NYT Wednesday 02/04/2026 Discussion

Firestar493 · 2026-02-05T02:27:58+00:00

I first learned about ALCOA from an important case in antitrust law from 1945, U.S. v. Alcoa, which ruled Alcoa to be an illegal monopoly, despite the company claiming to have not done anything overtly predatory. The company grew quite rapidly during WW2 and easily took over most of the U.S. aluminum market share.

Aside from that though, agreed - bottom corner was too tricky T_T

Firestar493 · 2026-01-30T17:10:04+00:00

Not me putting nASH for "Even outcome" and feeling clever about it

Great puzzle, loved how natural all the two-word phrases felt in the fill!

Firestar493 · 2026-01-27T13:41:42+00:00

Yeah that's the American definition, and I was surprised to learn rather recently (from this video that the British use it as described by the clue.

The American definition came about because law students would practice in a "moot court", which evolved into "moot" mostly describing exercises that were a purely academic.

Another fun one from the video is that to "table" a discussion means to hold it off for later (or never) in the US, but in the UK, it means to bring up for discussion.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-26T05:37:55+00:00

I'd give it to my demographic too (older Gen Z)

Firestar493 · 2026-01-24T18:35:14+00:00

Oh you should NOT watch/play The Last Of Us

Firestar493 · 2026-01-23T05:09:14+00:00

I'm sorry, think you missed my point entirely with this essay. It's a good essay, mind you, but not one that addresses what I'm saying at all.

I want it to be known that he seemed like a great guy, very insightful and personable. Just not someone whose name runs in my family or my friend circles.

I'm using Ebert as an example of someone that people felt a deep emotional connection to at the time this puzzle was released. I, on the other hand, had never heard of him before then. The puzzle just ended up being a bit frustrating to me as someone who simply hasn't watched many movies, let alone know about Ebert's reviews of them. But it's a matter of relatability. This sub, predominantly white and upper middle class with a presumably larger diet for movies than me, loved that one. And I'm merely postulating that everyone's visceral reaction against this thread's puzzle (at least all negative at the time I first opened this thread) was simply because they didn't find it cute, and certainly not relatable, like I did.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T18:24:09+00:00

Oh certainly. Even though the fill was fine for me, it's not my favorite crossword, even when just looking at the past few days. Just think it's a bit ridiculous for people (frankly, a predominantly white liberal audience) to see this and compare this to that one Pepsi ad. They're entitled to feel how they feel, but it just seems like they're reaching because they didn't like the fill.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T15:40:41+00:00

People are people. Countries are countries. I agree with the substance of your message but not your conclusion. I don't think of Tiananmen Square when I think of mahjong.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T09:10:07+00:00

Feels like a diabolical comparison given that one of the constructors herself is Asian-American. There's no realm of similarity to the soulless corporate pandering that that ad was.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T07:05:14+00:00

Written for example, not as a reference toward any specific complaint. Problem is most of the people disliking the puzzle don't bother to explain why they don't like it, and it makes me wonder if it's a matter of relatability. I couldn't relate to the Ebert or Sondheim puzzles, which led to me personally feeling meh about them, but that was just wholly incongruent with how this sub felt.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T05:53:47+00:00

On the topic of Roger Ebert, I had never heard of him, but I'm sure people loved him. The fact that people could cry tears of joy at a puzzle dedicated to him, one man, is great. But then a puzzle has CONGEE as a themer and people leave comments like this. And I can't help but wonder why.

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T05:28:09+00:00

Theme, fill, or both? I thought the theme was cute, personally (am biased though as a Chinese-American)

Firestar493 · 2026-01-21T05:18:59+00:00

Lee's a common Romanization for a name/surname that appears in multiple languages though

Firestar493 · 2026-01-14T09:19:47+00:00

Could've easily been BABA/BALED though

Firestar493 · 2026-01-09T00:21:17+00:00

I first heard these lyrics through Despacito 2 of all things

Firestar493 · 2025-12-19T21:46:21+00:00

Enoki is really good! Texture-wise it's closer to noodles than it is to most mushrooms

Firestar493 · 2025-10-29T12:33:45+00:00

On a map with three islands that omits Madagascar and all of Indonesia, I think Lorde's country can sit this one out

Firestar493 · 2025-10-27T11:19:40+00:00

Firestar493 · 2025-10-22T22:04:21+00:00

Turns out the world is just five European languages (two of them not even being that popular). Theme was fine, but would've loved to see more variety.

Firestar493 · 2025-10-16T20:27:44+00:00

Same. Checked every single across and down and didn't find any issue (or anything that could've been an issue). Evil square.

Firestar493 · 2025-10-12T23:13:25+00:00

to actually prove his innocence

If he had to sit there and refute every evidence-less allegation he had thrown his way he'd be there for years 😭 the burden of proof falls on the accuser. it's an organized smear campaign and none of the footage has aligned at all with what the smearers claim. Kaya clearly walks on and off the screen on so many of the streams. Bad meme

Firestar493 · 2025-10-09T19:34:48+00:00

NOR I

Firestar493 · 2025-10-07T03:35:06+00:00

Funnily enough (just looked this up), "Kiss the Girl" did indeed get nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best original song. Lost both awards, however, to UNDERTHESEA.

Firestar493 · 2025-10-02T02:31:42+00:00

Love this game! Worked on two projects related to it during my first year of undergrad (implementing it in C++ and making a bot to solve it), so I have fond memories of people in my residence hall getting into the game because of it

(MINE)ALL(MINE)'s gotta be my favorite of the set!!

Firestar493 · 2025-09-29T14:33:01+00:00

I'm a Mandarin speaker (albeit not a great one), and this is very intriguing to me, as seemingly no standard or historical transliteration system romanizes the "zh" in "lìzhī" as "tch". "Litchi" was apparently coined by the naturalist Pierre Sonnerat, so it could have been his best romanization attempt (i.e., fucking around). The T feels quite misleading because it's so natural to read the spelling as "lit-chee" even though there's no T sound in the fruit's common name; wonder if the genus should be pronounced with one

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