Ginny

I understand the complaints about easy puzzles — I too seem to be solving under my average time pretty much every day now, and while inexperienced solvers can focus on early days of the week (or the new midi), there’s nowhere for experienced solvers to go for a challenge except the archives. And god forbid you’ve been solving long enough to have already done them! What I will never understand is the people who want the puzzle to be less US-centric. It’s the New York Times! That would be like me complaining that BBC tv shows are all full of English accents. I have no doubt many clues are challenging for non-Americans, but that is because you are doing an American puzzle. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Zoomed through this one except for that little 38-46 nook! Ended up having to look up three separate clues to fill it in — somehow those clues collectively comprised several specific gaps in my knowledge.

After last week’s incredibly challenging Saturday, I was nervous about this one, especially when my first pass yielded only a handful of confident answers! But this one came together piece by piece, and even though the NE quadrant had me banging my head against the wall by the end, I was surprised and pleased to finish it with no lookups — and eight minutes under my average time! What a heartening way to kick off the weekend. Great puzzle!

I liked this one and zoomed through it! YOINK was one of the easiest clues for me and I was shocked to see it explained as a challenging clue… I guess most crossword solvers aren’t as terminally online as me! (And… is “spot on” British slang? I use it all the time, but maybe I picked it up originally from English media…)