Matt

@Barry Ancona The frequent condescension on here directed at people for not liking a puzzle is very strange.

@JBW I wish I could recommend this more than once. It's a great reminder of how the puzzles aren't meant to be for a certain narrow segment of the population. I also loved the genuine joy that came through in the constructor's notes.

@Mike I need to come up with a pun soon. I don't want to be playing ketchup on this one.

@zhousephine What a wonderful cause! All of our pets are from shelters. They've brought so much to our lives. ❤️

@redweather Can you show us on the doll where the phrase hurt you?

@Jeff There is definitely a subset of this forum that loves posting the same things every day (The puzzle is too easy, they have greater skills than other people, snarky or condescending comments whenever someone criticizes the constructors, etc.)

@Agnes Depends on who is defining "general audience."

@Francisco I wonder whether it's regional? M-W says, "The use of panino as a singular form in English has become relatively uncommon as panini has become established as the usual singular."

@Anna Rush to the comments section to post your solve time, apparently.

@Asher B. I would imagine it was more true when he wrote it in 1823 than it is now.

@EmptyJ So wait. It triggered you to see his name, and your response was to post his name again?

@Julia As soon as I read the clue, I knew someone would be offended by it.

@Mike The other day I went to Red Robin and got the Slider Towers. It was quite a tall order. (By the way, Mike, I love that you do these every day, and they make me smile.)

@APNerd Ma'am, this is a crossword comments section.

@Steve L Several people commented before you did that they enjoyed the puzzle despite never having played the game.

Oh Francis, we've been through this before, I think. Your shtick (when not accusing people of targeting you when your posts are deleted) is to claim ignorance. We get it; you've never seen a condescending post, the people you share threads with regularly are super-nice, when they say, "This puzzle was child's play. I have no idea what you're complaining about," that's just them trying to help, all the other people who pointed these things out are just imagining them, etc. I stopped taking those posts seriously a while ago, but keep on trollin'.

@Katie You're being rude for the sake of being rude here. He didn't criticize the puzzle AT you.

@Hitch You make a version of this comment several times a week. Not sure what you're expecting at this point.

@Nancy J. Or people could stop posting the same comments every day. That would change things too.

@Times Rita You know......you don't HAVE to do the puzzle.

@Scott Sigman Letting a crossword puzzle ruin your morning because the theme is something you don't like is certainly a choice.

@Nancy I can't get on board with you. Moms feeding their babies and diapers smelling are "offensive," but bringing in politics when people just want to talk about crosswords is fine? And if the ones you mention are offensive, where does it end? I don't like it when people YELL -- do we need to take that out too? And PETER can be slang for a part of the male anatomy -- do we *really* need to subject people to this? And gosh, what about the poor people who don't want to think about BLOOD? Don't they matter too?

@Cliff Exactly. It's all about them feeling superior, and they don't know what to do when that bubble is burst.

@Steve Norquist Why did you use your free time to willingly do something that you hate and has no benefit to anyone else?

@Mean Old Lady "Video games --for many--never had any appeal." You mean just like cheese?

@Lauren "Suffer" seems a bit extreme.

@Selective Walrus If it makes you feel better, I looked at Beautymark, thought of Bea Arthur, and said, "What kind of name is Uty?"

@Gavin I thought someone had a great point recently when they said that if someone finds the puzzles are too easy, they can try to solve using only the across clues. But it's always easier to suggest that someone else do something different, than to do something different yourself. I see the "too easy" complaints all the time, and it comes across like the "No True Scotsman" fallacy -- i.e. "no *true* puzzle solver would enjoy this puzzle, or find it challenging." But I doubt the people making these comments are considering anyone past their own noses. It also comes across like gatekeeping, because new people proud of themselves for their best Thursday time or whatever get welcomed in the comments with "this puzzle basically filled itself" or other comments suggesting that anyone over the age of 2 could complete the puzzle in 5 minutes. Gatekeeping is pretty popular among the most condescending in this space, though.

It's also worth pointing out that one of the people posting about how incredibly easy it was is the same person who was constantly complaining about how there was too much they didn't know, then flounced and left the comments in a huff for a few days after being called out for posting the same thing every day. That was less than two weeks ago, and now they're posting about how easy it is. True story. So keep that in mind when you read these comments about how easy they found it. There are also a few people who have decreed that there is a very narrow way you can speak negatively about a puzzle, and almost immediately challenge anyone who criticizes the puzzle in a different way. Whole lotta gatekeeping goin' on. :)

@Marte In the settings, turn off "Show Competitive Features." That seemed to work when I tried it.

@Barry Ancona I wouldn't say I found it obsure.

@Steve L And yet, they're still handling in much better than the people who went down the tubes when there was a puzzle about video games.

@Cory That IS what FWIW means. It doesn't mean, "Just so you know" unless a few qualifiers are attached.

@Chungclan On the other hand, we have not lost the common theme of older people complaining that things used to be better.