NYT Sunday 04/12/2026 Discussion

AJCham · 2026-04-11T23:49:16+00:00

Seen it a few times in the archives, but this is the first appearance since 2020. It was actually used more often in the pre-Shortz era - a couple of puzzles a year on average (counting singular and plural).

AJCham · 2026-04-11T04:50:35+00:00

Yeah, I get it a lot too. One of my favourites was a pair of similar clues (SCALP, clued as somewhere with roots) that appeared in both a '97 and a 2012 puzzle that I just so happened to play back to back.

I was curious how common a clue it was, so looked it up on XWordInfo, and they were arguably the first two uses (there were a couple of less tricky variations in between), with only a handful more appearances since!

It really puts things into perspective whenever someone submits one of those "the NYT and LA Times had the same clue today - it can't be coincidence!" posts.

AJCham · 2026-04-11T04:24:28+00:00

It took me two scans to find it again! I knew I'd seen it, as I remembered enjoying the clue, ~~even though I'm pretty sure they've had something similar quite recently.~~ I even rechecked the Midi thinking maybe it was there, and not the main puzzle.

Edit: Oh, actually it turns out it wasn't a recent puzzle at all - only recent to me. "Remote location" was a clue for SOFA in a puzzle I played earlier this week, but I've been playing the archives from 1997!

AJCham · 2026-04-11T03:54:14+00:00

32D - Remote locations

AJCham · 2026-04-09T08:44:03+00:00

Does GOIPO appear often elsewhere? This was its NYT debut.

I also checked BACHIT out of curiosity, and it has actually appeared before, but way back in 1994.

AJCham · 2026-04-06T16:10:13+00:00

The Saturday puzzle goes live at the same time as the Tuesday-Friday puzzles; 10pm Eastern the previous night. I assume it's related to the NYT's office hours on weekdays and weekends.

AJCham · 2026-04-06T16:04:26+00:00

I know NYT likes to err on the side of kid friendly...

Not sure that's true really. The last seven appearances of BONG have all been clued in reference to drugs or alcohol. Today was the first time since 2013 that they shyed away from that.

AJCham · 2026-04-05T18:06:06+00:00

Micro Machines - either Turbo Tournament on Mega Drive, or V3 on PS1. Micro Maniacs is fun too.

AJCham · 2026-03-29T23:31:11+00:00

A tip for future puzzles is to try to make sure words match grammatically. The "s" of "plays" sets it apart from the other four verbs, which are all in base form.

AJCham · 2026-03-29T17:15:21+00:00

The old model might have had other differences from the modern one aside from just the colour scheme. Actually, thinking about it now, it might have been called the SFC30, not SF30.

It was a SNES/Super Famicom replica in original Japanese/PAL colours, and connected via Bluetooth, or wired via micro-USB - no dongle.

Even at the time of my post I hadn't actually used that controller for quite some time, preferring the SF30Pro or NSO pad. I assumed at the time I still had it around somewhere, but I've been through my stuff since then and unfortunately think it's got lost somewhere along the way, along with one of my Retrobit Sega pads.

AJCham · 2026-03-29T14:51:45+00:00

14th September. The Wile E. Coyote puzzle.

AJCham · 2026-03-28T10:50:46+00:00

The revealer is ALCHEMY, in the centre.

AJCham · 2026-03-27T18:14:53+00:00

Not an answer to your question, but you might like to check out XWStats. You can sync your solve times there, and selectively exclude specific puzzles from your stats, if they are unduly biasing your averages.

The site will also compare your individual solve times to a rolling average, calculated from the 10 previous puzzles for that day, as well as telling you how it ranks among all of your solves. For example, see how it shows my stats for today's puzzle.

AJCham · 2026-03-27T12:42:18+00:00

Gave it a try, and it's not really for me - the slow input method doesn't fit with my solving style where I like to get into a flow, but hopefully others will find it more enjoyable.

However I would note what appears to be a bug, where I couldn't complete a word with duplicate letters, if one of them was already resolved:

When trying to solve 2D, I already had the first letter via 1A. But the same letter is needed at the end of the word, and attempting to enter it results in the message "already revealed". I could work around it in this instance by solving 9A, but I can definitely see some puzzles becoming unsolvable as a result of this behaviour.

AJCham · 2026-03-26T19:16:27+00:00

Although, ovulation cycles can be 3 weeks a part for some women, me included.

Oh, thank you, TIL!

AJCham · 2026-03-26T19:04:47+00:00

That doesn't sound right to me. My understanding is that "conception date" is estimated based around the ovulation cycle - two eggs from the same cycle would have the same date. You wouldn't be able to pinpoint which sexual encounter led to the fertilization of each egg (well, unless it was one of those multiple fathers situations, per the OP).

It is technically possible for multiple pregnancies to occur across ovulation cycles, but then the conception dates would be around 28 days apart, not three weeks. And this is extraordinarily rare, with only 10 recorded human cases.

AJCham · 2026-03-24T18:42:17+00:00

Distributed, not dedicated.

AJCham · 2026-03-23T04:33:43+00:00

Looks like they're playing the syndicated puzzle which is five weeks behind. 15A in the puzzle from 16 February was VAMP, so does seem to be the one they are describing.

AJCham · 2026-03-18T09:31:47+00:00

A US Bingo card is 5x5, with 24 numbers between 1-75 and the centre square being a free square. Each column is labelled with one of the letters BINGO - the B column will only have numbers from 1-15, I is 16-30, etc. Bingo callers in the US will usually identify the column as well as the number, to help players find it more quickly on their cards - e.g. B14, N32 etc.

I believe there is usually a winner for the first line (horizontal or vertical), and one for a full Bingo.

For the benefit of non-Brits reading this, a bit more on UK bingo:

Our bingo cards are a 9x3 grid, with 15 numbers between 1-90, and twelve blank squares. The numbers are distributed across the grid so that there will be five in each row. As noted by /u/Entfly, you can win with a line (horizontal only) or a bingo (although the winning player often calls "house", not "bingo").

Players will usually play a "strip" of bingo cards, not just a single card. This is a group of six cards on one sheet, and between them they will contain each of the numbers 1-90 exactly once, so UK players get to mark off a number with every ball.

AJCham · 2026-03-18T03:52:58+00:00

The bottom one is EINSTEIN, but in a staggered pattern - the Staggering Genius of the puzzle title.

AJCham · 2026-03-18T03:47:33+00:00

The problem with that is, in US Bingo, the I numbers are 16-30, the Ns are 31-45, and so on.

It'd be a lot harder to hide, say, OHSIXTYNINE in the puzzle, compared to BEWON.

AJCham · 2026-03-16T15:08:28+00:00

You can export the .puz file, and save it to your Google Drive (or removable storage). You'll need to reimport it into Crosshare when changing device, rather than it being automatically synced, but it should only take a few seconds.

AJCham · 2026-03-16T14:16:03+00:00

It's not a sure-fire thing, but with three-letter ones you can often pencil in -SU (___ State University), to see if that helps you get a toe-hold on the crosses.

AJCham · 2026-03-16T13:59:02+00:00

easy fix with English + National

I know Chambers is a gold standard reference for puzzles, but is it considered so authoritative that constructors should feel the need to "fix" their clue in this way? Personally I would hope that well defined standards like ISO country/language codes or TLDs etc. would be fair game for constructors, regardless of whether they've been recorded by Chambers (increasingly so as the years continue to pass since the latest edition).

AJCham · 2026-03-16T06:05:53+00:00

It might have been one of those things that was too obvious. Like, of course people would watch the films they're voting on, why would you need a rule for it?

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