Hope you've been studying your crosswordese [

0:00 - Intro
2:15 - Mini puzzle
3:52 - Daily puzzle (by Ross Trudeau)
8:38 - Commentary

New York Times Crossword, Tuesday 3/2/21:
A kind of interesting theme today. I like all the theme fills, but this was the kind of theme where it takes a while to realize how they're all related. And knowing that connection doesn't actually make it that much easier to get the others. So somehow I didn't feel that connected to the theme, even though the fills were pretty nice.

The long non-themers were STAYSSANE and EXPANSION, which were okay. I liked the word DECOCT more than either of those. I also really liked NOM (nomnomnom). A decent amount of crosswordese and/or slight inelegance gluing the whole thing together (NTH, IMOK, ERRS, XER, ITIS, OHO, ERE), but nothing I found too objectionable. ESME appears in the Salinger short story "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" and frequently on crosswords (the first time this year I think).

23s on the Mini and 4m45s on the daily puzzle.

Like the video, comment your thoughts on these puzzles, and subscribe to my channel to follow along with more crossword solves. Also please share with anyone who might be interested!

▶ Daily puzzle (subscription required): https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/ga...
▶ Mini puzzle: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/ga...
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All music composed by my friend: composer, pianist, and all-around awesome guy Christopher Chan - https://christopherkchan.me/

Intro animation by Tiffany Peng, another incredibly talented friend. [I can highly recommend Chris and Tiff if you need any music composed for you!]
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