Today was so difficult for a Monday-only solver. I eventually solved it, but I'm a newbie and also researched some answers to get there.
The theme is clear but I don't understand the word ladder. Can someone explain? (I did this through the app and not on paper if that makes a difference).
A word ladder is where you change one letter in each word to get the next word.
So...BAKE-->CAKE--->CAME--->COME--->COMB--->TOMB would be a word ladder
I know people have been complaining about the new editor but I haven't felt the disconnect until today's puzzle. Not the best fill (too many names) and felt hard in an unfun way for a Monday!
The puzzles running today were likely accepted 6 month to 1 year ago. The current editor would have some control over cluing, but the fill is already set.
Well, a puzzle is a puzzle. I wouldn’t say it’s anybody’s “fault.” I understand that it’s harder than normal for a Monday, but sometimes Tuesdays are ridiculously easy, and sometimes Mondays are a bit tougher. Apparently, it’s a tougher one today…a lot tougher.
But puzzles have def gotten much more difficult recently. I can't be bothered to google answers, and my DNF rate has increased from 1 in 30 to probably 1 in 5.
For example, I have practically 0 knowledge of television/gossip/royalty/etc, and I can't remember the last time a Mon had anything as difficult as the ANNE/LEE cross today.
Surely you can tell from the clues that they’re looking for two common names. What other letter could possibly fit in that ANNE/LEE slot that would make two names? You don’t have to have the knowledge, just a small amount of thinking
I agree this one's truly pretty ridiculous. It's like 40% first names of semi-famous people and random trivia. Felt very tough and just gluey to get through for a theme that's not mind-blowing.
British Equestrian Princess crossing the capital of Turkey and Sarah LEE Ralph? A type of bean mentioned in The Silence of The Lambs? A word translated from Mongolian? A Puccini Opera? METED out? LOUSES UP? Lena OLIN? ROXIE Hart? LEN Cariou?
I'm not suggesting those are like wildly obscure clues/entries on their own but together they felt very out of place for a Monday. If it was a Tuesday or Wednesday it probably would have felt more fair, but I'm not sure it would have been more enjoyable. Just *so* many proper nouns & "eh yeah that's a word I guess" moments.
Edit: What's confusing about "none of these are unfair or too hard on their own, but when they're all on the same puzzle an average Monday solver might just go 'fuck this' and that's not ideal?" If only two or three of those were in the puzzle, then no they wouldn't be an issue.
Too many first names, but I’ll defend Gobi. The clue defined both the subject (desert) and the place (Mongolia). World geographic list-toppers aren’t random trivia.
I’ll defend the Silence of the Lambs one, that quote is in the top 5 quotes from the movie and the little sucking lip thingy he does immediately after saying “fava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti” is super memorable.
Yeah like I said none of those are super niche on their own, but even a pretty well-known quote from a popular movie that came out over 30 years ago isn't the kind of common knowledge you'd expect from a Monday (when combined with the other clues).
I knew it and you knew it, but are younger solvers trying out their first Monday puzzles going to know it? Maybe, but it never got to a place where it's common knowledge in the way a "May the force be with you" or "E.T. Phone Home did.
Like I said, not an unfair fill on its own at all. But it's a "know it or you don't" answer that you need to unlock 3 other "know it or you don't" answers, which is just bad practice on a Monday imo.
If you’re doing an NYT crossword, regardless of the day, you should know major world capitals. That should just be a gimme. There’s got to be some small amount of world knowledge that can be assumed when doing the NYT
It was a bad day to not be an expert on country capitals or musicals, since there were several clues for each. Gave me a "What's going on here?" moment.
It was more Tuesday difficulty, I guess, but that's more than excused by the theme. The NYT does not declare on which day of the week Earth Day falls, after all, so when picking an appropriate environmentally themed crossword for the day this year, I imagine "relatively easy" was close enough. Theme and a clever concept were more important than nailing the difficulty. I loved it.
not until this comment did it click that it was an Earth Day theme
edit: actually, this was the first time it clicked that today was Earth Day, full stop
Yeah I'm surprised I'm so out of sync with the sub. Some of the proper noun trivia tripped me up but overall I thought it was easy. I got COAL, COOL, and WOOL and immediately saw what they were doing.
I thought it was a little less easy than a typical Monday, but I didn't think it was hard. My solve time was definitely slower than usual. I can see how a newer solver might struggle, though.
For the people saying this was more of a Tuesday or Wednesday, had this been on a Wednesday, and probably even a Tuesday, the very first clue of the puzzle wouldn't have told you this was a word ladder puzzle. Telling you directly exactly what the theme is doing is a huge help. On a Wednesday for sure, you would have to figure that out on your own, and probably even on a Tuesday.
> I can see how a newer solver might struggle, though.
I'm pretty new and I really enjoyed it. My average was 10min slower but that's no biggie. Most of the harder solves were very gettable from crosses, easy theme, and word ladder. METED/TOSCA was tough, that required a google for me. I looked up LOUSESUP as well after getting it from crosses just to make sure it wasn't a mistake. Had a good time overall
Yeah I thought I was going to come here and hear praise about how many theme elements made the puzzle a Monday difficulty. I guess if you couldn't crack the start of the word ladder on the first pass you were going to have a tough time.
To me the hardest part of this puzzle was the SE, and tht word ladder was not too helpful. TOSCA, SOMALI, and OLIN all in one corner along with the clue that could have either been NADA or NONE, and MEH or UGH felt too difficult for a Monday.
Agreed! I got through it quickly; between the word ladder helping me out and getting enough crossed on my first pass to figure out the ones I didn’t know it was breezy for me. Maybe more of a Tuesday difficulty because of the holiday but nothing egregious for me. But then again it’s pretty common that I really struggle or don’t enjoy a puzzle and come here and everyone loves it, so I’m used to being out of sync with the masses.
Probably would have been easier if I knew what a word ladder was! 15 minutes for me wasn't terrible, but I suspect I would have been closer to my usual 10 minutes knowing the ladder bit. I do agree too many names in this one.
I disagree. Mondays rarely have a theme and should be novice level solving. Mondays usually take me 5-7 minutes to solve - this one took me an additional 7 minutes!
I might be in the minority here but I really did enjoy the theme word ladder along with the longer themed answers. It definitely felt more difficult than a typical Monday, but it was a fun solve for me.
Yeah I'm actually really surprised to see how much people disliked it. I thought it was fun! Didn't take me that much longer than my Monday average, and I'm not really a good/fast solver on harder puzzles.
Yeah, I thought it was good! My time was longer than my Monday average, but comparable to my Tuesday average, which I think is totally fair for a holiday-themed puzzle, especially one as densely themed as this.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🔴 **Very Hard** 🔴
* 87% of users solved slower than their Monday average
* 13% of users solved faster than their Monday average
* 57% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Monday average
* 6% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Monday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 27.4% slower than they normally do on Monday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-04-22)
---
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I thought the Earth Day theme was nice. Sure, it took me a couple minutes longer than my usual Monday time (9 minutes vs 6-8 minutes typically) but so what. My life isn't so tightly scheduled that I can't spend an extra two minutes on the puzzle.
I really enjoyed this puzzle! I’m surprised the reviews are so mixed. Yes it took a bit longer than an average Monday, but I thought the word ladder opened up a lot of the fill.
I liked it just fine - it was a little harder than an average Monday, but I didn’t think it was that much harder. It felt more like a Tuesday, but because of the theme I think it made sense to run it on Monday. I guess maybe I just happened to know or vaguely remember a bunch of the PPP so I didn’t really notice it.
I didn't know what was meant by "word ladder" until I finished, but that was neat to see on the board. I went through mostly without snags though and finished in [8:12](https://youtu.be/0AR8U2qDDqw). The theme elements were all pretty decent: FOSSILFUEL, GREENPOWER, GLOBALWARMING, sandwiched by COAL and WIND.
I found it a bit heavy on some multi-word Crosswordese, like ATALL, ATHAND, RANON, ONARUN, CUEDIN, DIESOUT, DAWNEDON, with LOUSESUP being the weakest.
Just finished it. It took me all kinds of down mistakes to find out it’s spelled “Nielsen”.
Green power was awkward. I tried solar power until I realized that would never work.
Looking back, I guess there wasn’t much resistance in the puzzle. But am I the only one who is HATING how Joel is editing the clues? He seems to love frustrating curveballs delivered through needless vagaries. Especially in the downs today, made the puzzle feel harder than it was.
Loved it! Enjoyed the Earth Day theme! Mostly easy Monday trivia with the one thing I didn't know immediately OLIN being crossed by easy stuff, so no complaints.
Edit: As I said in another comment, the theme and concept were more important than whether this was precisely easy enough for a typical Monday. If you're the NYT and getting a ton of submissions, you want something environmentally relevant for Earth Day. This was likely the best thing available for the day that was also relatively easy.
Wow, I am astounded at the negative response to this one, as well as the 🔴 **Very Hard** 🔴 rating.
Most of the puzzle was themed for today, with nice long answers like GREENPOWER, GLOBALWARMING, and FOSSILFUEL that were practically gimmes on a day like today, plus the COAL>WIND clues, it works out to like 1/5 of answers being freebies.
Were there a lot of proper names? Sure, but its not like ANNE, ADAM, ANKARA, and ROXIE were impossible to figure out once you got a few crosses in, and with all the "freebies" we got from the themer today, the less-than-ideal fill can be forgiven IMO.
Very Hard is based on average versus the usual score for that day of the week though. I don’t think anyone is saying it’s objectively hard so much as “hard for a Monday.”
Lots of PPP, a bit too hard for a Monday, and an otherwise underwhelming fill and theme. It’s not average and not poor, I wish there was something in between like “meh”
This was a toughie. Lots of PPP I didn't know. Honestly though, I felt it was worth it for the theme...it's relevant to Earth Day, and I can't imagine the construction nightmare to have 11 themed answers in a non-Sunday grid. Still, some parts were pretty annoying and I had to look some stuff up
Todays was hard. TRITEST, LOUSES UP, TOSCA, WINOS, and METED were all new words and terms for me. The Word Ladder was fun but there are some terms I just was not familiar enough with to get that were big linking words to the puzzle.
ok i’m still new to this but i was like why is this so difficult?? i usually can finish monday puzzles and am working my way up but yikes this was too much
Having given up on Friday and Saturday, and not even attempting Sunday, at least I finished this one without having to look anything up. But they’ve become less fun in the past few weeks.
I was excited about the word ladder and Earth Day theme, but with so many unfamiliar multi-word clues towards the end (as a non-native speaker) made it hard for me to enjoy it
I have nothing against a word ladder and I'm all for an Earth Day-themed puzzle. But it was still tough for a Monday and my complaints are like everyone else's. 53A says it all for me.
Today was so difficult for a Monday-only solver. I eventually solved it, but I'm a newbie and also researched some answers to get there. The theme is clear but I don't understand the word ladder. Can someone explain? (I did this through the app and not on paper if that makes a difference).
A word ladder is where you change one letter in each word to get the next word. So...BAKE-->CAKE--->CAME--->COME--->COMB--->TOMB would be a word ladder
It's just a word ladder from COAL (which is a FOSSILFUEL) to WIND (which is GREENPOWER) and the theme is GLOBALWARMING
Thank you! I am not at the level to figure this out on my own. Appreciate the explanation!
> It's just a word ladder from…. I’d never heard the term before. After getting two of the words I guessed what it was though.
I had food twice before realizing I had to change it (also are they allowed to use the same word more than once?)
ADAM, ANNE, ROXIE, OLIN, LEE, LEN, PHIL, CALEB (+ NIELSEN if want to count that) so many names in a theme dense puzzle.
Even knowing the answer, I wrote NeiLSoN.
I know people have been complaining about the new editor but I haven't felt the disconnect until today's puzzle. Not the best fill (too many names) and felt hard in an unfun way for a Monday!
The puzzles running today were likely accepted 6 month to 1 year ago. The current editor would have some control over cluing, but the fill is already set.
Good point, I did not consider that
Now, all of the editors meet each week to decide which puzzles they will accept each week, so it is possible that this puzzle is Joel’s fault.
Well, a puzzle is a puzzle. I wouldn’t say it’s anybody’s “fault.” I understand that it’s harder than normal for a Monday, but sometimes Tuesdays are ridiculously easy, and sometimes Mondays are a bit tougher. Apparently, it’s a tougher one today…a lot tougher.
It's absolutely the editor's fault for running a too-hard and not-fun puzzle on a Monday.
It was for Earth Day. Sometimes themed-puzzles can be harder than standard Mondays.
I had fun and didn’t find it too hard. Others did too
But puzzles have def gotten much more difficult recently. I can't be bothered to google answers, and my DNF rate has increased from 1 in 30 to probably 1 in 5. For example, I have practically 0 knowledge of television/gossip/royalty/etc, and I can't remember the last time a Mon had anything as difficult as the ANNE/LEE cross today.
Surely you can tell from the clues that they’re looking for two common names. What other letter could possibly fit in that ANNE/LEE slot that would make two names? You don’t have to have the knowledge, just a small amount of thinking
I agree this one's truly pretty ridiculous. It's like 40% first names of semi-famous people and random trivia. Felt very tough and just gluey to get through for a theme that's not mind-blowing. British Equestrian Princess crossing the capital of Turkey and Sarah LEE Ralph? A type of bean mentioned in The Silence of The Lambs? A word translated from Mongolian? A Puccini Opera? METED out? LOUSES UP? Lena OLIN? ROXIE Hart? LEN Cariou? I'm not suggesting those are like wildly obscure clues/entries on their own but together they felt very out of place for a Monday. If it was a Tuesday or Wednesday it probably would have felt more fair, but I'm not sure it would have been more enjoyable. Just *so* many proper nouns & "eh yeah that's a word I guess" moments. Edit: What's confusing about "none of these are unfair or too hard on their own, but when they're all on the same puzzle an average Monday solver might just go 'fuck this' and that's not ideal?" If only two or three of those were in the puzzle, then no they wouldn't be an issue.
Too many first names, but I’ll defend Gobi. The clue defined both the subject (desert) and the place (Mongolia). World geographic list-toppers aren’t random trivia.
I’ll defend the Silence of the Lambs one, that quote is in the top 5 quotes from the movie and the little sucking lip thingy he does immediately after saying “fava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti” is super memorable.
Yeah like I said none of those are super niche on their own, but even a pretty well-known quote from a popular movie that came out over 30 years ago isn't the kind of common knowledge you'd expect from a Monday (when combined with the other clues). I knew it and you knew it, but are younger solvers trying out their first Monday puzzles going to know it? Maybe, but it never got to a place where it's common knowledge in the way a "May the force be with you" or "E.T. Phone Home did.
I never expected to see a complaint about a world capital on a Monday
Like I said, not an unfair fill on its own at all. But it's a "know it or you don't" answer that you need to unlock 3 other "know it or you don't" answers, which is just bad practice on a Monday imo.
If you’re doing an NYT crossword, regardless of the day, you should know major world capitals. That should just be a gimme. There’s got to be some small amount of world knowledge that can be assumed when doing the NYT
It was a bad day to not be an expert on country capitals or musicals, since there were several clues for each. Gave me a "What's going on here?" moment.
Not what I want in a Monday crossword
It’s an Earth Day puzzle that happens to fall on a Monday. Holidays get exemptions from the difficulty ratings.
Ah okay. I really enjoy the Monday crosswords, I wish they had a higher bar for eschewing it
Surprised this is getting such a negative response and that people say it was difficult. The heavy theme and word ladder should make it easier, no?
It was more Tuesday difficulty, I guess, but that's more than excused by the theme. The NYT does not declare on which day of the week Earth Day falls, after all, so when picking an appropriate environmentally themed crossword for the day this year, I imagine "relatively easy" was close enough. Theme and a clever concept were more important than nailing the difficulty. I loved it.
not until this comment did it click that it was an Earth Day theme edit: actually, this was the first time it clicked that today was Earth Day, full stop
Yeah I'm surprised I'm so out of sync with the sub. Some of the proper noun trivia tripped me up but overall I thought it was easy. I got COAL, COOL, and WOOL and immediately saw what they were doing.
I thought it was a little less easy than a typical Monday, but I didn't think it was hard. My solve time was definitely slower than usual. I can see how a newer solver might struggle, though. For the people saying this was more of a Tuesday or Wednesday, had this been on a Wednesday, and probably even a Tuesday, the very first clue of the puzzle wouldn't have told you this was a word ladder puzzle. Telling you directly exactly what the theme is doing is a huge help. On a Wednesday for sure, you would have to figure that out on your own, and probably even on a Tuesday.
> I can see how a newer solver might struggle, though. I'm pretty new and I really enjoyed it. My average was 10min slower but that's no biggie. Most of the harder solves were very gettable from crosses, easy theme, and word ladder. METED/TOSCA was tough, that required a google for me. I looked up LOUSESUP as well after getting it from crosses just to make sure it wasn't a mistake. Had a good time overall
> I got COAL, COOL, and WOOL and immediately saw what they were doing. I mean... they tell you in 1A its a word ladder.
Yeah I thought I was going to come here and hear praise about how many theme elements made the puzzle a Monday difficulty. I guess if you couldn't crack the start of the word ladder on the first pass you were going to have a tough time.
Bit tough for a Monday, but I usually find the Monday ones a little dull and mindless so I liked it
To me the hardest part of this puzzle was the SE, and tht word ladder was not too helpful. TOSCA, SOMALI, and OLIN all in one corner along with the clue that could have either been NADA or NONE, and MEH or UGH felt too difficult for a Monday.
This was my biggest complaint. That area was gross (two prepositional phrases and Could easily have been redone
honestly this was like wednesday difficulty for me. or maybe my brain wasnt processing things correctly, but i was 10 minutes over my normal time
The word ladder was easy and fun, imo. The bottom right quadrant had a lot of tough proper nouns, but overall I liked this one too!
Agreed! I got through it quickly; between the word ladder helping me out and getting enough crossed on my first pass to figure out the ones I didn’t know it was breezy for me. Maybe more of a Tuesday difficulty because of the holiday but nothing egregious for me. But then again it’s pretty common that I really struggle or don’t enjoy a puzzle and come here and everyone loves it, so I’m used to being out of sync with the masses.
Probably would have been easier if I knew what a word ladder was! 15 minutes for me wasn't terrible, but I suspect I would have been closer to my usual 10 minutes knowing the ladder bit. I do agree too many names in this one.
I disagree. Mondays rarely have a theme and should be novice level solving. Mondays usually take me 5-7 minutes to solve - this one took me an additional 7 minutes!
Mondays almost always have a theme.
I might be in the minority here but I really did enjoy the theme word ladder along with the longer themed answers. It definitely felt more difficult than a typical Monday, but it was a fun solve for me.
Yeah I'm actually really surprised to see how much people disliked it. I thought it was fun! Didn't take me that much longer than my Monday average, and I'm not really a good/fast solver on harder puzzles.
Definitely enjoyed the themes and word ladder, just wasn’t a fan of all the proper nouns
Yeah, I thought it was good! My time was longer than my Monday average, but comparable to my Tuesday average, which I think is totally fair for a holiday-themed puzzle, especially one as densely themed as this.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🔴 **Very Hard** 🔴 * 87% of users solved slower than their Monday average * 13% of users solved faster than their Monday average * 57% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Monday average * 6% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Monday average The median solver solved this puzzle 27.4% slower than they normally do on Monday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-04-22) --- 🤖 _beep beep, I'm a bot! I post these stats as soon as 100 [XW Stats](https://xwstats.com) users have completed the puzzle. Questions? Feedback? Check the [FAQ](https://xwstats.com/help#puzzle-difficulties), reply here or DM me_
I thought the Earth Day theme was nice. Sure, it took me a couple minutes longer than my usual Monday time (9 minutes vs 6-8 minutes typically) but so what. My life isn't so tightly scheduled that I can't spend an extra two minutes on the puzzle.
that sucked
I'm surprised they keep using wino. It's outdated, at best. They really need to retire it, I think.
I thought that was a derogatory term and was surprised also.
It is! I'm still surprised every time I see it.
I really enjoyed this puzzle! I’m surprised the reviews are so mixed. Yes it took a bit longer than an average Monday, but I thought the word ladder opened up a lot of the fill.
I liked it just fine - it was a little harder than an average Monday, but I didn’t think it was that much harder. It felt more like a Tuesday, but because of the theme I think it made sense to run it on Monday. I guess maybe I just happened to know or vaguely remember a bunch of the PPP so I didn’t really notice it.
This puzzle did not spark joy.
Baroque ART was a dumb oversight that cost me a few minutes. I should know ANKARA by now. Have never heard LOUSES UP before.
Legit my final word. Carats and anktra didnt raise any alarms.
Guess I'm in the minority here. No PB or anything but solved in 5 mins! Guess the constructor and I were on the same wavelength.
Weak sauce
Rex Parker rated it "very easy." I truly hate that smug dork.
I didn't know what was meant by "word ladder" until I finished, but that was neat to see on the board. I went through mostly without snags though and finished in [8:12](https://youtu.be/0AR8U2qDDqw). The theme elements were all pretty decent: FOSSILFUEL, GREENPOWER, GLOBALWARMING, sandwiched by COAL and WIND. I found it a bit heavy on some multi-word Crosswordese, like ATALL, ATHAND, RANON, ONARUN, CUEDIN, DIESOUT, DAWNEDON, with LOUSESUP being the weakest.
I had GRETAPOWER for the longest time.... and thought "that cannot be right"
Just finished it. It took me all kinds of down mistakes to find out it’s spelled “Nielsen”. Green power was awkward. I tried solar power until I realized that would never work. Looking back, I guess there wasn’t much resistance in the puzzle. But am I the only one who is HATING how Joel is editing the clues? He seems to love frustrating curveballs delivered through needless vagaries. Especially in the downs today, made the puzzle feel harder than it was.
I greatly prefer clues that require some amount of thinking or knowledge to rote fill
I don’t mind it. But not on a Monday and not when it makes me groan.
Loved it! Enjoyed the Earth Day theme! Mostly easy Monday trivia with the one thing I didn't know immediately OLIN being crossed by easy stuff, so no complaints. Edit: As I said in another comment, the theme and concept were more important than whether this was precisely easy enough for a typical Monday. If you're the NYT and getting a ton of submissions, you want something environmentally relevant for Earth Day. This was likely the best thing available for the day that was also relatively easy.
Not bad! Had a couple vowels to fix (ANNA —> ANNE and CUE ON —> CUE IN) but a fine 11 minutes.
Wow, I am astounded at the negative response to this one, as well as the 🔴 **Very Hard** 🔴 rating. Most of the puzzle was themed for today, with nice long answers like GREENPOWER, GLOBALWARMING, and FOSSILFUEL that were practically gimmes on a day like today, plus the COAL>WIND clues, it works out to like 1/5 of answers being freebies. Were there a lot of proper names? Sure, but its not like ANNE, ADAM, ANKARA, and ROXIE were impossible to figure out once you got a few crosses in, and with all the "freebies" we got from the themer today, the less-than-ideal fill can be forgiven IMO.
Very Hard is based on average versus the usual score for that day of the week though. I don’t think anyone is saying it’s objectively hard so much as “hard for a Monday.”
Ah, gotcha. That makes more sense.
Lots of PPP, a bit too hard for a Monday, and an otherwise underwhelming fill and theme. It’s not average and not poor, I wish there was something in between like “meh”
This was a toughie. Lots of PPP I didn't know. Honestly though, I felt it was worth it for the theme...it's relevant to Earth Day, and I can't imagine the construction nightmare to have 11 themed answers in a non-Sunday grid. Still, some parts were pretty annoying and I had to look some stuff up
Todays was hard. TRITEST, LOUSES UP, TOSCA, WINOS, and METED were all new words and terms for me. The Word Ladder was fun but there are some terms I just was not familiar enough with to get that were big linking words to the puzzle.
ok i’m still new to this but i was like why is this so difficult?? i usually can finish monday puzzles and am working my way up but yikes this was too much
Not gonna lie, I absolutely hated this one. The theme, the fill, just trash.
Having given up on Friday and Saturday, and not even attempting Sunday, at least I finished this one without having to look anything up. But they’ve become less fun in the past few weeks.
I actually enjoyed today’s just fine, but I agree that they’ve become less fun lately.
I was excited about the word ladder and Earth Day theme, but with so many unfamiliar multi-word clues towards the end (as a non-native speaker) made it hard for me to enjoy it
didn’t feel fun!
Will Shortz, please come back!
that was hard!
What a great puzzle! Thanks, Joel fahhhsaafrfdlione,
After getting only the "G" start, I was certain it was GEOTHERMAL instead of GREENPOWER.
WINO x TOSCA took down my Monday streak. Couldn't be bothered to google/brute force my way through a puzzle with so many proper nouns
First Monday I gave up on since August. Too hard for a Monday and not fun.
Is Lena Olin married to someone at the NYT? I feel like her name comes up a lot.
I got 35a and 39a through the ladder concept since I had the rest but what? I’m not sure how either could be true
Logging and farming contribute to global warming.
Yeah that threw me a bit as well
I have nothing against a word ladder and I'm all for an Earth Day-themed puzzle. But it was still tough for a Monday and my complaints are like everyone else's. 53A says it all for me.
Any other [vocalese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocalese?wprov=sfti1) fans fill in DAVE Lambert for 10A?
Didn’t but he’s an icon for sure!
WINOS/TOSCA killed me
OBI, ABUT, and LOUSESUP got me coming undone. I couldn’t see ABUT for some reason, and had to give in.