[A Scythe For Sore Eyes Download
Laurice Whack
@Rex - JESU meine Freude and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring are the German and English titles of the same music.
Took me a LONG time. Did not get the Y in SCYTHE - put SCITHE, thinking it was an alternate spelling to allow "I KNOW," which in retrospect doesn't fit the clue for 96D very well. But neither does Y'KNOW IMO.
Lots of stuff that had to be overwritten, lots of unfamiliar names, and a theme that threw me for quite a while.
Nonetheless it was an enjoyable but challenging solve,. Thanks, Mr. Berry.
Medium for me too. Sailed through the top third, but the bottom third was tougher. The SW corner was challenging. TOCCATA involved a couple of erasures and YKNOW looked strange so I didn't want to commit to it.
This seemed about right for a Sun. Amusing/whacky theme that took a bit of effort, but then it's Patrick Berry.
I Misspelled SaRGEANT and am DESOLATE! LITHELY lisping my way into and around this clever clever beauty was too much fun though.I got the end of 108 across MATHER and confidently threw in Cotton!I had ASKAbout so I wanted a sepTEt?Berry's fill is just superb even SATIE OSTEO ASTRO HAG (poor girl)
This is strange. First Rex calls this a medium and others say they had problems. For me, this was the easiest Sunday puzzle I've ever done. I often don't even finish, but today I did it in 38 minutes (my previous record was just under an hour).
Time aside, I have to be a grouch again about straightforwardness and general blandness of the clues. I'd like part of the editing process to be "please rewrite this set of clues to be a *little* bit more interesting and less obvious."
Count me as another user of the Magmic app who received the diagramless, rather than the crossword. I'm getting tired of all the Magmic-related issues (including the fact that the app crashes every time I submit a puzzle).
Those of you who are considering getting the "official" NYT crossword app: Don't.
I also had SCiTHE and iKNOW...no way I would have ever caught that error. I had DESERTED for 58D and spent a lot of time trying to make it work, as it's such a perfect answer. ARACHNE was a tough one, crossing four (!!) other answers to which I had no clue; fortunately the word arachnid popped into my head and saved the day.
Not a big fan of the theme as executed... I groaned at each answer (except CREATIVE WRITHING, which is elegant because you simply add the H to a common phrase.)
I also had deserted for DESOLATE and wasted a lot of time trying to make it work. Pretty annoying until I realized CAPRIATI was what was needed in the cross.
Liked CREATIVE WRITHING and THELEATHEROFTHELAW, the other ones not as much.
Liked seeing LESTER Del Rey, as am big sci-fi reader.
ERNST Blofeld is the inspiration for many a super villain, sitting there stripling his cat.
I guess I'm in the minority here, I absolutely loved it. Connected right away with 23A which is what I would do when it was my turn to do the dishes. Mom always fell for it and would do them herself. Mom was always an easy touch.
Top half easier than the bottom half for me. A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES really made me wince and rub my eyes. YOUCH!
You all realize I don't work for Magmic, don't use the Magmic app, and have nothing to do with Magmic, right? The ineptitude of the NYT, or Magmic, or ... well, anyone but me, is just not my problem. Let *them* hear it.
RP
@David - How did you get the magmic app to download the correct puzzle after you've already loaded the diagramless puzzle? Or had you not already downloaded?
I tried restarting the app, logging out and back in again, selecting date in calendar and selecting "today's puzzle", all with no luck.
@anon. 6:41. I just went to the app and a pop up said , there is a new version of today's puzzle, would you like to download it ? I clicked yes. Then I clicked today's puzzle and it came up.
@rex don't worry. We don't expect you to solve our iPad problems. Thanks for this forum to communicate with each other.
@Rex - sorry that we're hijacking the conversation, but you've fostered a community here and sometimes people are going to talk amongst themselves, go off-topic, etc. In this case, I think most of us are trying to find out whether anybody has discovered a workaround that would let us get our fix and return to the regularly-scheduled programming.
On that note - without considering how to submit the puzzle via the magmic app, I'd still really like to try the solution. The primary roadblock is that the clue numbering (and possibly the across/down categorization as well) is screwed up. It would be extremely helpful if someone with access to the PDF version could post a link.
Or perhaps someone here who has the ear of the NYT puzzle dept. powers that be could suggest they make the across lite/standalone app version freely available in light of this screwup.
With regard to the Magmic app - I've gradually come to see its shortcomings, but it's still hard to rationalize spending more than double for the annual subscription for the sake of avoiding headaches with a few novelty puzzles/errors like this each year.
@RP, no worries mate. We know you don't work for Magmic. But since they don't have a forum for such kvetching, it'll naturally spill over to wherever crossworders congregate. FWIW, there is a support link in the app, and I suspect many people including myself complained about it last night so it's fixed now.
"Scary unknown proper nouns" indeed!!! I had a real hard time on most of them.
Regardless, I loved the puzzle. I'd like to own a pair of LATHE BLOOMERS; that would be A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES.
@LMS - well, where should we hide our cash if not in the ice cream?
Liked this fun theme and the play on words, CREATIVE WRITHING and GETS OFF LITHELY were my favorites, but they were all good (although the sadistic ophthalmologist one made me shudder).
Felt like I had to step in the way-back machine to get MITCH Gaylord and Jennifer CAPRIATI. Wonder what her dad is up to...
Was sure that 75A was either Fawn or FOAL, so I knew the ghost town couldn't be DESerted, but DESOLATE was hard to see here, also. Had rosTERS before BATTERS, too.
New word for me : ICHOR.
Had the Magmic malfunction here last night, but woke up to the Berry puzzle, so all is well. Plus, it's a gorgeous day in Michigan!
anyone else have ASeeTHEFORSOREEYES?? I sis and SEETHE seemed perfectly OK. So that screwed up my whole SE. Couldnt see YKNOW becase I never had the Y. I had ALSORAN but little else down there. Despite all this, I did like the puzzle and had little trouble with the rest of it. Thanks Patrick Berry
Fun. BARRELED through it (relatively speaking). Themewise, I thought CREATIVE WRITHING got things off to a great start, with some fading through the midsection, and then a very strong finish with that SCYTHE and especially, "NO LAUGHING, MATHER!" Very Puritan.
Liked the MUSICAL subtheme: LISTEN! HEAR or PLAY SATIE, (Bach's) JESU and TOCCATA, perhaps written in F-FLAT.
Wishful thinking rules the day and Magmic came through. Seems to me the last time there was an actual technical snafu Magmic bested the "real" NYT. These things happen. Thanks to our Prickly Leader @Rex for the forum space. Nothing more to see here. Move along.
Probably one of my fastest Sundays, with just two writeovers: liz/ANN and tbsp/DASH. Knew TOCCATA, but had to wait for the crossings because I couldn't remember whether there were two C's or T's.
I thought the theme was clever and some parts of it were hilarious (NOLAUGHINGMAHER being my favorite). Thanks, Mr. Berry.
Y' KNOW, today I'm really glad I do the puzzle in the newspaper...
Enjoyed Patrick Berry's CREATIVE WRITHING, as usual. A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES was perhaps the best.
On to the diagramless, on paper.
Thought this was very easy! Not even tempted to Google. Had DESERTED too, but that was replaced as soon as I saw that CAPRIATI had to be right. But CAPN Andy, TERESA Wright, ICHOR and ARACHNE were gimmes for me so that helped. Loved CREATIVE WRITHING, winced at SCYTHE for sore eyes!
Hey, if you magmic sufferers buy the paper, the magazine has both puzzles, a recipe for mushroom bruschetta, AND a nice photo feature on the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital (just what it sounds like!)
Oh, yes, the puzzle. @Rex, the title just means that you soften the T sounds, which are hard, by turning them into TH sounds, which are soft. I don't think 'softies' means anything about the puzzle.
I'll go with medium -- same experience as Rex, I'd get one block of answers then find no route into the next block, so I'd have to start over, whereas normally I work my way down until I get an across, then try to do the whole puzzle by working the crosses. First answer I got was ARACHNE, since all the earlier ones could have been anything.
And FOISTS! C'mon, you don't see that too often, y'know?
Tie between LATHE BLOOMERS & NO LAUGHING, MATHER for most outrageous answer, though the SCYTHE was certainlyh in contention. As for THE LEATHER OF THE LAW, it certainly gives you something to think about!
Does anyone have the problem while solving online against the clock that a correct puzzle is not accepted? This happens to me frequently recently. I even retyped the entire puzzle to no avail. Most annoying!
@jackj - I think it's the pollen. Just teasing! I was interested that among your questionable answers were some of my favorites, especially ICHOR and TOCCATA. Also wanted to thank you for reminding me of TRIAD as another MUSICAL word, as well as (in a stretch) Mahler's first symphony, the TITAN.
@Sandy K - Another diagramless fan here. Just off to tackle it.
@pete-- strangely I too had the moustache thing going. However, I count myself lucky that I do the Sunday puzzle after the paper is delivered to my door in one bundle on Sunday morning. No Magmic issues at all, but I'll never catch up with all of you!!
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