I went to high school with a guy named Marben. Parents were Mary and Ben. Nice kid, but painfully, painfully shy. Just debilitating. He blamed his name for the shyness.
I agree with the rest and I'll just reiterate that aside from solving more puzzles, the second best thing you can do is read insightful commentary. I especially recommend Rex Parker's blog in addition to Wordplay. Also, there are many crossword publishers out there including some cool indie ones. If you want more practice you might check out American Values Crossword Club, Fireball Crosswords, and Brendan Emmett Quigley.
I second this!! It was reading commentary that really helped me. At the very least it helps with simply understanding the clues, but I found that when I learned to be critical (eg, that reveal was so unique; that clue was too confusing) I was engaged with the puzzle in a way that made Friday/Saturday feel less like an insurmountable burden and more like something to be reasoned with.
Toppled #72
I'm enjoying the return to 2015 era difficulty and obscure cluing. I realize I'm in the minority though.
I’m with you, I prefer when Fri/Sat put up a bit of a fight.
I went to high school with a guy named Marben. Parents were Mary and Ben. Nice kid, but painfully, painfully shy. Just debilitating. He blamed his name for the shyness.
Barry was right there…
I was surprised they awarded me "island hole" but I suppose the essence was there.
omG i literally almost put this (couldn’t recall that greens… existed) but talked myself out of it bc it sounded so ridiculous.
I agree with the rest and I'll just reiterate that aside from solving more puzzles, the second best thing you can do is read insightful commentary. I especially recommend Rex Parker's blog in addition to Wordplay. Also, there are many crossword publishers out there including some cool indie ones. If you want more practice you might check out American Values Crossword Club, Fireball Crosswords, and Brendan Emmett Quigley.
I second this!! It was reading commentary that really helped me. At the very least it helps with simply understanding the clues, but I found that when I learned to be critical (eg, that reveal was so unique; that clue was too confusing) I was engaged with the puzzle in a way that made Friday/Saturday feel less like an insurmountable burden and more like something to be reasoned with.
wore calzuros and compression socks (cheap from Amazon, hltpro) every single day for 4 years and I never had foot pain
Lol, we have docs who see > 200 patients a day lol
How is that possible? That’s 2.5 minutes per patient assuming no lunch or peeing or walking between rooms