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Experience of feeling unfamiliar with something that's actually quite familiar to you / SAT 4-1-23 / Pikachu's cry in Pokemon / Wilcox daughter in Howard's End / Cochon de suckling pig / Scientific name for the American Bison / Brew whose red-and-white logo was inspired by billiard balls / Japanese export beginning in 1982 / Noted employer in Clermont Ky / Symbol of forgetfulness in Ishiguro's The Buried Giant / Puppeteer Baird who performed for The Sound of Music
Saturday, April 1, 2023
Constructor: Wyna Liu and Joel Fagliano
Relative difficulty: Challenging
Word of the Day: ARM BANDS (37D: They go from 540 to 1700, informally) —
An armband is a piece of material worn around the arm. They may be worn for pure ornamentation, or to mark the wearer as belonging to group, or as insignia having a certain rank, status, office or role, or being in a particular state or condition. Sprung armbands, known as sleeve garters, have been used by men to keep overlong sleeves from dropping over the hands and thereby interfering with their use. Armbands may also refer to inflatable armbands used to assist flotation for swimmers or for use with sphygmomanometers, in which case they are generally referred to as cuffs. (wikipedia)
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198 comments:
Thought the puzzle was funny-ish, good for an April Fools Saturday.
ADAM SAVAGE was a WOE and EdIE/EVIE is a kealoa as clued
Remembered JAMAIS VU from Catch-22, but wasn't sure of the spelling.
fAdE before WANE at 51D, corrected because fOOD CUTS and BADSCIEdCE made no sense.
Also making 57A hard to see was having syr before LEB at 55D
Needed all the crosses in the SE to get the correct spelling of ELYSEES
AMSTEL lite before BEER at 59A
Hahahahaha! That’s funny, Rex — especially ArM BANDS. Cute!
The moment I got the so-called gimmick I knew Rex would be seething with rage.
Hey there, I may not understand the sarcasm but wasn’t it am bands?
I don't get it :-(
You don't understand sarcasm
April Fool
Well the joke was on us today. I counted four presidents from Q. ADAMS and got Tyler, knowing it couldn't go from ADAMS to ADAMS. But it did. Just awful and it didn't stop. BISON BISON? Egad.
Thanks for the write-up Rex.
Challenging for a Saturday.
Loved the choice of songs from Sam Cooke….
I mean, is he seething with rage?
This was “Hah!” in the highest, pleasing my rebellious streak by tilting at a hallowed crossword convention, and importing glorious silliness.
And sure, it had to be fun to make, but don’t let the fun hide the skill it took to keep the puzzle gritty – it is Saturday, after all – despite what at some point would be a raft of easy answers. To keep the grid clean. To not go too far with the joke. To sweeten the humor with comic wordplay, as in the clues for REALTORS, ROOMBA, and the scintillating [Word that means the same thing even with several letters added?] for MAILBOX, a clue never used before. To get it just right, as Wyna and Joel did.
Brilliant, you two. A glorious creation. Spirit lifting. Thank you, and thank you!
That MEN IN BLACK answer was possibly the hardest ever clue in NYT history.
FH
Pretty easy. Finished in 20 minutes which is about double my fastest Saturday but not up in the 30+ range. Honestly, the super-obvious ones like MENINBLACK and BISONSBISON and PIKACHU and ADAMS felt like wasted clues. The rest was pretty good. I liked "Going well?"
Easy once you grasp the April Fool's "joke/theme".
Enjoyed the write up almost as much as the puzzle. Square Business'
Me neither.
Not sure what it was trying to be - funny, goofy, silly, irreverent? I guess they get points for trying. Looks like Lewis went with silliness, and characterized the effort as “brilliant” so I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I don’t know that I would characterize just chucking in BISON BISON as an answer as anything other than . . . Well we won’t go there. Like I said - I at least gave them points for trying.
Talk about a FLAME OUT - not sure these two editors read the room properly.
I thought this puzzle was utterly charming.
Could someone please explain? Since Rex chooses not to. Clearly an April Fool’s joke but I don’t get it.
Can somebody explain Rex’s theme explanation? I get what the real theme was, but what is Rex trying to say?
Rarely do I like April Fool pranks, but this was downright enjoyable! Found myself smiling alot.
I struggled with MENINBLACK. Actually looked at a map to see what was down there below Buffalo other than Erie, which didn't seem to fit. Laughed out loud. Loved the MAILBOX clue. LIKELIKE!
Well I liked it. Enjoyed the gimmick.Much more than the sarcasm.
Is the joke that the same words are used in the clues and the answers? I feel dim that I didn't get the joke.
A puzzle you either love or hate (or are middling on. How the hell do I know how you respond?). I leaned to “somewhat liked”.
ERIEPA was the best of the intentionally obvious answers. I was thinking Eurepa - is that a town? - before the no-duh answer emerged.
nudESCENES, gorESCENES and particularly rapESCENES are particularly uncomfortable with family; glad the answer was G-rated or it might have grated…
So so so fun! It took me a few minutes but I was like PIkachu, just says PIkachu! And then it all started rolling in. So glad my kid loves Pokemon. I did get stuck in the upper right corner (NE I guess), for some reason, I could not conceive of Israel being next to Lebanon even though I’ve been to Eilat and the Red Sea is shared between them!!! Such a mental lapse. It was torture, couldn’t figure out the car, kept thinking of the Sonata. Anyway, super fun, Loved it.
I didn't:(
I didn't have any fun. Didn't get it. Still don't get it
I just got it. He's joking. All letters are used except Q and Z. Mission accomplished. I feel foolish
I liked being fooled by the puzzle. I liked being fooled by Rex. Just a fun morning all around. Aside from the "fool" clues, I really liked MAILBOX and BAD SCIENCE and AM BANDS.
Loved it.
I found this delightfully infuriating. Even once I figured out the gag, I found it all but impossible to consistently remember to ignore one of The Rules. Several chuckles as I realized I was trying to work around the obviously correct answer just because it was in the clue. Otherwise, some good fill, some great clues (MAILBOX!), and a normal Saturday solve time for me. Not surprised it’s divisive, but I quite enjoyed this one.
First I thought it was SAT scores. Then I got AM bands. I'm soooooo confused. Are you kidding around with ARM bands? (SO...A word that means the same thing, even when letters are added).
Nor do I
I tried to fit in GET JIGGY WITH IT
Bisonbison made me realize that buffalo buffalo do indeed buffalo buffalo buffalo
LOL funny! Best Saturday NYTXW in a long time!
If you really don't get today's theme, here's an explanation:
https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/03/31/saturday-april-1-2023/#ny
I completely agree with Lewis. Light hearted silly fun with some crunch.
Loved it! But it seems to me that with answers that repeat themselves (BISON BISON or São Tomé being the capital of São Tomé) the theme is “jamais vu” (36A). Did anyone else think that too?
This was a gem, as was the write-up. JAMAISVU indeed. I loved how you (ok, I) really had to get over the YOUWHAT! THE ANSWER IS IN THE CLUE?!? feeling to make progress. Great April Fools puzzle, and enjoyed Rex's following suit. Couldn't really be LIKE. Couldn't really be ERIEPA. ADAMS? Then OMG BISONBISON and the jig was up.
And some great cluing in the fill, including MAILBOX and REGULAR. Fun start to a torrential day.
The write-up was definitely better than the puzzle.
37D is A.M. Bands not a
ARM BANDS. It's the AM dial of the radio.
I found this both insultingly easy in places and virtually impossible in others. For a while it seemed like almost every answer contained its answer within the clue .I suspected that was the theme, which put me in a rather bad mood as I found it quite tiresome. And then I got to the South west, and was nearly stumped and ready to quit. Finally, I tried OBAMA at 48A, and got going again. All in all, I did not love this puzzle.
Much easier than yesterday’s, but at least this week there is a valid reason why this could not have run yesterday.
I knew the scientific name for bison, and that was my entry to the puzzle and immediately gave me an idea about the theme. I like it when the theme actually helps the solve, as it did today when I could not get into the NW until I thought “I wonder if Pikachu says ‘PIKACHU’”, and then all came together.
I really enjoyed this one. I don’t want a puzzle like this every Saturday, but once in a while, it’s great.
I found this sort of annoying. First of all yes to those above who asked above, 37F is AMBANDS not ARMBANDS. Maybe Rex made a mistake? It could happen.
But the puzzle seemed to vacillate between insultingly easy with all the clues whose answers were contained within them. I found that pretty tiresome, and suspected it would be the theme. That put me in a bad mood.
But, it contrasted sharply with parts of the Northwest and the Southwest in which I was completely stumped and ready to quit. I finally tried OBAMA at 49A, and that got me going again. Big sigh of relief.
I did not love this puzzle.
It's not ARMBAND, but AMBANDS (there is only one so WTH about pluralizing it).
There’s a lot of this puzzle I didn’t get, as several others have said. So far no one has explained.
They got me. I was picking and hunting and all over the place like every Saturday and down in the bottom I had enough crosses to see it had to be MEN IN BLACK, but the old brain said, "No it can't be." I finally filled it in with SAO TOME and feared I was losing my sanity, until shortly afterward when I found APRIL FOOL and said aloud, "Those rascals." Then I feared the only thing we'd be talking about today is why there is no S on the end. Another mind game I'm confident. BISON BISON completed the comedy.
Nice way to shake things up. Loved it.
And 🦖 for the win.
Uniclues:
1 Kids necking under the bleachers.
2 CEO announces plan to axe the computer department.
3 Result of former president taking an arts and crafts class at the local community center.
4 Dr. Fauci, according to detractors.
5 Tell Amy to stop blubbering.
1 IMPS LOVE SCENES
2 "LET I.T. FLAME OUT" (~)
3 OBAMA WOODCUTS
4 BAD SCIENCE NAME
5 STEM ADAMS' MIST
“Going well” is a poop joke.
THE THEME: The puzzle violates usual puzzle rules by having several entries (including the revealer) where the answer is actually IN THE CLUE. That’s it, that’s the theme.
Liked Rex’s write-up better than the puzzle.
I admit when I first figured out what was going on, I had to smile, but then all the theme answers were given to you, making the whole thing way too easy, not what I look forward to in a Saturday puzzle.
@Anonymous 8:57 AM: Well, no. The theme is APRIL FOOL.
He is. Keeping the write-up short is his way of not exploding.
Me too. Saturday-level difficult yet also lots of fun. Once I got the “joke” it was a hoot to fill in the rest. Can’t believe people are hating on this puzzle!
Still not 100% sure whether Rex is also joking that he liked the puzzle! I really loved it. Tons of fun after yesterday’s slog.
He was goofing on you!
Quite a slog until it occurred to us there might be a theme. Then fun.
But the best part was going to be Rex's evisceration, but not today. Not surprised he bailed on the column which breaks so many rules of NYT crosswords.
I liked this one. If you are a Jeopardy! fan. - felt a bit one of those “Stupid Answers” categories
Though, have to admit the review very much reflects the puzzle. That was fun.
If this were a Sunday puzzle, there might have been room for [70s TV show whose main character was Mary Hartman].
Hey, a Saturday that I completely solved. Without having a clue about many of the answers I wrote in. I knew BISON BISPON and ADAMS, and got SAO TOME from my trusty left hand globe. Which inspired me to write in MENINBLACK and PIKACHU and I forget what else, APRIL FOOL; which pretty much got me there. I don't get why woodcuts date back to the Han dynasty, or a few other things, but OK.
Knew immediately what was going on when I saw the Pikachu clue. My kids love Pokémon, and you hear it enough and know that they all say their names, and only their names (or slight variations thereof). Puzzle was meh. I know it was April Fools, but I feel I was cheated out of a themeless.
Brilliant write-up@Rex: got a rise out of everyone, then let himself off easily/early for the day!
Hey All !
ARGH! I got down to three guesses -- the C of WOODCUTS/CANT, and the triple cross of LAIT/STEM/FLAMEOUT, finally adding letters in that should be correct. But, Almost There! ARGH! Hit the ole Check Puzzle, only to find I spelled SCIENCE wrong! Really? Had it as SCeiNCE. Dang! A perfect puz ruined by my silly brain.
This puz was RIFE with SNAFUs. Made one DELVE into your EGOISTS.
I liked this Fooly puz. Knowing what today is, you expect some type of tomfoolery. Part of the "obvious" answers were that some were symmetrical, while others were stand-alones. Even got META in as a "see-what-I-did-here" jab.
Caught on at MENINBLACK, said, "Aha! I see what you're doing!". Still a tough puz, given the fact you get a bunch of givens. With ADAMS, looked to its symmetric partner, only to see it was a regular clue/answer. Let out a "oh, so your tricking me again!" and continued to scratch the ole head as I continued.
Nice one, you two crazy NYTXW employees. Y'all know they are XW employees, right? I knew it. YAYME! I also know how to spell SCIENCE, grumble grumble.
I will take the L, and use that L to go from 1D to 18A. ILL FLAME OUT.
Oh, btw, today is also Kiss A Moose Day, so if you happen across one of those loveable big galoots, give 'em a big smack on the cheek! #
TRES F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
# APRIL FOOL!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I loved Rex's writeup! Gotta shower and check out, see you all Monday!
Hilarious reading the comments and trying to figure out which ones are expressing their true feelings about the puzzle and which are following Rex’s lead. If you said you hated it, should I assume you loved it? Is this the first puzzle that @Lewis really hated?
I liked it … or did I?
Plus all the people screaming that it’s AM BANDS not ArM BANDS.
Clues for MAILBOX, ROOMBA and REGULAR were fantastic. REALTORS was good too, but I knew right away what “lots” referred to, unlike the word play in those first three.
ADAM SAVAGE and EVIE cross was a guess, but V was the most likely letter. Apocryphal before BAD SCIENCE.
I thought it was very entertaining!! But only because it is April 1st.
Amy: love the puzzle and Rex's write up. Also enjoy April's Fools. As my family, a bunch of people who love to tease, would remind me when I was little: "You like to be teased, Amy!" Have learned a number of people don't. NPR usually airs a story that sounds like a typical report until it doesn't. Wonder if they will today?
And even Rex gets into the act with his faux word of the day and faux LOVE of this puzzle. Har.
Wyna and Joel got me - I suspected there was something going on when I wanted NAME names and speculated as to whether John Quincy ADAMS could be the 4th prez after John ADAMS but because I wandered around the grid aimlessly looking for a foothold, I missed the clue for 34A until maybe 30 minutes had gone by. Then I got a second wind and rethought all of those head-scratchers like SAO TOME and NAME, etc.
Loved the cluing - MAIL BOX was my favorite because I was hating on what I assumed they were looking for, some sort of Will Shortz-LIKE puzzle, but it ended up being really cute.
Wyna Liu and Joel Fagliano, this was great fun, no APRIL FOOLs about it!!
Thx, Wyna & Joel; LOVEd it! :)
Hard.
Way off the constructors' wavelength this AM.
Fun APRIL FOOLS theme.
Fave clue was for MAILBOX.
Very surprised (and delighted) I finished with no errors.
LIKE I LIKEd this one a lot! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Clue: The palindrome of dud and an apt description of this puzzle.
Answer: Dud.
How often does April Fools Day fall on a Saturday? Either it's not very often or I'm just extremely forgetful because this seemed like something completely new to me. Of course I knew what day it was but I attributed the difficulty to it being a Saturday after all.
I filled in the SE first and completely missed the SAOTOME repetition. The SW went in next but BOOKER and MENINBLACK had to be forced in kicking and screaming. The puzzle had to beat me over the head with its theme so many times that I really didn't accept it until APRILFOOL went in.
The upper half went in much faster but the NW was my last section and I still needed some crosses to realize that PIKACHU was part of the theme. Just shoot me now, but I did get a Saturday's full of puzzling from this.
Did I fall for the ARMBAND joke? Take a wild guess.
yd -0
I agree completely with Anonymous today. (Just kiddiing.)
Loved the puzzle and the writeup by OFL. Both perfect for the day! I got a glimpse of what it must feel like to be Lewis -- the joy!
You can feed me all this pop culture trivia stuff, but you can't make me swallow it. I took this puzzle as far as I could, while blithely ignoring MythBusters, Pikachu, et al that I don't know and don't want to know. And then when I couldn't go any further, I bailed.
Coming here, I see that the APRIL FOOL aspect of the puzzle must be the ADAMS/ADAMS; BISON/BISON BISON; MEN IN BLACK/MEN IN BLACK thing. Yes?
As was said in a very recent puzzle: "GAH".
Just as there will always be potholes in the streets of NYC or thorns found in rose bushes, there will always be puzzle makers who want to stymie you with pop culture trivia. "Know this stuff cold, Google it if you must, or else fail to solve my puzzle." they say. Twenty percent of the time, I may choose to Google -- but that's only when I'm having a wonderful time and don't want to have to stop working on the puzzle. The other eighty percent of the time -- when I'm having a less-than-wonderful experience -- I'll cheerfully bail.
I haven’t commented in ages - and I knew Rex was going to hate, hate hate this. But did not expect that much snark, even here. Fought with this bc I could not give up The Rules until I realized I had no choice. Then it was easy. Did not click that it is April Fools Day. That might have helped, but maybe not.
I'm with Lewis on this one. Even if you get the gimmick, you don't know when it will be applied. I had Wiley/OBAMA. Also, it was still pretty challenging even with the eventual gimmees. I had a fun sense something was up: "Wait a minute, wasn't Adams the 4th president? Isn't bison in the scientific name?" I remember seeing that at the Bronx Zoo, whose collection of Bison was sent out West to repopulate the West after the slaughter had brought the number down from millions to just over a thousand.
I spent half my time in the SW. I thought something that charges would end in "-ER". Often, those little S, ING or ER endings will be enough to get you going - today the opposite. I finally caved and looked up the puppeteer (Did ANYONE know that name BIL off the top of their head???, Isn't ____Keane the goto BIL?). That gave me the IE to get SCIENCE and BAD(which I don't love) out front. SMH for not thinking bourbon for Kentucky - should have had JIMBEAM (or Jack Dee:) off the J from JAMAIS (thank you French classes).
I watched a lot of Mythbusters when the kids were young. Some scientific method applied and lots of explosions; lots of homemade jerryrigging for the experiments. Funny how the names will elude you, then rush back later. Adam Savage, Grant Imahara, and ......that other guy with the great mustache.
I almost gave up, but with APRILFOOL as the revealer, and ADAMS following ADAMS, I stuck it out. Guessing MENINBLACK and BISONBISON were stabs in the dark that worked out.
The clue for MAILBOX was a classic Will Shortz misdirect, but fit in with the April Fool theme. The clue for REGULAR bordered on bad taste, but was funny nonetheless.
Very happy to finish this one without cheating.
har. Well, 34-Across pretty much says it all. [Glad @RP likeliked it so much! He was left almost speechless.]
staff weeject pick: RUM. Primo {Punch something?} clue.
other faves: MAILBOX clue. BISONBISON. LIKE. PIKACHU [gesundheit]. ADAMS. ERIEPA. JAMAISVU [Oh yeah? … well, yo ma is double vuvu!]. SAOTOME. BOOKER. NAME. MENINBLACK. APRILFOOL.
Thanx for gangin up on us, to the Wyna & Joel A-Foolers. Interestin mix of hard & "well, duh". Kinda qualifies as a themed SatPuz, so congratz on that. M&A BeReal Likelike.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
I've always hated the April Fool concept, and this puzzle brought that home in spades. Ugh. Hated it.
I was in the target area of this one. It took me forever to realize I was being played.
This puzzle sucks. The end.
Loved this one, even if I was somewhat surprised when the app played the congrats music at the end. I assumed I’d have to check it some more, having no idea who Adam Savage was, among other items.
Thank you! Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, but this was my one lingering question.
There should be a designated font for irony. I want to know what Nancy thought of the April Fool joke.
I asked my teen son the Pikachu one. When he said his answer had to be the only possible answer, I suddenly realized what was going on and why I was struggling with the others. After it clicked, I actually enjoyed it.
Tough until I caught on and then easy-medium. Gotta like a spoof! Plus it’s POW at Xwordinfo.
You need a good sense of humor—especially the self-deprecating kind—to enjoy this puzzle. If you're given to taking yourself seriously—no sin in that—not going to be up your alley!
Once I figured out the theme and still had to work on the NE, I was very disappointed that the answer to "One member of TV's 'MythBusters'" was not MYTHBUSTER.
Lol. Yeah let’s take this word game as seriously as possible!
“Seething with rage”
Lol
Man, there are a lot of dense folks here. It's a joke!
I got LABOUR and ODIUM. The L and O gave me LOVE SCENE. There was ODIUM in my LABOUR and no LOVE. I've never let out so many HUH's and UGH's in a Saturday puzzle as I did with this one.
I said to myself last night : Oh, OK...it's an APRIL FOOL puzzle. Yuk Yuk. Then I went to bed.
I woke up this morning and decided I'd try and finish this yuk fest. I did....barely.
IMPS are pains in the you know what? JAMAIS VU? Where did deja go...Going well is REGULAR? As in "how was your bowel movement?" It's REGULAR today. Buddha wears a HALO? Doesn't GOY need an IM?. Do you really need an apology for Situation Normal All Fucked Up? I'm going to go around and tell people who give me groans and moans on one of my favorite puzzle days that they owe me a SNAFU.
If only Lewis would have written a scathing review, the day would have been complete.
Loved it!
The other April Fool aspect is that Saturdays are usually themeless so they fooled us with a theme on an unconventional day, with a puzzle that breaks convention.
Easy and funny. Really enjoyed it. I suspect that the difficult and largely unpopular puzzle published on Friday was really the Saturday puzzle, and was a part of this April Fool’s prank.
After learning the term kealoa yesterday, I got excited thinking I found one in the ADAMS clue since ADAMS/TYLER could be clued the same. Except I just realized they don't share at least one letter in common. And it was part of the joke. I'm the APRIL FOOL.
Anyway, put me in the LIKE LIKE column - I had fun and learned new things like JAMAIS VU and the Letters to God department of ISR. Only complaint was AMSTEL BEER instead of AMSTEL BIER - pretty sure they spell it BIER on the bottles!
@Lewis
You blew a great opportunity by not trashing today's puzzle.
This was 15 minutes of my life that I would like returned.
Cleverest Rex write up ever. Kudos.
Nor do I
Absolutely loved this puzzle! (Sincerely, no April Fool's here.) How clever to break that cardinal rule of crosswords and to still keep the challenge with words like Bose and Hacek. Got April Fool early on, so figured out the theme, or lack of, pretty quickly. What fun!
Got a little thrown by Camus as French. I don't think of Algerians as French, but as Algerians who happen to speak French due to their former colonial status. (Nothing like nit-picking, right?)
And had jamais heard jamais vu, only deja vu. Loved learning that.
What a great puzzle! Kudos to Wyna and Joel!
Funniest write-up ever! Well done
I loved this puzzle! (really)
I confidently entered TYLER because Adams would break the rules…until I encountered other answers that were potential violations as well. Finally when APRILFOOL emerged in dead center, I was off to the races and couldn’t wait to read the comments. I was not disappointed. The best part was the furor over ArMBANDS! Word of the Day! Priceless! It was Rex’s blogosphere at its finest. Did Rex really like the puzzle? I was so proud to have solved this “challenging” Saturday……but was it? What a romp! @Rex, enjoy your morning off!
APRIL FOOL!!
What is imps?
On some Saturdays, a theme is appropriate, and this is one of them. Today's theme being, of course, the ABCs of March Madness.
Perhaps every Apr 1…..
@Nancy 10:11. MythBusters is definitely not pop culture. It was a “science entertainment” (per Google) show that aired from 2003 - 2016 where two guys — Adam Savage & Jaime Hyneman (and some others) would take a wacky concept — how do pop rocks react in soda as a weak example — and scientifically test it. As Rex would say, hilarity (usually) ensued.
If one has some free u-tube time on their hands old MythBusters episodes are well worth a watch. Especially entertaining is a u-tube montage of MythBusters explosions; blowing things up was often part of the mix. The show was based in San Francisco and much filming was done at old military bases around the area.
Hated it. I guess I live by the rules. Assumed I was wrong when figuring out the answers. What the point of having any rules? Should we toss them all out now?
Unknown said...
There should be a designated font for irony. I want to know what Nancy thought of the April Fool joke. (10:45 AM)
Your wish is my command, @Unknown.
I never got as far as the joke, since I bailed on the puzzle for other reasons well before figuring it out. Annoyed by both the MEN IN BLACK reference and the Pikachu Pokemon cry reference, I never saw that the answer was the same as the clue. I had BISON --SO- and didn't hang around long enough to see the trick.
I did have the SAO TOME answer -- but never noticed the repetition. Well, I think perhaps I did subliminally...
When I came here and found out what the trick was, I thought that it was cute and rather funny. Certainly different. But that was an "after-the-fact" reaction entirely. During the solve itself, my main reaction was annoyance at the Natick-y pop culture crosses. The same theme -- but accomplished with non-proper name theme answers -- like BISON BISON -- would have worked a lot better for me.
Nor do I
@lodsf (11:55) -- I'll take your word on the fact that MythBusters was a highly worthwhile TV show with a hugely educational aspect. But even if Einstein himself would have watched it with great interest and relish, to know that ADAM SAVAGE was in it is the very definition of a pop culture clue.
No fooling! “Fooled me once, and fooled me twice, and fooled me once again……it’s been a long—long time.” With VAST apologies to Satchmo.
And double thanks for Wynn & Joel.
Loved this puzzle. Not just like liked it. But love loved it. Took a little longer than the usual Saturday. But chortled in places. So fun to have the themed puzzle on the actual day it themes.
p.s.
Yeah, ok. I can kinda see how some xword purists might not feel quite right about today's NYTPuztheme.
I mean, shoot … the runtpuz, f'rinstance, would never tolerate anything remotely like rule breakin …
**gruntz**
QED.
And Happy April Fool's Day, y'all.
M&Also
This made me SMILE but not as much as Thursday’s news.
I guess the joke is it's a bad crossword? HA HA! :(
It was a gimme
You got me, Rex! ARM BANDS indeed. Ha!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Can somebody explain Rex’s theme explanation? I get what the real theme was, but what is
Rex trying to say?
Rex's writeup was also in the style of an April Fool's joke, so he said something silly for the theme: the puzzle is made up of letters of the alphabet, which, of course, it always is.
Hated it from pains in the neck. Imps? Really? Not next, butt or rear but imps 🤬
This got a chuckle out of me in multiple places. 17A... you can only really double LIKE to mean that and a Pikachu cry had to at least be PIKAsomething, so I got the gimmick very early on. But I was on high alert during the whole solve, thinking twice even on some totally standard clues - "Ball game" starting with B had me thinking BOCCE, but also... BBALL. This is the one time I actually liked seeing ERIEPA in the fill.
The SW was the toughest corner even with MENINBLACK as clued. 57A could've been BRAIN_____, with BRAIN in the clue, or ____FACT crossing BOCCE at the C, it was neither. But that corner also has my favorite clue for today, the ROOMBA one.
JAMAISVU is what happens when you say the same word over and over and over and it just doesn't sound like a word anymore.
Goy. Not only is it derogatory, but in another NYTXWord slight to the many Hebrew-literate solvers, it is the *Hebrew* word for nation (just passed to English through Yiddish), like when God says to Abraham he will make him a "goy gadol" (a great nation). Note also that "goy" has been proudly assumed by white nationalists.
I also agree with Lewis. Not easy once you get the joke, but easier and able to be finished. I liked the April Fool’s misdirection. But I never figured out AM BANDS (duh) because I thought it was JEMAIN VU instead of JAMAIS.
Mercy! OFL is on a cranky roll these last two days. It was so late when I finished yesterday that I didn’t post. I liked yesterday more than @Rex and don’t think there is anything at all wrong with yesterday’s “old” fill. I am of the opinion that the longer one solves the more “stuff” one has in the lexicon to help with said solve. Or possibly since I AM oldish, yesterday was mostly in my wheelhouse. Whatever. My point is that I believe each puzzle has its own personality. I disagree with @Rex that puzzles should be made up of that which is current. Part of the fin is cramming all kinds of things into my brain to oull out as needed. Oh well.
So today’s puzzle started off by irritating me. I almost quit because of the obvious “rule breaking.” Tossed it aside to watch some softball and check the news. And the light bulb came on. April Fool’s Day! Check. Once I grasped the “joke,” I quit the griping about “where were the editors today?!?!” and just finished it.
Overall it was kind of clever. I did enjoy imagining our constructors polishing this one and chuckling as they considered all of us hard core solvers going ballistic over the “rule breaking.” That was the finniest for me today; just thinking about the constructors’ gleeful thoughts of twisting our knickers. Good job, guys. I had quite a little rant going earlier. April Fooled me!
Loved it. This was a delightful standout puzzle.
I actually think OFL liked the puzzle. His "armbands" was a perfect APRIL FOOLS joke, and the Sam Cooke song was also perfect (Indeed, the thing I LIKE LIKE about this blog most is the selection of apt music). I kept wanting to put in "love love" there. I was blown away when I realized SAO TOME was the answer to the SAO TOME clue. Other favorites were BISON BISON and ADAMS AVAGE, without which I was well and truly stuck.
LABOUR was long in coming because "Tories" also fit. As for AM BANDS the plural is awkward, since there is only one AM BAND, but the clue made the plural obvious. Got ROOMBA right away, but this beer lover has almost never had an AMSTEL, except on a long-ago factory tour in AMSTErdam. I much prefer Heineken.
An imp is a little devil and in xword jargon it's often used to mean a child who's a pain in the...
@Anon 11:49 -- The Instant Messaging Pest Society
Not sure I'm in on the joke. Anyway have a great day
@JC66 -- Dang! I thought about it. I've actually thought about it the last few April Fools, but something stopped me each time. Maybe next year!
Ugh
Jeff Chen gave this a POW!, which it doesn't deserve. He also posted the solutions of every other 4/1 NYT puzzle going back to 1945, which is fun to browse.
Nice!
Before I got the theme I was thinking: what is going on here? After I got it, I was thinking: were these guys drunk when they made this? The complete lack of discipline is... kinda fun, but only once a year or so.
The only answer that was a gimme was ADAM SAVAGE cuz Jaimie Hyneman didn't fit. And there seemed to be a lot of names, especially in the clues. Was it really necessary to clue MIST, DANCE, and WOODCUTS using names? Sure it adds difficulty, but for me it subtracts enjoyment.
Had A M DIALS before A M BANDS, and TOYOTA and SUZUKI before SENTRA.
[Spelling Bee: yd -1, missed this 7er which I have only ever heard of in SB.]
I loved this.
Held on to AIRBNB for the ROOMBA clue too long.
Also, the theme giveth and the theme taketh away. Once I figured out the gimmic, I was sure that 45A "Fed. fiscal group" had to be FED.
Lewis, I heartily agree. I thoroughly enjoyed this one—wordplay and funny tricks. Wheee!
Funny to see who has a sense of humor here and who needs to lighten up!
Hahaha. Good one!
Challenging, and for me, I'm afraid, more exhausting than entertaining. What a struggle to get a start! First in: the humble SHE and DNA, with the path of crosses then taking me to the SW and...whaaaat?...MEN IN BLACK? After that, I got APRIL FOOL...and understood what was going on. Last frontier: the mostly blank NW. Knowing nothing of Pokemon, I thought the character might say something cute like the Teletubbies do. But I was rescued by the H from MOHAIR and the dawning wait a minute....PIKACHU? Saved from a Saturday FLAME OUT.
Do-over: ADAMS AdAms (I mean, why not?). No idea: EVIE. Recommend: this profile of Kehinde Wiley, with apologies if you are blocked by a paywall.
@mathgent 10:03 - LOL!
@burtonkd 10:17 - Me, for knowing BIL Baird. Couldn't tell you how, though.
So interesting how after doing crosswords for years, the rules are so hard to break. Even when I quite early on "got the theme" and knew it was an April Fool joke, I still had so much trouble putting in words that were "in the clue". "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!! ITS AGAINST THE RULES!!". Oh well, just wait a few years until April 1 falls on a Thursday. Yikes!
My comment yesterday, after slogging and failing and DNFing (I mean, I didn't even get half of it done--and that was with a lot of cheating!), was that if that had been my first ever crossword puzzle, I would never do another. I was so disheartened by my inability to solve most of it.
Today, however: if this had been my first ever crossword puzzle, I would have rejoiced that I had found such a fun new pastime. So proud to have figured out the joke/April Fools angle, and loved the "theme" answers. Restored my faith in crosswords. Loved that they did this even though it is Saturday.
Although I'm still not 100% sure if Rex hated it or LIKELIKE'd it...
I liked the idea of it but it was too much of a slog to enjoy. During the course of hunting and pecking of a place together some traction I felt like an APRIL FOOL once I realized MEN IN BLACK was part of the gimmick. Though I was able to count to ADAMS but until I figured out the APRIL FOOL bit I couldn’t commit. Though it wasn’t possible to be clued that way.
It’s a fundamental rule that you don’t use a word from the clue in the answer. I know it is April Fools Day day but can ANYONE remember this rule EVER being broken once? Is nothing sacred?
Excellent take. No notes. 🙌🏼
My experience exactly @anon 10:16 AM
Rather fun after quickly learning the theme: Porky Pig Echo!
@Dccccd, there was a puzzle a few-years back where the theme was something like this one where there were answers of two letters, answers which included a word un the clue and the like. This one today would have been better with more theme answers perhaps but it was a nice ‘un.
The puzzle veered from super tough to (once you sussed out the clever theme) pretty easy in places.
I doubled up with laughter.
And while rex's write-ups usually make me cringe, I'm giving him bonus points today for cleverness. Perhaps his best write-up ever.
Didn’t like this as much as the usual Saturday offering. I agree with the comments of @nancy 10 o’clock time. At least it was sorta appropriate for El día de los inocentes. ( I know there are people here who are fluent en español. Is that the translation? )
review your word of the day they go from 5400 to 1700 kilocycles. this the AM band width for AM Radio
Loved it once I realized it was April Fools and that breaking the rules with self referential clues was part of it. Like many pranks, some can laugh at themselves. Others, as seen by the comments here, can’t take a joke.
Erie PA nearly drove me mad. Fun puzzle!
I thought it was great. Even after I figured it out, I kept falling for the misdirects. My wife kept asking me what all the groaning was about.
Aha! This explains why yesterday’s Saturday puzzle had to be run on Friday. But what a dastardly April Fools Day joke if they had switched them and run today’s yesterday. Hehe.
This one was fine for AFD but skewed lite for a Saturday. At first I was turned off by all the PPP (Hi @Nancy) and almost chucked it.
Then BISON BISON went in from the downs (don’t we all do downs only on Saturdays now?) and I thought, okey dokey, I’ll see where this goes. Besides, any puzzle with both Buffalo and bison can’t be all bad. Turned out to be some fun after all if you LET IT. Laughed out loud at MAILBOX. Wondered if that confused some younger solvers - who still gets letters in their mailboxes?
I do think, judging from the comments, the constructors accomplished what they set out to do. Tomorrow’s headline:
NYTXW Clues And Answers The Same? Crossworld Consternation Ensues, or Everybody Plays The Fool
What a foolish construction!
I like to make my comments before reading all the other comments, and I see we already have 150 comments so I'm sure I can find in the comments the explanations I need explanations for. I just wanted to come in here with my first impressions which might be interesting to those of you who might be interested in reading a take from one who takes interest in being a first responder to an odd duck puzzle despite my first response coming late in the day.
It looks to me like the answers that repeated language that were in the clues was no accident. But why? Was it just sloppiness of constructors who Will trusted and didn't proofread?
Well, I just looked at Rex' review to get a clue and he cut it short and included misinformation. Was that intentional, or did he make an honest mistake? Was he in a hurry to get somewhere?
I couldn't finish the puzzle but I liked the bathroom humor and mailbox reference because my dad was a constipated letter carrier. Okay, I'll go read the comments and hope to find out what's what. Thanks for listening.
... and Rex can be exceedingly droll.
Not if you got the April Fool's Joke/theme.
Agree that it was much easier than yesterday. The clues around the answer APRIL FOOL I found easy so the theme came fairly quickly.
But I found the Northwest hard until Pikachu dawned on me just like you did.
Rex's APRIL FOOL joke.
Not sure what “it” you don’t get. The write up or the puzzle?
Did you finish the puzzle? If you did, then the April fools joke in the puzzle itself is pretty apparent. Rex’s joke is that he says it’s a pretty common “theme” where someone uses all the letters of the alphabet in their puzzle, except this one doesn’t follow this format at all because Q and Z aren’t being used, so it’s obvious that this is not the theme… and Because the theme is so obvious it’s obvious that that is not the theme. But just in case, he picks a theme that obviously can’t be the theme because it isn’t a theme if Q and Z are missing.
Jokes are really hard to explain.
Pika-pi!
Basically, yes. Because it's breaking all of the crossword rules. You don't expect the answer to be a word used in the clue because that's not how it's done. And yet... April Fool's.
FWIW next time a Saturday April Fool's Day is 2028. Then 2034. Every 5 or 6 years.
Oh, I explained above by accident.
1) A theme that has all alphabet letters is Rex’s least favorite theme. So here’s a bit of vitriol from him.
2) this obviously can’t be the theme since q and z are missing: just like the theme is obviously what it is.
3) it is obvious..which is why we have a convention do not make crossword puzzles that way. So the only joke is breaking a convention we always could have broken, but breaking would have been skill-LESS. Just like making a puzzle have A-Z but skipping a few letters takes less skill too.
*) my opinion….a fool is merely someone getting taken advantage of by someone going against convention.
And April Fools’ Day is a time try and get joy by breaking those conventions and seeing what happens as a result.
This was a great puzzle, but only on April 1st
@Tina 11:56
C'mon now Tina, it's an April Fool's puzzle, lighten up a bit. Have fun with it!
@Unknown 5:04
That was part of the April Fool's joke...
Rex knows it's AM BANDS... Get it?
For a minute there i was really surprised Angola had made the big time.
In keeping with the April Fools Day theme, I really wanted the answer to 45A to be FED (as in, the Federal Reserve Board), and so put that in, along with AMDIALS crossing it. I was quite disappointed when that turned out to be incorrect!
Love breaking all the rules, yet today still felt so wrong for a good which…before it felt so right. Nice one.
Worst puzzle of the year so far, easily. Not fooling.
What a treat! Thanks to the constructors, and to OFL for the best blog EVER!
As much as I hated this puzzle, I do acknowledge that finally! someone has posted JAMAISVU. One of my favorite phrases after a year of French class during my first year of college.
59A killed me. You have answers in the clues all throughout the puzzle and then DON’T put it in this clue? Like what?
I loved this puzzle. It’s the first time the NYT crossword puzzle made me laugh out loud in quite a while. True it only works on April 1, but it did work if only because of the solver “got it”.
I found the theme to be a delightful jape! I counted 10 themers, where the answer (or a substantial part of it) appeared in its own clue, which is a big crossword "Game in which certain words are taboo" (TABOO), but maybe others can correct me:
17A: "When doubled, really like" (LIKE)
18A: "Scientific name for the American bison" (BISONBISON)
34A: "Cry heard on April Fool's Day" (APRILFOOL)
53A: "Hit Will Smith song from 1997's 'Men in Black'" (MENINBLACK)
58A: "___ names" (NAME)
3D: "Pikachu's cry in Pokemon" (PIKACHU)
20D: "City down Lake Erie from Buffalo, N.Y." (ERIEPA)
28D: "Fourth president after Adams" (ADAMS)
40D: "Capital of Sao Tome and Principe" (SAOTOME)
44D: "Annual book prize" (BOOKER)
I thought at first that 45A ("Fed. fiscal group") was going to be another themer with FED as the answer and was a little disappointed it wasn't. I was also a huge fan of "Going well?" for REGULAR -- who doesn't love a little toilet humor?!
Puzzle was brilliant, and bravo to the editors for having the courage to 'break the rules' knowing there would be a contingent who would hate the puzzle because it was different than they expected. In fact the puzzle did exactly what a puzzle is supposed to do - challenge us to think in a new way, and for April Fool's was completely in bounds.
Surprised nobody mentioned that the constructors left their calling card in the very first answer,
Los Cabos is the muncipality that encompasses the two towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. Great diving in the Socorro Islands out of the Port there.
Phew! Thanks for explaining
I agree!
You said it perfectly...ANNOYING
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I'm writing this Sunday. I went back and read more comments and then Rex's review . I understand now!!! He really hated it! April fools
About once a year a puzzle is so bad it sucks all of the air out of an entire 737-800, which is where I attempted this, um, thing. Now there are oxygen masks hanging everywhere.
By about 30% of the way through I saw where this was heading, so I just hit "Reveal Puzzle" so I could put this steaming pile behind me forever.
Gawd.
I stopped watching South Park when it played an obnoxious AFD prank on it's fans, and I am strongly thinking of doing the same to the NYT crossword for this one. The last few years they have become less enjoyable, and this annoying entry might be the final straw.
She no LIKE LIKE 😡
Imagine trying this on May 6…
Was the "challenging" rate also a prank? Methinks so. A fun bit of chicanery, flying in the face of one of the principal "thou-shalt-nots" of crossword construction. Good to poke fun at such rigidity.
Fun to do, and of course once you're mindful of the date, easy as can be. Birdie.
Birdie also in Wordle--almost an eagle.
A piece of crap puzzle is supposed to be funny because it was printed on April 1st? That might be funny if crappy puzzles weren’t printed almost every day in the NYT.
For those of us who solve with pencil in our local paper, we get the puzzles 6 weeks late. All the joy about April Fools Day is totally lost on us on May 6th.
The fact that the puzzle ran on April 1st is not a good enough reason to toss out one of the cardinal rules of crossword puzzles. There shall not be answers in the wording of clues. This is one of the all-time worst.
Cute.
Cute.
Diana, LIW
LETIT BE
LIKE, EVIE was her REAL NAME,
her LOVESCENES EXUDE a BAD FLAME.
SHE lured IN her DEN
some REGULAR MEN,
they walk OUT as MAILs with ILLFAME.
--- ADAM ADAMS
This was appallingly awful. Simply the worst idea of a theme I have ever come across. Hated it. Had to research the explanation before I even understood that the whole answer-within-the-clue affectation was actually the theme itself. Couldn't believe that there wasn't something more subtle and clever hiding from us in plain sight. Not only that, Rex's write-up left me totally at a loss as well!!
From the comments, I see I was FAR from the only one.....
Well, it's 5 weeks later, but point taken. The APRILFOOL clue reminded me of the original puz date, so it got a bit easier from there. Interesting review from OFL.
Wordle birdie.
Funnest puzzle ever in the history of the NYTXWORD!!!
It seems that of lot of commenters have a stick stuck up their you-know-what!
But, then again, I've been known to jaywalk, and wear white after labour day.
What a ton of fun……finished but with a lot of “dunno where this is going but it sure is interesting” going on! You see, I live in the true north strong and free so puzzle is published, for me, on Sunday, May 7. Now I see when it was actually published in the NYT and it totally makes sense, or doesn’t which was the point. Also loved Rex’s joining in the joke.
I’ve been doing the puzzles for quite a few years but I think I get extra points for finishing them - my first 45 years were in Australia, currently in central Canada for 31, so there’s always a couple of layers of difficulty to test the brain. Or a gimme for an Brit or Aussie clue reference 😊
First time I ever solved a Saturday puzzle rated “challenging” by Rex!
(What’s that you say? Sorry, I can’t hear you...)
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