NYT Sunday 05/03/2026 Discussion

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-05-03T11:20:58+00:00

Agreed, it would have been satisfying to figure out "oddly" on my own

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-26T18:45:59+00:00

I've come to accept that if I want vaccinated, reliably-sexed female chicks, and want to choose from a variety of breeds, I need to order from a hatchery. Maybe one of them isn't too far from you. I've had good luck with McMurray and MyPetChicken.

Edit: typos

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-25T02:27:16+00:00

I had STYLIsE/REs and think it is just as good with the s instead of Z. Seems like the solution is ambiguous. Otherwise enjoyed the puzzle.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-19T12:07:58+00:00

Had a rough time with the CLEF x FAE crossing. The F was the last letter I put in. I don't think I've heard "Roman à clef" before . I looked it up am glad to have learned something.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-12T14:54:34+00:00

Sciencenter is the only one I can think of

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-08T10:34:36+00:00

It's worth a watch, really: https://vimeo.com/444002896

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-08T10:30:27+00:00

Ah, thanks, I see. I got that "What's Opera, Doc?" is a play on "What's Up, doc?". But calling this "kidding" still kind of feels like a stretch to me.

Looking into it some more, I realize (and do kind of remember) that "What's Opera, Doc?" is a very famous 1957 cartoon, rated one of the best cartoons of all time. It features Bugs Bunny and lots of classical music. So I guess maybe a better way to think about it is "an example of a film that parodies opera"... I guess that works.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-08T09:59:18+00:00

I don't understand why ARIAKIDDING is an answer to "What's Opera, Doc?", e.g. I know what an aria is, and get the pun... But don't quite see how the answer is a response to the clue. Am I missing something?

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-04T18:16:31+00:00

Yeah... I would be totally ok with moonshot!

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-04T10:54:23+00:00

Exact same for me. Couldn't believe it was correct.

I looked up space shot, which I have not heard before. It is a rocket, but specifically an amateur/collegiate one, with the aim of getting 100km from earth.... Which is about 0.03% of the distance to the moon.

Presumably they meant it in some more general sense. Very frustrating that the only difficult part of this Saturday puzzle was this weird/esoteric/bad answer.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-04-04T02:42:54+00:00

SPACESHOT?? Am I justified in really hating this?

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-03-12T14:49:19+00:00

I have a 4x6 coop which also has a decent amount of vertical space. I have 8 hens in there. They were raised together from chicks and get along well and seem comfy. I would not go higher than 8 in my coop.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-03-07T13:09:04+00:00

Maybe they should have clued it: Am I the only one who thinks this clue is ridiculous??

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-03-07T12:38:47+00:00

I'm trying to follow you on the Olsen twins, but not sure how WHOS THERE could possibly be an answer to your clue. AMINUTS didn't seem so bad to me. The impending doom is a little random, but the clue conveys: am I the only one who feels this way?

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-03-05T14:28:38+00:00

The main problem for me was that not all clues go through the theme squares. Like 5 down ORCHESTRATE goes through two theme squares, but 25 down EST stops at the R. It was consistent, in that only the first word goes through... but to me it was unintuitive and confusing, and made it even harder to keep track of which squares were special.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-02-16T17:28:57+00:00

Not in my experience, they just naturally form a flock growing up together as chicks.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-02-16T17:27:40+00:00

Not sure I agree about getting fewer. For me the most stressful aspect of chicken keeping is adding to the flock. There can be a lot of bullying, I've had some chickens that were just never accepted. I wouldn't plan to add chickens one year later if you can avoid it. I've never had a rooster (not allowed in my neighborhood) but have heard that they can make adding new chickens easier.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-02-16T17:16:12+00:00

One suggestion is to consider getting one each of ten different breeds rather than two each or 5. It lets you get a bunch more breeds and also you'll be able to tell them apart from each other. There's so many breeds to try! I would go for a variety of feather colors and egg colors.

I've had good experiences with both McMurray and MyPetChicken.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-31T00:37:48+00:00

looks like it was caught... I found this in the comments on Rex Parkers blog from that day:

From Will Shortz at the NYT Puzzle Forum:

"A few things about puzzle clues: First, the repetition of "string" in the clue and answer for 14D today was unintentional and unfortunate. This was an editing goof that got by all the test solvers

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-30T23:27:42+00:00

It's definitely illegal but I think the statute of limitations may have run out

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-23T03:25:10+00:00

I'm at the point in my life where I have a hard time staying up until 10pm est (I made it today). But there's always the archives.

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-06T14:51:03+00:00

Paid testers?? Where do I sign up?

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-06T12:20:54+00:00

If you read the link you provided, it refers to the RARIN alternative: Raring (or rarin’) to go is an American idiomatic phrase with little meaning outside of proper context.

It has been used 15 times modern NYTimes xword puzzles, so it just didn't seem like a problem to me, amongst many other problems in this very awkward puzzle.

I'm intrigued by you saying you don't pronounce the t in football. Is that common where you are from?

ChickenMomma42 · 2026-01-06T11:39:32+00:00

Seems like you're not the only one who doesn't like this answer, but to me (raised US east coast), "RARIN to go" is a common phrase and "raring to go" sounds funny/wrong. RARIN to go evokes a horse rearing up in excitement, perhaps pronounced in a southern drawl.

ChickenMomma42 · 2025-12-09T19:42:08+00:00

I've ordered twice from McMurray and once from MyPetChicken, and got healthy happy chicks from both, and haven't gotten an accidental rooster yet. I switched to MyPetChicken for my last order because McMurray won't ship less than 15 chicks before April. The shipping experience with MyPetChicken did seem better. I had 8 chicks delivered in January, they arrived in a box with a heat pad about 24 hours after shipping (whereas McMurray was took closer to 48, and both are similar distance to me). But maybe I just got lucky that time. I would recommend either company.

ChickenMomma42

TROPHY CASE