Hi everyone! Trying to put out some more content related to solving crossword puzzles. I have another video tutorial posted on Youtube of me solving my own puzzle, but I realized that I knew all the answers already so it was a bit artificial. Here is my attempt at Adrian Johnson’s Friday NYT puzzle this week.

I found Adrian’s puzzle very tricky, especially for a Friday. Rex Parker basically agreed!

I ended up having to “cheat” for about like 7 squares of the puzzle, which doesn’t feel great but is what it is!

A brief review of the puzzle (spoilers following!):

• Things I Liked
  • The concept of making a Friday as tricky as a Saturday stumper in terms of clues, but having the entries be as accessible as a Friday. The concept only, see execution in the disliked part.
  • IVE GOT EARS being so randomly divisible into mostly-nonsensical phrases: IVE GO TEARS, I VEG O TEARS, IV EGO TEARS
  • The 2 sets of four 10-letter entries stacked on top of each other (NE and SW corners), with 7 of 8 of those entries being sexy (I can’t with CANTILEVER, but I can with DRAMA COACH, REGULAR JOE, FIRST WORDS, BONE MARROW, UP AND LEAVE, and SLOPPY KISS)
• Things I Disliked
  • The execution of making a tricky Friday by using very vague, unhelpful clues. It just didn’t end up being fun for me. The biggest turn-off was the overly tricky and rather stretchy short-length clues, especially in corners that usually lend themselves to developing a foothold for the longer entries
    • 14A “Mouthful for the foulmouthed” [SOAP] – OK in a certain context but lame because it doesn’t give the context for a schoolmarmy speaker
    • 17A “One of two ingredients used to make chapati” [ATTA] – there is obviously an easier way to clue this, as “__ boy” or “__ girl.” I’m all for cultural awareness but this didn’t feel like the place for it, unless you made the surrounding clues and the crosses easier
    • 19A “Neutralize, so to speak” [DO IN] – meh, “neutralize” seems a lot softer and sterile than “totally kill” which is the vibe of “DO IN” to me
    • 38A “Prove otherwise” [BELIE] feels like a stretch
  • Some somewhat unsatisfying clues for the longs. 3D “Big game medium” for NATIONAL TV wasn’t anywhere near a home run for me; 56A “Overly warm welcome, maybe” for SLOPPY KISS felt a little icky given that the idea of a welcome typically makes me think of two strangers meeting for the first time, and even for a longtime couple, who does that?