A marvelous debut and wise advice from the constructor about sticking with puzzles that involve a bit of solving flexibility. It was great fun to watch theme answers morph into something unexpected. Making tarnation of Tarantino was particularly entertaining. Looking forward to Mr. Guzman's upcoming puzzles.
@JBW exactly, when I saw tarnation, even I, not being a movie buff, recognized, it was time to, " flip out."
Some of the comments I see on days like today made me think. Maybe I get it. There's a restaurant I like to go to but I only like one thing on the menu. They serve it every day except Thursday, when the chef likes to be a big showoff and make something that is too clever by half. I mean, it's not even what I consider to be "real" food, just some weird hybrid they try to pass off as a meal. Just to spite everyone, I go each Thursday and get the "special" dish, and of course, I don't like it. I then complain about my meal and loudly bemoan the fact that my favorite dish is unavailable on Thursday. I often get angry and say things that other diners (who seem to love this nonsensical excuse for food) label as "unkind". I let them know that the chef is lazy and the support staff is incompetent for allowing this poor excuse for cooking. I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe, but some people actually seem to think that *I* am the problem. I'd like to make them understand that I'm right and that the chef's real goal is to make me feel unsophisticated, but they are all just so smug and self-satisfied that it might just be beyond them.
@Nancy J. Comment of the year 🤩 [Moderation evasion space]
@Nancy J. Ahh… I first read your comment too quickly. Thinking you were likening this puzzle to a bad meal. (ADD brain skip-reads) But, yes! This. Say it louder for those in the back! 👏 👏 👏
@Nancy J. And twee. That Thursday dish is just twee. And the restaurant owners pick chefs who constantly push their “foodie” agenda on me even though I chose to pay for this “food.” Thank you, Nancy, for standing up for good old fashioned unseasoned meat and potatoes!
@Nancy J. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yes. You tell ‘em. I am not a robot. Or an emu.
@Nancy J. And here I thought you always enjoyed my Thursday specials:-( Roast breast of emu, à la sauce Rébus.
@Nancy J. I saw where this post was going right away, and chuckled all the way through. Bravo.👏
@Nancy J. - While I agree with the spirit of your analogy, I do understand why people get grouchy. Your analogy would advise that those who know they won't like the Thursday puzzle should just skip it instead of doing it and getting mad about it (e.g. why go to the restaurant on Thursday?!) But the true analogy is that you purchased a special meal plan with the restaurant to serve you dinner every night of the week and you are continually annoyed with the Thursday menu. If you buy the subscription for NYT Games, you expect to be able to play them every day... it's not like you get to choose 1 day each week to complete the puzzle and these poor souls keep trying the Thursday hoping it will be different. Should the same cast of characters complain and moan about Thursday knowing that Thursday is purpose-built to be different? Probably not, but "just skip it" isn't really a fair retort either... especially in a world where NYTs and literally everthing else in our lives is gamified and people like to maintain a streak.
@Nancy J. That does sound like every Yelp review I ever saw (before Yelp decided to commit corporate seppuku and put every last thing behind a pay/register/app wall, leading me to rely on Google Maps reviews for just about everything.... With content quality and apparent integrity very much higher too). Also Nancy J. might be Christopher Kimball's alias. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
@Nancy J. These types of comments make me sad, since all it really does is further entrench people into separate camps. Sure complaints can be mean spirited and overwhelming at times but is mocking Thursday complainers really solving anything? Are you winning anyone over to trying out rebus puzzles by insulting them? If anything you're just proving to them that you *are* smug and elitist. It's not on you to convince others but contributing to the problem isn't helping either.
@Nancy J. Wow! A comment tour-de-force!
@Zack The difference is, if you know about the chef’s quirkiness on Thursdays, you make the decision to buy the every day meal plan if you think it’s worth it for the other days, or you don’t. Nobody’s cheating you. Furthermore unless the chef serves the same thing every day (and you like that) someone is probably going to have something to complain about. And many might complain about the sameness. I may find Monday and Tuesday too easy and boring. Others may find Saturday and Friday too difficult. The NYT does a pretty good job of serving something for everyone, makes it pretty clear what you get every day. and the subscription isn’t exactly back breaking. Still not sure what the fuss is about.
@Nancy J. Yeah, being kind to one another goes a long way. We can't control how other people act but we can control how we respond to them. The regulars here play a large role in shaping the community since people will follow their lead. If they're kindly responding to angry comments and being helpful, people will perceive this place as a friendly one and imitate them. If they're the ones who are snidely criticizing others and clapping back in the comments, people will perceive this place to be a toxic one and act accordingly.
Finally, a theme for us dyslectics.
@Mike R Dyslexics of the world, untie!
@Mike R There you go! There's finding the bright side!
@Mike R Thank Dog!
@Mike R I'm still waiting for my color-blind friendly puzzle.
I thought this was a great debut puzzle! I don't know much about American football (I prefer Australian Rules football), but getting the revealer in the bottom line definitely helped see what was going on with the shaded letters. Oh, and my streak hit 1000 today! :) (Under my average Thursday time too)
@Paul Very impressive!!
Congratulations, @Paul!
@Paul Good job! It’s nice to see a fellow Aussie in the comments section.
Not two days ago I wrote in these comments that I'm never impressed by puzzles. Well, today proved me wrong. I enjoyed this puzzle greatly, and for many reasons. First, the construction was impressive. I was amazed by the themed entries being actual words when arranged both ways - I can remember a puzzle from a few weeks ago where some of the themers were gibberish when read this way or that. No such clunky problems today. Truly awesome 🤩 Second, the theme was sport-based, and American sport, too, yet I dealt with it 💪🏾!Obviously I had no idea what the revealer might be right off the bat (please appreciate the baseball idiom. Soon I'll be an Ameircan. Too bad I couldn't think of a football expression to better match the grid). However, crosses gave me what could only have been the word REVERSE, and everything clicked into place. The theme helped me with the fill, which happens rarely for me and was most enjoyable. Third, there wasn't as much trivia as there sometimes is on Thursday, and what little of it there was I mostly knew. Finally I remembered KOTB and IDA without Googling! I did lookup the Greek letter and that Latin term for the thing under your nose though. Fourth, RUNUP ties in nicely with today's article in The Guardian on UK terms in US English: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/26/other-british-invasion-how-uk-language-conquered-the-us?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/26/other-british-invasion-how-uk-language-conquered-the-us?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other</a> Who knew Thursdays could be as great as this. Wow. Respect to the constructor! 🏅
@Andrzej Yes I agree! One of those reveals that had me smiling and shaking my head in wonder at the constructor's ingenuity. And same - as someone who knows nothing about American football, my heart sank when I first saw the clue for the revealer. But I love the fact that I was able to solve it anyway, and that it helped me figure out the themed entries 👏 Finally, also agree on the trivia! Just a wonderful puzzle all around.
@Andrzej Look at you and the baseball idioms! Next thing you know, you're going to be explaining the infield fly rule to all of us.
@Andrzej I participated on that thread and I'm so pleased to read that you experienced being impressed by this puzzle! It feels good to be impressed by such things. Skill, cleverness, creativity, and whatnot. So glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
@Andrzej Nice, and so interesting that one person's "meh" is another's paragon. (Actually this was significantly above meh to me.) A counter theory is that over time you're simply opening up to the wonders of the grid? ;) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
@Andrzej Coming in late (and sore) after a two-day hike... "Too bad I couldn't think of a football expression to better match the grid." Um, I think you just did ;)
Just came to say a huge bravo to Jesse Guzman. I would not have guessed this was his first.
My recurring amusement when we have clued/unclued pairs… A CUREALL drug was developed for CRUELLA de Vil: she then preferred recycled fleece garments instead of fur. An unskilled debater wants to GO LAST - it means he GLOATS that he won. My SET POINT is to get all this lawn mowed in an hour - so STEP ON IT! Oh TARNATION! Some of the nominations of TARANTINO did not end up winning. Occasionally a person at the slots in LAS VEGAS SALVAGES some sanity and quits before they lose everything.
This was a new and wonderful Thursday experience. I didn't need to tackle the gimmick as I solved, hence I had maybe my fastest Thursday time ever. Ah, but the icing on the cake came at the end – buckling down, following the instructions in the revealer, figuring out the themers, and getting that final rush of satisfaction. Congratulations, Jesse, on a fine début and thank you! Enjoy your time in lovely Denmark, and as the long nights of winter come around, I hope you'll use that time to churn out more amazing puzzles for us! ;-)
@sotto voce I kinda spoiled it for myself by flitting around the grid and revealing the revealer too soon. Lazy and impatient of me, I should have saved it for the morning. It did send me down the etymological hole for where the heck TARNATION came from—euphemism for damnation, thought to be influenced by ‘tarna (“eternal”)—and I bumped into Yosemite Sam and Jed Clampett along the way. Thanks, Jesse. I always appreciate a good anagram.
Three questions for Jesse: First, How did you come up with this theme? Did you look at a term, say, CURE-ALL, and in a flash see that it can become CRUELLA? Did you come across the phrase DOUBLE REVERSE, imagine it as a revealer, then brainstorm how that could translate into a theme? Second, how did you find these theme answers? They are more complicated than being simply anagrams, as they involve turned-around letters in specific places. Did you write a computer program? Did you search words manually hoping to find candidates? Third, did you come up with additional theme answers? This seems like a tight theme, and I’m guessing it is, because worthy alternative theme answers aren't showing up in the comments, but my guess could be wrong. Jesse – can you chime in here? Crossnerd me, and I’m guessing others, would find the answers very interesting. I love this theme, Jesse. I love word quirk themes, so you pushed my happy button today. Icing is how cool the triple-L of BELLLAP looks in the grid, and the lovely answers REPROOF, IMPASSE, RUNUP, BELL LAP and SYNAPSE. Thank you for this, and I’m eagerly awaiting the two themeless puzzles you have in the queue!
@Lewis It's hard to be sure, but one suspects that answers to the first and second questions are likely to involve alcohol intake.... (juuuust kidding!) (I tried to check his picture, but it's just an AVATAR/robot.)
@Lewis Hey Lewis, Jesse here. I started with the concept of flipping two areas in an entry to make another entry. It’s been a long time, so I don’t remember what inspired it. But I’d been playing with anagram themes for a while, hoping something would stick. I didn’t have any examples, so I wrote a computer program to find them in my word list. I’m a CS major, so this was the most efficient method. Some other finds were EXISTING / EXIT SIGN, ARC WELD / CRAWLED, and AIR SIGN / ARISING. This set worked the best with the answers stacked in the middle. TARANTINO / TARNATION was the longest one I found. Thanks for solving!
Too many negative comments about this fun puzzle. I was confused by the inability of APITALIAN and TARANTINO to cross, until I got enough of the downs at the bottom of the grid to get enough letters to be able to reveal double reverse (I know nothing about Football). Then, it was super fun to figure out all the reversals and I was delighted that they were real words like tarnation and gloats. Save your negativity and snarkiness for something that actually deserves it.
Oh, I like the tie-in between today’s puzzle and today’s forum: The theme’s double-reversed answers are anagrams, our forum is a conversation, and an anagram of CONVERSATION is VOICES RANT ON. Et tu, emu.
I think it would be helpful when dealing with a puzzle with shaded squares such as this one, that the shading shows when a word is active (blue). As is, you must go off the word to see the shading and then go back to work on the word.
@Colby Hawkins I agree. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, but solving online I was annoyed to not be able to make out the shading while a word was highlighted. A fix would be nice.
1:16:44 but I got it with no lookups!
As someone who is not a native English speaker, the Thursday word tricks do frustrate me sometimes. But if you figure it out all on your own, like I did today, the feeling is amazing. Loved this puzzle!
Thoroughly enjoyable. It took a while to see CRUELLA as a DOUBLE REVERSE for CURE ALL but it was a thrill when it became evident. More like this please - I wish we had more Thursdays in a week.
Once again this week, the Thursday puzzle proves to be more than I can handle. The slow and steady effects of Alzheimer's are especially troublesome on Thursdays. Even when I gave up and looked at the answers, it still didn't make sense. But it was an enjoyable (if futile) quest, and I enjoyed it. On to Friday!
Oh my god, I loved this puzzle so much. The first Thursday I was able to breeze through with only moderate difficulty! The theme stumped me for a little bit as none of my answers made sense, but 8A finally made it click when I got all of the answers crossing it. From there, it was a matter of re-arranging the letters in each of the themed entries! Thanks for this puzzle and I can't wait to see what else you have in store!
@David I was about to post almost the exact same comment. Glad to see equal enthusiasm for this one!
This was a very clever theme and an enjoyable solve. Once discovered, the application of the double reverse to one clue could actually be used to help solve the other ones. I truly appreciated this. It was also fun to see new words form when the letters were reversed. Many thanks to Mr. Guzman for a fun challenge and good ending to Wednesday evening.
In the electronic version, these kind of puzzles, where there are spelling changes to fit the theme, present a problem because the gray squares are not discernible when the clue is selected. If the shading were done in a different color or different level of gray it would be helpful. Otherwise you have to click on another clue to clearly see what is going on.
@George Krompacky I agree...very frustrating.
@George Krompacky True, but difficult to correct, because *surely* we want the squares we're about to fill to be colored special.
Great debut, Jesse! Very clever. Enjoyed solving once I skipped to the revealer and figured out the trick. Looking forward to more of your puzzles. Always amazed at puzzles constructed by high school and college students. Like where do they find the time? I barely managed to get my laundry done between classes and homework. Impressive!
All of these "I don't enjoy these gimmicks" type of comments lead me to believe that the general public has been told "Anyone can solve the NYT crossword" a bit too many times. For those who are unfamiliar with American football plays, a DOUBLE REVERSE is a running play. The quarterback takes the ball and starts running with it in one direction. He then hands the ball to a teammate running in the opposite direction. If done correctly, this throws off the defense's balance, and it leads to a big gain. This is known as a reverse. A DOUBLE REVERSE is when all the above happens, and then the second ball carrier hands the ball off again to yet another teammate, who runs again in the opposite direction, which is to say, the original direction that the quarterback started running. The hope is that the defense will be so off-balance by then that a huge gain will be gotten. Of course, a good defense knows when to be on the lookout for such a play, but it often works with the right personnel. Sometimes, just a fake of a handoff to another player will throw the defense off enough for a substantial gain.
@Steve L Thank you for this very detailed and very clear explanation. I don't follow football, but I could actually see it in my mind's eye!
@Steve L Worked well for the Packers on Sunday.😉
@Steve L Is there such a thing as a triple reverse, and if so, has it ever been used? Seems like it'd be a great play to follow a double reverse.
I'll admit, I used to hate Thursday puzzles when I started solving regularly a few months back. Looking back, I can see that a lot of that was because A) I didn't know when to expect a gimmick (I hadn't been told Thursday was the day) and B) I didn't know what type of gimmicks I could usually expect to see. Nowadays I still get frustrated from time to time, but I've found myself looking forward to Thursdays; identifying and dealing with the trick has become a real treat. Today's puzzle is no exception! The gimme answers to 8 and 32 across really helped kickstart the solve for me. When I noticed that the Down crosses didn't quite seem to match it immediately clued me in to what was going on. I never really felt like I needed to plainly google an answer, and the only use the engine got was to confirm answers that I was 99% sure were right, and sure enough they were. I'll be looking out for Mr. Guzman's work in the future, I think this was an incredible start :)
@George I’ve probably solved 10 years’ worth of NYT puzzles and still find some of the themes/tricks frustrating. But I enjoy the novel gimmicks that constructors come up with. Good luck with your future puzzle solving! And try ditching the Google; it’s much more rewarding to figure it out on your own.
I think I admire the construction behind this one more than I liked filling it out, if that makes sense.
What in TARNATION is often how I feel while watching a Tarantino movie. Loved the humor.
15 Minutes less than my average Thursday! I just wanted to make a record of that somewhere. Nothing to add other than I enjoyed it.
@Greg Also one of my fastest Thursdays in a long time! Cheers.
From Jesse Guzman's notes: "My next two are slated as a Friday and a Saturday." I can't wait! In addition to the fun trick, there was a lot of humor in the cluing. My kind of puzzle.
aw man, thank you, finally a thursday easy enough for someone who is not american, didn't learn spanish and knows english only as his secondary language.
@Mateusz That's so awesome that you solve the NYT puzzle, having English as a second language! Congratulations! And welcome to the forum. Do join us more frequently and share your experiences, also feeling free to ask questions about what escapes your understanding. It's a gracious community and many are always willing to help.
I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box, and at first I was confused by what was happening with the shaded clues. I clued in to what was happening with LASVEGAS/SALVAGES, and the revealer confirmed it. I'm proud of myself for figuring it out with no hints, though it probably wasn't difficult for most. :) My only thought when I finished this puzzle was "how do they come up with these things?"!
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. It had the right amount of crunch. Thursdays are, without a doubt, my favourite.
Kind of crazy that Hoda announced that she’s leaving the TODAY show today.
@April B. That story was the only reason I knew how to spell her name, not that it helped with this puzzle. With puzzles like this, I just go with the flow, putting in whatever I can, not worrying that Las Vegas doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the clue. I finished in my average time, but I can’t say I was happy.
@April B. I think the last time I watched the Today Show, Willard Scott was still doing the weather. Mom had it on while she was getting us ready for school. I couldn't pick Hoda KOTB out of a lineup, and only know her name from doing the crossword. (I watch Fox Biz in the AM.) How does one pronounce her last name?
DRAMA...not just a staple of reality TV, but also the NYT Crossword comments section. Always compelling.
It took me forever to focus on what DOUBLE REVERSE meant - I had it but then I ignored it. I kept thinking "this has to be the right word here" (TARANTINO for example) except the crossing words - of which I was equally sure - didn't fit! When I finally focused on DOUBLE REVERSE and realized TARNATION was a rearrangement of TARANTINO - it was *so* satisfying. I'm always amazed at the creativity of NYT crossword composers. You think there couldn't possibly be another gimmick that works effortlessly, and then - there is!
So clever and fun, I don’t get all the negative comments. Looking forward to more from this creator.
My first Thursday with no assists. HLEL YAEH!!!!!
The cluing was mostly very straightforward and I figured this out "top to bottom" refusing to look ahead for a revealer. When the answers with gray boxes made no immediate sense I pressed on putting my trust in the constructor and knowing that during the solve I'd either figure out the twist or complete the puzzle and then get the twist afterwards. One question: is there a name for this subset of anagramming where groups of letters are reversed instead of the more usual total scrambling? If not, how about Guzmangram? 😀
@TMD Dyslexigram, surely. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
I hope Jesse Guzman doesn’t get whiplash watching the action on the comment field todaisy, in response to his tricky play. They love me. They love me not. They love me. They love me not. I thought your puzzle was pretty good. Take a hairbow.
This is the type of puzzle that will have dozens of people reporting a solve without understanding the theme answers. Waiting to see how many of them are proud of that and how many are disappointed. I did fill the themers from the crosses and then, after reading the revealer, re-read and understood the themers. At that point, and only at that point, did I consider the puzzle solved. YMMV Your emu may vary too.
@Barry Ancona Deb wrote: "Sometimes I think calling this type of puzzle a crossword is a misnomer." Obviously many subscribers agree, as you yourself note. And she continued, "So maybe we should broaden the name. Maybe we should start calling it a 'square word puzzle where almost anything can happen.' That would cover most circumstances, don’t you think?" Or, the Times could provide seven crosswords a week for those of us who subscribed to /crosswords/, and start another puzzle for people who like the non-crossword "square word puzzle where almost anything can happen." Or would we be scolded for that, too, Barry?
@Edward Rice There are 365 crossword puzzles a year. There are dozens of other sites or places that offer all sorts of crosswords traditional or otherwise. I don’t think one or two a week that offer a creative trick is such an imposition. And there are rules. A puzzle like this requires a revealer and consistency in the theme which this had. The themers were symmetrically placed and clever. If you don’t like it, fine, but please don’t act like the constructor or the editors are despoiling some cultural icon by stretching boundaries or cheating well-meaning cruciverbalists of their hard earned subscription dollars.
@Barry Ancona At first I was puzzled because I was coming up with answers that had nothing to do with the clues! Then I noticed the gray squares, and realized that if I switched the gray letters around, I could get an answer that fit the clue. I'm pleased to have not needed an explanation of this. It felt like a reasoning process to me to arrive at this. Clever puzzle, really! And I hope to see more of Guzman's puzzles.
Congratulations on a puzzling NYT debut, Mr. Guzman! As I expect many solvers did, I started by putting in the doubly-reversed answers, such as CURE-ALL and STEP ON IT. But I quickly realized that the crosses didn’t work, and then it was fun figuring out what the shaded squares were doing. You found an interesting bunch of anagrams. Good luck in your efforts to solve the late-week puzzles. Ditch the Google searches — it’s worth it to do it all upon your own!
I know next to nothing about American football, so I may or may not have let out a groan when I read the revealer. However, TARANTINO and the crossings were a dead giveaway and from there on I actually found the theme quite pleasurable and fun!
Grumbled and frowned and generally felt most displeased by this until I grasped what was going on and realised that, far from obscure, it was just very cleverly conceived and very cleverly done. 10/10, no notes.
I always love these puzzles. Finally realizing that I can attempt Thursday Friday Saturday with a little help from the commentary and a few look ups (I’ve been getting Sunday through Wednesday pretty regularly) Thanks for the help and the commentary. At 71 it keeps my brain sharp.
I see everyone is out early...with their weapons! Ha ha just kidding. But the "funner" the puzzle, the angrier some folks seem to get... Not to be one of those who GLOATS, but the hardest part of this puzzle was figuriing out whether the clue at 34D said BUM or BURN. (We've mentioned this font/typeface/problem before.) So...five Themers....a bit of a wait....and a Reveal... Mercifully, one did not really need to know anything about the football play. One merely had to figure out What in TARNATION is going on. Good one, Jesse!
@Mean Old Lady My aging eyes have similar troubles with the font, but not today. Sick burn! No, today it was last LAP, because I've never heard of a BELL LAP. Is there an actual bell? I ran cross country, not 'flat' track.
Just quickly chiming in to say that this has been an absolute pleasure to solve - witty, not trivia heavy and original hints. Such a pleasure to have something different from the perennial ETTA James. Been a while since I enjoyed a crossword as much!
@Lauritz I thought the same re: ETTA. I loved the originality of that!
Awesome! Love a tricky original theme.
That was fun! Was puzzling over why my fills were not forming the name of the movie director or the obvious answer on the top right corner - but then I solved the revealer, and everything fell into place.
@ST Yes. When I was having trouble in the early going, I went looking for the revealer and DOUBLE REVERSE suggested itself without any crosses. That fixed my problem with StePOniT, changed APspAnIsh to APITALIAN and the rest was a breeze.
I was thrilled when I saw the Kirov Ballet in Paris and delighted that after the wall came down they were once again the Mariinsky when they came here. The Kirov no longer exists.
This is a heck of a solid debut. I thought the theme was rather nifty, and the fill was clean . Not the most challenging thursday, but it was a fun one nevertheless Hats off to you Mr Guzman!
I didn’t find this easy and I was really proud of myself when I got that gold star with no errors. No complaints. Just the right amount of tricky to get me thinking. A perfect Thursday. Thanks, Jesse Guzman!
Thursdays are always my favorite puzzles. I look forward to the extra trickery and the challenge it presents, and this one did not disappoint. It was also a rare occasion when I figured out the twist before I got the revealer. Good thing, because I know nothing about football and needed the hints! For me, it was when I had enough of the letters to recognize Tarantino, but not in the right order. A closer look revealed what was going on, and then it was off to the races. So fun! By the way, in the spirit of the puzzle, I tried to come with a reverse or two of my own for this comment, and couldn’t do it. That kind of wordplay is HARD. Bravo, Jesse!
@Heidi I had a mild panic when I saw the revealer was sports trivia as my entire bank of sports trivia knowledge is like two facts. Luckily I found the crosses easy to figure out.
Loved this fun theme! I got the trick at 35A when I had a partial fill from the crosses and thought, wow, this must be Tarantino but… TARNAT…?? I already had DOUBLE at 62A, and RE… at 63A, and suddenly everything made sense and the rest fell into place. Knowing that even with a theme like this, the entered words have to be a real word, the theme answers filled in quickly and helped with a few of the downs. I used to find Thursdays extremely difficult, but I have been working through the archived Thursdays, so far back to 2020, and I now find them much easier and love them! I highly recommend the archives for people who find Thursdays too challenging or frustrating. I believe you will come to look forward to them!
@Jill I wish everyone would carefully read your post, especially the second paragraph.