYTXW!
This was not poker.
This was not a cross"WORD".
This was an "OOH, OOH, LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT WHAT I DID" P.O.S.
A new low in Sunday puzzles.
When I finished this, I washed my hands.
For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.
And while It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white, nevertheless..
For the first time in a very, very long times (years, but perhaps not decades) I solved for a few minutes, put the puzzle aside and said to myself: "I do not like this, Will, you see; not in a house; not in a box; not with a mouse; not with a fox. I will not solve this here or there. I do not like this anywhere."
That is all.
First time in years that I really didn't care if I finished it or not. Definitely a slog - and not worth it.
I don’t often post here these days, but I need to speak up and say this was a GREAT puzzle, loads of layers, lots to learn, and it added literally minutes to my average solve time figuring out how to enter the rebus, but I do not care. Great, great, great. I hope we see a lot more from this constructor.
I loved this. Very clever, best in a while for me. I know many don't like the rebus, but I absolutely thought this was really well-done. Congrats on your debut!
HTF do they want you to enter the rebuses? Worst puzzle ever. EVERRRR!
I’m still trying to figure out how to enter the answers - which I’ve solved - properly. Do we use symbols? I’m lost.
Slog. Not enjoyable.
Ugh. Very rare that I dfn, but this was just a grinding bore. Who cares how you’re supposed to enter the damn refuses?
THANK YOU
Ditto. The paper version was a mess of notes for me so I had to try the electronic version to soothe myself.
Like many I suspect, I was able to grok the theme/gimmick but had no enthusiasm for attempting to code the rebus squares properly and keep everything straight, et c. So I filled most of it in and just cried “uncle!”. May be a tremendous feat of construction, and great if you are in the SUBSET of solvers who have the motivation to stick it out to the end, but it’s a “no thanks” for me today.
There’s no abbreviation in the clue for 96A (SNL), so the slipshod editing is still with us at least.
There’s a dupe with OPENSEAT and OPENHEARTED
The clues, without considering the rebus, were Monday-easy. The rebus made it difficult but only because I had to suss out the right procedure then check it half a dozen times for typos. This was work, not play
Whenever this comes up, you can also just enter *one* of the answers in the box (either the suit or the rank in this case) and it will be accepted. This actually makes the puzzle artificially easier than it should be in this case.
Props to you, Greg Slovacek, for creating a masterful puzzle. It’s clear from your notes that you worked your heart out to make this the best it can be. The concept is brilliant (even to me, who doesn’t play poker), and wonderfully executed. During solving, keeping track of the rebus working differently vertically and horizontally kept me on a high state of alert – fully involved – and that state always makes me come alive. This being a debut makes it all the more impressive. Props to you, Greg, and much gratitude for presenting a lovely nut to uncrack. I will be eagerly watching for your next offering.
There have been many "How do I fill the rebus squares in?" complaints here and in WordPlay. Most have come from genuine frustration, where the puzzle was complete but not counted as successful by the crossword app. NYT team, let the message of these complaints be for you to figure out how to make it easy for the solver to fill in the double-rebus squares. Let that be a lovely nut for *you* to crack!
Greg, thank you again for this memorable beauty!
Thanks all. I misread “one of four”, thinking it was a reference to a specific 1 of the 4 small hands. Now I see that it’s just saying “any 1 one of the 4”.
Took some work, but finished it on paper in the Sunday Magazine section with admiration for the construction feat. Overall, a slog but that's okay too since I'm not part of the crowd that worries about timing. And I didn't worry too much about the poker rules involved - just figured out which cards worked and that was more than good enough. Not a life-changing event, just the usual small weekend pleasure.
This is the most annoying form of rebus-legalese I have ever encountered. The turkish toilet (tiny slot) interface of the rebus is bothersome enough. Now compound it with undue fussiness over how things are entered is over the top.
The entire experience has left me incredibly annoyed.
One more NYTXW stunt grid. (sigh)
Agree with Rex... If I want to play poker, the last thing I'd do would be to solve a crossword puzzle. I can see the appeal of a complex, masterful feat of construction, and congrats to those who enjoyed it, but nah, I come to the puzzle to, I don't know, do a crossword puzzle.
Why the ever loving f*** don't they link to this prominently in the app? This was an ok puzzle but a UI mess.
This turkey is squarely at the feet of the editor. The constructor should have known better, sure, but the editor let it see the light of day. If what fills the rebus is so populous as to be illegible, that’s diagnostic of a bad idea for a rebus, and it should be chucked with prejudice. This was nothing but bad rebuses from start to finish. I had every square right, in the app, and kept getting “Almost.” Because I was missing the fershlugginger /. Usually I save my rage for Natan-Last-level-precious-name-density, but this puzzle ranks down there with the Sunday where “Khufu,” (vying to replace “Natick,”) sat in complete isolation without any crosses.
A terrible, awful, no good, very bad puzzle.
I now play a mini game where after solving a puzzle and deciding what I think of it, I try to guess what Rex’s reaction is before reading the blog. I was way off here, since I also thought this was a really marvelous puzzle, but as is so often the case Rex can’t get past a personal distaste for some of the puzzle content (which is generally fine but a little weird, like a movie critic doesn’t usually spend a lot of time going on about how much they do or don’t personally like the subject of the movie).
My only issue was not reading the note beforehand, so although it was obviously a poker theme, I didn’t realize it was hold em in particular, so at first I was trying to fit 20 rebus squares corresponding to all 4 royal flushes. In the end only two of the card ranks are below 10 so that threw me off for a bit.
A puzzle Rex hated so much he forgot to rant about NRA being in the puzzle!
Credit where credit is due - serious chops needed to build this one. It got a little sluggish halfway - cute graphic on the app upon finishing.
Yet again - another Sunday where the fill can’t keep up with the theme - not much sparkle overall. I liked the ASPEN - MARAUD - PLOTTED stack. SNL HOSTS is brutal - cross it with PLS and it goes on the Mt. Rushmore of bad fill.
Lily, Rosemary and the JACK OF HEARTS
A feat no doubt - just not an overly enjoyable solve.
@Ando: I'm a poker player and that's what I entered too--e.g., QUEENOFSPADES. When there was no happy music, unlike you, I just hit "Reveal." I had no idea what the NYT wanted me to enter--QUEEN SPADES? QUEEN/SPACES? QS? Q/S?--and I wasn't going to waste my time.
So the only thing I have to say about this puzzle is that all forms of the rebus answers should have been accepted. An interesting idea totally defeated by technical issues.
Once I figured out the point, I started entering everything in a format like Ace/Spades. And dreaded reconciling things at the end when the app told me, sorry, you’ve got a boatload of errors. So it was a very pleasant surprise when I started filling in the last card cell…which was also the last box overall…and I received the Congrats display! Before I’d entered the suit for that square! So the app was surprisingly forgiving/flexible about those rebus entries. I was glad, but also slightly disconcerted as a.) I had wasted a lot of time on all that unnecessary entry and b.) wondered whether the app even cared that I’d mastered both halves of the equation of each cell?
Do we really need LenFuego's personal attack at 8:15?
Loved it! Only just learned Texas Hold ‘Em so maybe that’s why. Key for me was getting ROYAL FLUSH at 39D first, then filling in any face rebuses next and leaving the suits for all card values as implied rather than trying to type them in. Worked as hoped on the app with nice illustrations for the suits when done. 🃏
For a rebus, I think you can consistently just put the first letter only of one of the answers, and that will be accepted. So if the answer is ACE of SPADES, so just put "A" in the box. Don't make it any harder than it needs to be.
I'm also not a poker fan, but my partner-in-solving is. According to him, the world series of poker is this weekend, so at least this rebus trash heap is timely.
I liked this puzzle a lot. The problem trying to figure out how to enter the rebus squares (explained at XWordInfo.com) I guess demonstrates that God meant crosswords to be solved on paper. Take that, all you who solve online.
Yeah, I was wondering how to enter the "suits" as well (see Rex's PS). I tried entering the words; didn't work. And this fatal flaw, one among many, epitomizes the terminal rot of the WS-era NYTXW.
I will concur with others, the hard part of the puzzle shouldn't be figuring out how to fill in a rebus so the computer algorithm recognizes it as correct. Wasted my time trying to figure that out, and still not sure.
How has anyone not mentioned (at least that I have seen) that a ROYAL FLUSH by definition is: An ace-high straight flush, such as A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ 10♦, it is called a royal flush or royal straight flush and is the best possible hand!!! Does anyone see a TWO in a Royal flush!!!!! NO!!! Infuriating!!! Gimmicky puzzles are the worst.
While the puzzle accepted the card number or the suit or a combination in the rebus function, it was not a great solve. Like others, I frankly didn’t care by the end.
I hated this. It must be the first time in years that I just quit-- not because I was such but because the rebuses we're not annoying than fun. Plus, not fan of (or even familiar with) Texas hold'em, that I couldn't quite grasp the logic of anything being the basic poker hands. I agree with Rex: a slog.
I'd rather do the browser cryptic (which was terrific today).
Worst Sunday puzzle in years.
Slightly surprised that no one pointed out that this puzzle was likely posted because this weekend was the final table of the world series of poker. Certainly doesn't make the puzzle any better or improve rex's opinion of it.
Someone said no Naticks?
What is AV CLUB? Couldn't it just as well be AV Diamond if you've never heard of it? Even AV Heart isn't totally out of the question for some rival of the Onion.
Villager
A great construction feat for the puzzle maker does not necessarily make for a great solver for the solver. I found this incredibly annoying and gave up.
Now THIS is what I call a PUZZLE!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At first my [HEART] sank when I saw ?ANNESL? at 1A. What wasn't I seeing??? WHAT WASN'T I SEEING?????
I read the puzzle title. An "ALL" rebus, maybe? A "TABLE" rebus? Or was it going to be a periodic TABLE rebus? Oh, please God, no! I know zilch about the periodic table.
Then I saw ROYAL FLUSH en route to coming in. Oh, goody, that kind of table. A poker table. I can do that!!!!!!!!!!!!
But not so fast! I was starting to see and fill in the f[ACE] cards. But the Acrosses didn't match the Downs. What was going on? WHAT WASN'T I SEEING??????
Aha! The suits were going down!!!!! So you had your ACE OF HEARTS at PLACEBO and you had your 10 of CLUBS at SMITTEN and you had your 7 of DIAMONDS at NEIL...
Oh what fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My biggest disappointment was doing this on paper because I couldn't squeeze all that info into one tiny square and I couldn't be bothered to draw it either. I envisioned people with apps having the QUEEN OF HEARTS (et al) popping up on their grids in full color. I felt real jealousy of the app people -- something I never feel.
What else do I feel? I feel that this is one of the Truly Great Puzzles that I've ever done -- a masterpiece, a real challenge, and a consummate treat from beginning to end.
I couldn't make the rebus work online no matter what I did - tried each of the suggestions here. Finally clicked "Reveal puzzle", ending a 487 day streak, and there was nothing wrong, just the cards suddenly appeared as graphics. I've emailed NYT to try to restore it... frustrating. Shortz has to go, this is at least the third time an arbitrarily formatted online rebus has been a streak breaker.
Don't hate poker. Just don't play it and don't know much about it. Have read the explanation and still don't understand what the hay was going on. Used the check function to get through it. Will admit that I could never have finished this on paper because I would've erased holes into it.
@JoeD, Inspired yesterday by the CSNY discussion I streamed the Woodstock movie last night. Saw it at a drive-in on my first date and didn't remember Young being there. CS&N were incredible. Young, nowhere to be seen. Turned out that he objected to musicians playing for the cameras instead of the crowd (or so I read), and refused to be on camera. But yep, he was there and performed with them for their second public appearance. But highlights were Joe Cocker and the drummer from Santana. Incredible.
Did on paper - doing all the fill and then figuring out the rebus. Prefer puzzles that are just puzzles not exercises in which way do the card suits go.
Personal preference only. Glad some solvers enjoyed the challenge.
Done with Rex. I don't care to read an anti poker rant when the puzzle didn't require poker playing insight - just basic understanding of playing cards. I thought it was an amazing construct.
Hated this puzzle. Abhorred it. It actually made me angry.
I did what you suggested and put the card (spelled out) and then the suit, and the puzzle wouldn’t accept it.
I finally just gave up and FOR THE FIRST TIME USED THE CHECK PUZZLE FUNCTION.
I enjoyed this puzzle so much more than I might have otherwise, just knowing that Rex would piss and moan and rend his garments about it at length all because I guess he knew a guy who was obnoxious about being into poker twenty years ago. <3
Thx, Greg, for the 'poke'; a very challenging effort! :)
Tough.
Still working on this one. Have the general idea. Not sure how to enter the rebuses, tho. Already nearing 2x my Sun. avg.
In addition to the toughness of the themers/rebuses, this one is far removed from my wavelength; so much stuff I don't know.
Will work on it all day, if that's what it takes! 🤔
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I think the puzzle has some inelegant flaws (why are the top rebuses so far apart?), but it works overall, and the app accepts standard card notation (2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/J/Q/K/A + C/D/H/S), so for those irked by illegible squares, there should only be two or three letters in each rebus. That said, if Shortz felt the need to explain Hold 'Em (something not afford to similar puzzles that used golf or bowling notation), I don't think it would've hurt to give an example of a player's hand and the common cards in proper notation.
PS. To "C. I. Vility," LenFuego's statement seemed like more of a strong and easily dismissed opinion than an "attack," and was certainly more general than personal one, if even. By contrast, singling that user out for their use of a tone you found unappealing feels like a personal attack. To each their own!
Hey All !
Props for construction of this puz, I thinking Greg is now bald from the hair tearing.
But, NITS (of course). Never did quite figure out what in tarhooties was going on. Filled in puz best I could, got the Almost There! message, went back to see my wrongness, and was able to finish correctly, but still foggy as to why, until the NYT puz site rendered the Rebus squares into K❤️, J❤️, etc. Then when I rescanned the puz, saw the KING JACK worked in the Across, whilst the ❤️ worked as HEART in the Down. Aha, says I.
Finally seeing the Diagonal (Hi @TomT!) Communal Cards, figured out what the puz was supposed to be doing.
Again, bravo for the I'm sure ridiculously hard to constructness, but Really wished all four "hands" could've had the cards together. Too much to ask for, probably. I'm sure Greg tried.
Well, gonna chalk this up to a slow brain day, and continue on. I hope your hair grows back, Greg
yd -4, should'ves 2
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Whatevs
This is a super clever construction feat and overall a fine puzzle. The only real issue with most commenters is the technical aspect of entering the card squares (rebuses) in software. Get over it. Or do you really need the little reward or streaks that the software gives you when you have it all filled in correctly?
Just take a second to appreciate four acrosses, each with not one but TWO cards embedded in them, crossed by 8 downs that incorporate suits. Then throw in the river (5 more cards), and the results are very clever. I especially like how the SW poker player would surely expect to win with a full house (10s over Aces) only to be shocked by the rare royal flush on the last reveal.
Well done!
Steps to getting your first crossword published in the NYT:
1. Think of a clever and audacious theme
2. Slave for countless hours to bring it to life
3. Collaborate with veteran constructors to improve it
4. Celebrate your acceptance
5. Read Rex Parker blog to find out why you shouldn't have bothered
Done with this guy, and to think I used to send him money.
Totally disagree with Rex today… I thought this was an amazing puzzle on every level.
I don’t care about poker either…. But wow, the construction was amazing and I had a blast solving it.
Many of the cards shown in the puzzle, such as the TWO of HEARTs or the SEVEN of DIAMONDs are not part of the ROYAL FLUSH. The latter consists of only 5 cards, namely the ace through ten of hearts, al of which are shown.
I haven't played poker in over 50 years and hardly played it then either. The only way poker knowledge helps is with the ROYALFLUSH answer. Otherwise, all that is needed is awareness of the standard 52-card deck. Also, of course, not getting stuck on any squares that are only clued once and not twice. If you happen not to know Neil Diamond or Sam Spade (or AV Club, as I mentioned previously), you're out of luck.
Villager
This is a Texas hold ‘em game. The community cards are the five rebuses (rebi?) in the middle, and the four pairs of hole cards are the ones near the corners. The player in the bottom right (“smoking jacket”) has a royal flush when they combine their hand with the community cards.
I filled in the value of the card only. So for a ten card I used “10” as a rebus. For a queen card I just used “Q”. And it took that.
AV stands for audio-visual and AV Club is a common standalone phrase outside of the Onion.
@ Aaron Riccio (10:08 am) No, Aaron. It is an attack. It is not tone. It singles out and names a group of people and calls them losers of the first order- without any fact-based evidence.
Making this attack non-specific does not lessen the attack. Surely you don't think it would be OK to say that all people of Italian ancestry are losers of the first order.
Thirdly, there is a huge difference between a personal attack, which attacks a person or people for who they are or what they believe, and critiquing or finding fault with a behavior that is hostile or offensive. I called out a behavior. Not a person. I have no opinion about the character of the person who made the remark, not should I. I critiqued only what he/she did. Please note the difference.
FH
First puzzle I've failed to complete in a couple of years. And why? Only because, despite many variations and permutations, I could not figure out a way to enter the rebus squares. Can someone please explain clearly how that was supposed to be done?
Someone here said it first and I agree. You do not need to know the least little thing about poker to solve this puzzle. All you need to know are what cards are in a deck of cards.
Maybe this puzzle had an additional layer of cleverness in where the face cards were located and what kind of poker hand they created. I didn't care and I didn't go looking for it. I'm not especially interested in poker either. But you could be a Bridge player, a Gin player, a Canasta player, a Solitaire player, or indeed anyone who has ever seen a deck of cards at some point in your life. As long as you know what a QUEEN OF HEARTS and a 7 OF DIAMONDS are.
The one thing I did realize in reading the blog is that the apps seem to have caused more problems than they solved. So my writing in the face cards while imagining the right suits in the proper places because of lack of fill-in room, while hardly ideal, was probably less problematic than using an app.
Perhaps five percent of the population knows how to play Texas Hold’em. As a member of the other 95 percent, I got no enjoyment or satisfaction from this puzzle. This was a reach too far.
Frank
Loved the puzzle, but I did it on paper so I had no trouble entering it online. Maraud is a good word -- I don't use it enough. Favorite clue/answer: 41A, Reason one might not go out for a long time? Insomnia.
Did someone mention Joe Cocker? Remember this? (Belushi comes on after about a minute.) (May they both rest in peace.)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ryce5
Success! 😊
Once I grokked that the end of ANNESL was ACE, the rest of the NW fell into place.
All my rebuses were accepted.
I'm definitely a happy camper! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
The trouble with this "puzzle" is increasingly the trouble with so many WS products. It's a crossword game more than it's a crossword puzzle. In its marketing, the NYT exhorts us to "play the puzzle." I like to solve puzzles, and play games.
This sucks. I hate entering two words in a tiny rebus square, it’s such a drag. Not a fun puzzle to solve but I did it to keep my streak going.
Absolute reeking garbage. I had to use the reveal button because the Times did not furnish card suit icons in their rebus button. I also tried the full word/full word solution, did not work. Like Rex, I have no use for poker and making rebuses which required ten letters per square? This is not a crossword puzzle, it's Chinese water torture. (That is not in any way to be taken as an ethnic slur, btw.) Worst Sunday I've seen in weeks; Shortz is getting on my last nerve these days.
I thought this was a fantastic puzzle. I was especially pleased that the guy in the SMOKINGJACKETS beat the others, particularly the guy with all of the SURFACETENSION. And, as for the one treating the whole thing as a NETWORKINGEVENT, we’ll you’re going to have to do better than a pair of 10s if you want to hunt with the big dogs.
I thought we might have a Trump thing going when I saw MINUTEHAND and a bunch of bridge cards. I’d pay to see Rex’s reaction to something like that.
Congratulations (meaning a big congrats) to Greg Slovacek on a superb debut.
Rex nails it. I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t be bothered relating the card answers to one another to build poker hands so they may as well have been a bunch of random cards. I do have a problem with “Roast ham” — I would call it Baked Ham (shrug)
This was way more enjoyable once I set aside my initial poker dread. I don’t know the first thing about poker but I know how cards work and typed in valueOFsuitS (no spaces) in the NYT app and was rewarded with little card glyphs in the squares at the end. Kinda fun even.
Same! I wrote out “Queenofhearts”, etc. and that worked, too.
It amuses me that some of the commentariat are pretending they liked this.
Enjoyed this because it brought back fond memories of my favorite childhood card game. Autocheck (on NYTimes iPad app) accepted the first rebus I entered in each answer so I was baffled by the the other result. It was fun seeing it all light up.
Did the puzzle online. Put in answers like "QUEEN HEART" "QUEEN OF HEART" "QUEEN OF HEARTS" "QUEEN HEART" with and without the spacing. None of my answers were acceptable. NYT: if you're going to do a puzzle like this then ANY WAY THAT THE SOLVER PUTS IN THE ANSWER SHOULD BE ACCEPTABLE. The fact that the online version of the puzzle would not take any way I put in the answer is infuriating.
Overall, I liked the puzzle, and considered it relatively easy. However, the ultimate solving experience turned the puzzle into sour milk!
I initially had "TWOHEART" in as I solved, and when that didn’t take, I went back in and replaced them with the card images and the hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds emoji/Unicode symbols (easier because I’m not a computer solver), and that took.
Absolute rubbish!
agree. hated this puzzle
THANK YOU for this comment! My feelings exactly! I needn’t say more- you said it all.
Agree. Awesome puzzle. Incredible architecture. Rex neg review inexplicable to me!
I do the NYT from the newspaper New York Times Magazine. The Sunday edition for Denver didn't even have the puzzle! It was omitted!
The "Winning Hand" in the puzzle is a Roysl Flush held by 123 Across. The K ❤ and J ❤ go with the A ❤, Q ❤ and 10 ❤. It is correct and does not contain a 2.
the worst of all possible worlds. and an advert for "The World Series of Poker". NYT, you've gotten to the bottom of the barrel. gad.
My comment was intended basically light-heartedly, so I apologize if it came out mean-spirited.
I add the caveat “basically” because there was a slight message behind it, though — something along the lines that criticizing a puzzle just because its focus is a pastime not among your favorites (and not because of politics or religion or something like that) is a tad petty. It’s better to be positive in life than negative. I’ll try to keep that in mind going forward as well.
Paper solver here, so can only imagine the app woes, with which I sympathize.
I caught on early that something rebusy was going on but didn't get the schizoprhenic nature pf the squares for a while.
Eventually I amused myself by drawing little hearts and diamonds and so on in half of the answer squares, which I divided diagonally.
And that was the most fun thing about the whole puzzle.
Amazing construction, GS. Glad Some folks had a wonderful time with this one, but alas, I am not among them.
After struggling with the NW corner, I finally figured out what was going on and solved the puzzle perfectly even though I didn’t understand some of my answers, such 117A and 123A. No problem identifying the suits in the Downs, but didn’t have the patience to figure out the face values in the Acrosses. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the puzzle IN SPADES.
Whatever you do don't use emojis... like ACE♠️... I did that and they weren't accepted. This puzzle's rebus coding almost ruined by 380+ day streak (and 2+ year streak of "Sunday in less than an hour).
Holy holecards, Batman.
Cool puztheme idea. Heckuva constructioneerin feat. From one solver's standpoint -- at our house -- well … it is after all good for us now and then to suffer, I reckon.
Looongest hand of poker M&A has ever played.
Thanx for the epic card game, Mr. Slovacek dude. And congratz on yer impressive debut.
Masked & Anonymo13Us
**gruntz**
@C.I.Vility, I don't want to hijack a thoughtful comment thread so I'll just close by saying that if you consider that to be a personal attack and don't see the difference between critiquing someone's taste (or lack thereof) and critiquing someone's *being* (i.e., Italian ancestry), that's something for you to resolve. Yes, the language "loser of the first order" is strong, but it's only slightly more of an insult than to, say, wonder if Rex is implying there's something with those of us who enjoyed this puzzle for non-poker reasons, given the statement "You'd have to Really like poker to like this one."
Like, strong opinions are to a degree the point of this blog (or at least what sets it apart from others). We can all just respect one another's opinions and takes, regardless of how strongly yet generally worded--unless someone's saying specifically "Hey, Civility, you're [so-and-so]," it's not a personal attack. Cheers!
Even with the explanation, I have no idea what this theme is supposed to be. TBH, I've never gotten poker, so this puzzle is a bust for me.
Well, there YA/GO. Can't remember anything about the puzzle except entering rhebii and the associated pain therein. I want to yank those little digital cards that popped up at the end and throw them from the balcony whilst standing in my Speedos shouting, "Thou DOEST me no favors New York champagne socialists with your simulated seven of diamonds."
As a new card-carrying member of the NYTXW Human Resources department, couldn't we get rid of the guy we're paying to make the little cards pop up, and use his salary to pay constructors more to not do this?
Consequential damages include reading all the way across or down through those damaged and suffering bloated squares throws me into an odiferous rage, and finding uniclue-able phrases is hard enough on Sundays. (Oh the yoke under which I struggle.) Nevertheless, I persisted.
Uniclues:
1 Second wedding in Italy.
2 Banks babbles as called upon.
3 Emu relative rides royally to costumed gala.
4 Sign on museum curator's door.
1 VENETIAN REPAIR AISLE
2 IN TURN, TYRA YAKS
3 WHITE QUEEN RHEA UBERS
4 LOTTA RELICS ESTEEMED
Why would anyone "hate poker"? It's just a card game: you can play it or not. I do like to play a little nickle/dime poker from time to time. I have no idea how to play cribbage or euchre or hearts ...but I don't "hate" them. Rex has to be the most intolerant personage I have ever encountered: if he doesn't like it, then its vile and worthless. I'm glad I never had him as a teacher (although I probably had a couple just like him: the ultimate "big fish on a small pond" type.) They can thank God for academia: otherwise we'd just have a whole bunch more grumpy 7/11 clerks.
I thought it was fun. I solve “on paper” but really using a note app on my tablet and enjoyed drawing little hearts and clubs in the squares. Not so good at spades, which makes no sense.
Jim Horne at XWord Info explains how each hand stacks up when combined with the community cards. Northwest has two pair (Queens and Aces), which is beaten by Southwest's full house (two Aces, three 10s); both are beaten by Southeast's royal flush (10,J,Q,K,A of Hearts). Northeast has nothing.
Pretty nifty to be able to construct this with three viable winning hands in the grid, imo.
Did you know?...
...that ISAAC Asimov followed up "I, Robot" with I, DIGIT, a collection of stories about fingers and toes.
♪ Midnight, and I'm a-waitin' on the 12:05 ♪
I cannot believe the pettiness of the reviews here. This puzzle was a masterpiece.
To all those who took umbrage at not being able to enter the rebuses on the app: PRINT IT OUT AND SOLVE IT ON PAPER. That's how crossword puzzles were done for decades.
Aside: @C.I. Vility: You are being ridiculous. @Aaron Riccio's comment was a lighthearted remark to say that he liked poker. No doubt it was prompted by the many tactless attacks on this constructor's work of art. Objecting to this tongue in cheek remark amongst this carnage of criticism is quite silly. When someone says "Last one there is a rotten egg," do you accuse them of misogyny or racism (if you are the last one there)?
Idiotic and disrespectful of my Sunday. Too “clever” by half.
This puzzle is Will Shortz trying to cute.
I freaking hate cute.
The New York Magazine Sunday puzzle is eating the NYTs lunch these days without the gimmicks.
Oh, and get off my lawn.
@ C.I.Vility: see bigsteve46 @ 12:23 for what a proper personal attack looks like.
For once, I thought Rex was fair in pointing out that the puzzle just wasn't for him personally.
I'm not big on Poker, but it looks like Texas Hold'em might be a way of getting "hand inflation", making those extremely improbable hands less rare - if that makes it more fun, why not?
The more I think about it, the more I like the construction feat here. 4 corners of the puzzle represent NSEW. The hands have interesting results with the cards in the middle. Very clever and fairly clean grid.
I occasionally make entry errors - on Sunday, I don't feel like going through the whole puzzle to find them, so will hit reveal, streak be damned. Today, I just wanted to know if my errors were rebus related, and they all were. Tried a few formats until I got the nice graphic. I used to try to keep a streak going, but finished a puzzle after midnight once and lost it, not knowing it had to be completed on the day of release. That freed me from such concerns, although I do get a fairly good streak going nonetheless.
I did, for instance, "A♠️", and that was accepted.
Yay!!! Me too!
AGREE I HEART puzzle, hard & beautiful like a DIAMOND, Get SPADE to bury Rex’s CLUB.
Amy: imagine this was very difficult to create. Sadly, I am in the slog camp. It was less than fun.
I got a chuckle out of INSOMNIA, and used the clue from ROYALFLUSH to figure out what cards went in the center. While this was more of a spelling puzzle than word play, I got satisfaction from finishing it. And I enjoyed it even more after reading
@Sixthstone 10:09 -thanks for pointing out the full house! I hadn't looked that closely
@egsforbreakfast 10:52 - thanks for your hilarious assessment of the poker participants!
I'm much more in the camp of those who enjoyed the puzzle.
I had no idea Rex would get so worked up, though I appreciate why one might not be a fan of big roller casino culture.
Loved it. Yes, I agree it was a lot to fill in but I solve puzzles with my wife and we don’t track our times. I have so much respect for the brain that can create a puzzle such as this. Well done!
I loved this puzzle. It was clever and took me a while to figure out the up/down wrinkle. I solved hard copy Sunday NYT Magazine (the way God intended :) ) . It seems those who hated it had a problem with the apps. I solve in pen and it did get messy, but once I finished with no errors I felt a rush. Thanks Greg! This was a great one. Tremendous construction.
50 minutes for the father/son team of Rick and Jared. But it was a great challenge, I'm definitely a fan, made me think and involved both of us in sussing out each themer. Thanks, Greg, that was a pretty fun, if challenging puzzle on a Sunday afternoon. Loved the 5 cards across the middle, and the 2 cards in each of four "themers", as well as the bonus material, including "full house" in a clue! thanks. --Rick
I loved it - even though, or perhaps because, I didn't see the note; nor do I understand anything about point values in poker or what a ROYAL FLUSH might consist of. Rather, MINUTE HAND clued me into playing cards, and I had a lot of fun ferreting out where the 13 of them were hidden. Solving in the mag, I found the squares too small to properly enter the value and suit, so I printed off the large-print version of the grid, and wrote in A, K, Q, etc. and the suit symbol in red or black Sharpie. Very satisfying (could anyone be NERDIER?).
Moderators
If you are going to include comments about the comment made by LenFuego at 8:15, then don't delete the comment at 8:15.
Do you ever think about how your deletions (with no reasons ever given) affect the readers of this blog. This is not the first time that you overstep. BIG failures on your part, over and over again.
They are small because in Texas hold ‘em the hands have only two cards.
Thanks for the tips to help get over the rebus hump. FWIW - unlike the host, I thought this was a top-tier Sunday puzzle.
huh, I used the emoji with Q, A, 10, etc. That didn't work, but replacing the emoji with the first letter did.
Apparently I am the only person who opened up my laptop Saturday and there was the Sunday puzzle. So, I had nothing to solve today. Weird.
just ick
Agreed. Thanks for saying what I could not articulate
Thanks for your toil & trouble. As you put it, a real slog, and centered around something I have no interest in, either. ps: Go Blue!
I agree with Anonymous 1:18 pm that a comment should not be removed if many references have been made to it.
I had missed the comment by C>Vilify 9am so when a comment responded to it I went back looking for it. Then I kept looking for the comment by LenFuego ...frustration
I liked the puzzle and it seemed to me that most of those who did not were objecting to difficulty with the App rather than the puzzle
I solve on paper. I did eventually not finish because I just couldn't do 28A and 12D. Once I saw the answers I wasn't sure why I hadn't worked it out because I knew 28 A wanted to be networking event. ( ad no idea about highearth)
OH well.
I know nothing about poker, but knowing the cards in a deck was all this puzzle required to get the rebuses.
Fun puzzle, Thanks G. S and NYT
A♠️ didn't work for me. Maybe I used the wrong ♥️ emoji?
I can’t believe I sorted out the rebus squares but forgot the Brad Pitt movie was “Rounders”. It’s another Sunday “royally flushing” my streak as I had to look for the error with “Autocheck”.
one write-over: I entered for some stupid reason lIttlEHAND instead of MINUTEHAND. And I did notice SNLHOSTS did not have an abbreviation indicator.
When did you solve it? The Sunday puzzle is usually available at 10PM EST on Saturday.
I enjoy poker but this didn't feel like that at all. It felt like being asked to do a sudoku in the middle of my crossword in a bunch of places, which might be fine if that's what I'd wanted out to do... but I wanted a crossword? Also yes the online solving scissoring was extra miserable. Formatting != fun.
Thank you! More complicated hidden meaning than I could digest I guess. Maybe adderall would have been a good compliment to this puzzle. And with the same side effects:
“Loss of appetite, weight loss, dry mouth, stomach upset/pain, nausea/vomiting, dizziness, headache, diarrhea, fever, nervousness, and trouble sleeping may occur.”
I know nothing about poker but enjoyed the puzzle a lot. Paper solver. I get a kick out of those with electronic and app problems - did you really think that "on-line" = better? automatically? I guess the "Apple - shiny -- must have" thing really works.
@Donna
The NYT Sunday puzzle is available Saturday at 6PM Eastern time.
@Carola 1:15, I solved on paper also, and yes, I can be even NERDIER! Once I sussed out the theme, I had an obsessive (compulsive?) need to draw a rendering of the playing cards in the rebus squares, i.e for ace of hearts I put a little A in the upper left corner, a little upside-down A in the lower right corner and a heart symbol in the middle. Fool's errand, even with an ultra-fine-point pen.
The biggest stumbling block for me was the NW region, where I confidently wrote in "Biscotti," confirmed the two Ts, then went on tho ROYALly FLUSH the rest of that area down the toilet. QUEENANNESLACE eventually emerged from the mess, and the rest was straightforward. So I feel I successfully met the puzzle test, the mental health test not so much.
@JC66 Thanks for that info... I must have started later than I thought.
Not a fan at all!!The gimmick was silly and tough to boot, the rest was simple. I don’t mind a tough
puzzle and admit to occasional googling, but this was way out of my wheelhouse. Not my idea of how
to spend Sunday morning!
Enjoyed the puzzle. Did on paper and didn’t read the italic note. Have no idea how to play texas hold’em nor was it necessary to complete the puzzle. Broke the theme on Smoking Jacket and the rest fell into place. So much FUN. It was clever and interesting. Thank you to Greg Slovacek,
@bigsteve46:
Why would anyone "hate poker"?
for the same reason the great unwashed hate chess and bridge: not of their tribe. or brain power.
Very much fun imo, and I got excited when I discovered what was going on. It was a bit of work, but what's the rush? It all fit together nicely. Cool beans.
Super frustrating when you know you have solved the puzzle, but just haven't figured out the right way to enter the rebuses for the software to acknowledge that you have solved the puzzle. Came here to see how other people entered the rebus squares. Not sure I'm going to bother to go back and re-enter my solution. Blech!
Great concept, but as others have said, the rebus in the app got in the way big time. I feel sorry For the constructor after such a huge feat! It felt like a good movie with no ending; who had time and patience to reedit every rebus to get it right? Not me.
@C.I. Vility 10:35 — I am of Italian ancestry and I'll have you know that I worked very hard to become a Loser Of The First Order.
Actually, just ACE or SPADE worked on the app. I wasn’t sure it would, but it did. Sounds like they made it so you could enter answers many different ways and still “win.”
No you don’t. I put in either ACE or HEART and it worked. Didn’t need both.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one who’d noticed the BEQ coincidence. :/
This puzzle was such a slog. It had trouble finishing (my gay lover, who was pounding me as I filled in the grid, finished in my ass before I finished this puzzle). This can’t happen again.
OMG DIITO, 🦖!
Might be enjoyable in analog but do not care!
Convoluted mess in digital.
Over , out, and amen!
😜zero 🦖s😜
I’m torn about this one. On one level I hate it (like Rex). On another level, I admire the work that went into constructing this very unique card-themed puzzle. I’m leaning on the like side of things. Especially since it’s Greg’s debut. Bravo Greg. Nice job!
my favorite nyt sunday puzzle in as long as i can remember.
i dont know why i even bother checking in here…rex, as per usual, has nothing interesting to say and what he does say it bloviating posturing
Stopped by after a break from reading Rex, the man-child throwing a tantrum every day. The gimmicks, shortcuts and quick-fixes that Shortz keeps experimenting with are becoming wearisome, repetitive failures. It is obvious that the ambition is to get younger and more “hip”, and it is also obvious to even the most casual observer that Shortz is not the guy to do it. Seriously, hire the person who is wasting their talent at USA Today on Monday level puzzles seven days a week.
I have no idea why the New York Times is sticking with this dinosaur who is so far past his prime that it is becoming somewhat of an embarrassment. The New Yorker and the LA Times are consistently of superior quality, and others are gaining ground fast. The way things are going, the New York Times crossword puzzle will struggle to be included in discussions about the top five crossword puzzles published on a regular basis in the United States. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
There are FOUR distinct Texas Hold ‘Em hands on the grid. The cards you mention are part of losing hands. The winning Royal Flush is the lower right hand.
Loved it and had no issues. I solved in on a laptop and entered each rebus with only one of the words (like QUEEN or HEART ...in English with letters - not both. No slashes, no emojis). Don't even think I was consistent with which one I chose: card value or suit. So I don't get all the griping. The puzzle loved me and I loved it because it was a little extra challenging without being obtuse, arcane, full of subtle messages. it didn't try to be cutesy, woke or a half dozen other things that often make puzzles seem like op-eds to me. Oh yeah, and I don't play poker.
Many different ways except the first two ways I tried didn’t work. “TENCLUB” was not accepted nor was “TC”. At some point I’m left questioning whether I’m entering the rebus wrong or I have a mistake somewhere else in the puzzle. So I just pushed “check puzzle” and broke my streak. Lame.
They already told you that the theme was Texas Hold Em in the hint, so would it have been a big deal to tell you how the card names needed to be entered too? I found the whole experience tedious and annoying.
I’m with you, Anonymous. I had to look up on some website the acceptable way to enter the rebus squares.
@Rainbow Warrior:
You must know Dr. McElhone (P.h.D. in math stats, RIP):
"it is intutively obvious to even the most casual observer". I think he said it was common jargon among the math nerds.
I had good fun at first just getting answers...some decent clues, though no clever word play I recall. And then the string of ahas once I figured out the theme was wonderful.
But then I spent more time trying to enter the rebuses than I did on the rest of the puzzle. Nearly decided to descard my streak. The Word Play column showed the answers with emoji (early this morning it did). I even figured out how to enter them...it was pretty but useless.
Had to eliminate stray spaces next to the slash. Be sure to use crossword friendly two heart, not hearts. Never had to try putting in "of" as I found Rex's tip and just doubled down on that. Eventually Wordplay caught up, but today's performance cost me all respect for that blog.
So sad to have a puzzle I would have loved spoiled by technical nonsense.
I’m trying to “solve” this puzzle on the NYT iPhone app, and no matter how I enter the rebus answers, it keeps telling me there is an error! Can anyone tell me how to do it? All the pleasure I got out of doing the puzzle is long gone.
I've played a bunch of poker over the last twenty or so years. Even went to Vegas in 2013 for the World Series Of Poker main event---busted out early---and was astonished at how many people from so many countries were there. Poker, especially Texas Hold'em, is enormously popular around the world.
I've played thousands and thousands of hands of Texas Hold'em. Maybe it's ironic but having seen so many hands put a big damper on my enthusiasm for working my way through this puzzle to see one more hand. To much effort without enough payoff for me to finish this one but I do recognize the constructioneering (©M&A) skills on display and see how many of yous did enjoy it.
MINUTE HAND as a themer doesn't work for me because I think the "my noot" version means extremely small or tiny or even infinitesimal. Even having a one-card hand would not qualify for being MINUTE in my book.
Since this grid requires putting two, interchangeable words in one square, I would call it a verbis puzzle, from the Latin for "with or by way of words", rather than a rebus puzzle, from the Latin for "with or by way of things". Non rebus sed verbis.
Ah. Rex went to Michigan. That explains ~so~ much.
I suspect that MINUTE HAND is a Hand of Convenience. They just needed some form of handed-ness to 'clue' the rebi. I would have liked 'standard of horse height'. Alton Brown's haggis rant: "or I'll give you the back of me..." Your body part that DeShaun Watson prizes most. Talk amongst yourselves.
@Anonymous 2:42 - You definitely outdid me! Hats off and bravos. I need 1) more imagination and 2) a better set of pens :)
The user interface for electronic devices using Rebus answers is just plain bad. NYT Crossword should refrain from producing Rebus-dependent puzzles until they can figure a way to improve input. The puzzle had a cute gimmick and could be fun on paper, but wow, I really, really, really hate it on the app... I shouldn't leave the crossword angry. Definitely a slog.
Worst puzzle ever. I have read Rex’s review four times and I do still not get.
On reflection, I think my rebus problem was not my entry methods (first did it as QUEEN/SPADE but that sometimes I must have used, for example, SPADEs. Anyway, once I simplified, the temptation to use the wrong word went away.
I gave up, and did it in my PC
Awful experience. Maybe the puzzle would have been good on paper, but filling those rebuses in online... yuk. Experience was so bad that I bailed on this one.
I agree wholeheartedly with this group of commenters. I like poker, I admire people who play it well, but I found this puzzle very annoying. Can we maybe stick with crosswords in the, ahem, crossword puzzle?
Exactly the issue. Nobody should loose a streak because they don’t know the “magical” format the app wants you to use to convert a playing card into rebus-test. I don’t even remember what wound up working for me. I got it, but had the same issue with rebus-format vs. substantive error. Especially with a big puzzle and thirteen rebus squares. This is cute for the sake of being cute. But nothing added to the solver experience. There is no “aha” moment. We knew from the beginning (instructions) that there were going to be playing cards involved. And the only mystery to unravel was what, idiosyncratic, formulae the app would accept.
What a constructor’s feat of complexity!! I usually refuse to use notes but had to and it took me forever (as in all day) to get this but I had to do lots of tries. My NYT app would not let me go out to procure the symbols for the suits and I had lots and lots of trouble figuring out which suit was correct (not a card player) so I left out “of” and did QCLUBS for example. Finally got ro “nearly there” but was too frustrated to find my typos and hit reveal puzzle. I thank the Karmic God of Crosswords that Greg Slovacek tied the very tough card game to a cohesive-ish concept and that the remainder of the puzzle was mercifully easy. This was a true Sunday NYTXW.
Minute as in small. Because the rebus answers have to fit in a little square. Small hands of poker. Minute hands.
Clever puzzle. fun.
One absolutely needn't care about poker to appreciate how brilliant this puzzle is. I feel badly for anyone who is so weirdly anti-poker as to not be able to enjoy a crossword that plays off of it.
👎👎👎
First of all, I thought the puzzle was brilliant.
Second, while solving (as I always do) in the printed NYT magazine, I found it very difficult to fill in the rebus square in those very small spaces. I finally picked up a separate notebook, on wrote in things like "22-A Queen of hearts, Ace of spades." I have frequently ribbed app users having difficulty by pointing out how much easier it was to enter everything on the paper. But in this case, I thought I was wrong. Turns out, I was not -- the difficulties people had on apps seem to have been far worse.
I loved the puzzle, but I do think ROYAL FLUSH at 39D functions as a premature revealer. I'd have left it out.
This may be the most complex construction I've ever seen, and hats off to Greg Slovacek, for being able to pull this off. There are 25 (count them) themers, including 3 revealers, plus the 9 themers that make up the Royal Flush had no room for variation in denomination or suit and (almost) no room for variation in location in the puzzle. If that's not enough, you have a four player Texas hold-em technically accurate poker hand built into the grid in which the winning player is the Smoking Jacket with the Royal Flush. If that's not enough, the fill is incredibly clean given all that is going on. I am gob-smacked that this level of construction was even possible without ridiculous crosswordese throughout.
I understand that it was not for everyone, after all, it (literally) did not fit neatly into the box like most crosswords do, especially when you've been doing crosswords long enough to develop your own 'rules' about what crosswords should and shouldn't do. I've only been at this for a few years so I still get challenged regularly with puzzles outside my particular wheelhouse and 'rules'. Yes, there was no easy way to know whether to put Ace of Hearts or Ace/Heart, or Ace or Heart or AH. Still, I'll take this puzzle any day over one that requires that I know Namibian melon species to solve - which of course is TSAMMA.
Wow what a bunch of whiners... Such an amazing (first!) puzzle, who cares how you feel about poker, painful reading these conceited, entitled rants. And aww too complicated to figure out how to enter a rebus??? You can simply Google "NYT rebus"... the very first hit is the NYT explanation page. Just need a slash between across and down words, can abbreviate to first letter of each. It took all of 10 seconds to learn.
Brilliant, clever puzzle and fun to push the rebus usage. Get over yourselves.
I'm old school when solving NYT crosswords in that I like doing these on paper. I caught on to the card gimmicks somewhat early but found it a headache to work with the too-small printout. So, to get around that, I enlarged the puzzle to about 150%, did a screenshot, copied & pasted to MS Paint and then finally printed the grid separately. By doing that I could more easily fit two answers into one square. What a nuisance!!
Btw, I am not a big card game fan but 'kind of liked' the basic idea.
When everyone else in the world seems to be getting crazier, Rex Parker is getting more sane, more fun and more perceptive. I've been a fan for a long time, but he absolutely nailed it on the crossword for Sunday July 17. It was indeed a slog. Thanks for your comments, which were more enjoyable than doing the puzzle. I made a donation tonight. You all should! Timothy G.
Yes. All this.
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