Anna

Yesterday I ventured to observe in this space that many recent puzzles have been EASYWINS, but NOTTODAY. My comment amounted to a FALSEALARM. The editors apparently read my hollow BOAST and thought "THATSO? Well, then, ITSABET" and evened the SCORE with this SCUD that has WRESTed my false pride from fueling any further EGOTRIPS. Clearly I am no WONDERWOMAN. Well played, editors, and hats off to Jesse Cohn. That was a doosie!

ICE RAIN? Hmmmm.

Now that was a great Thursday puzzle! A mind-bendingly clever trick that was fully integrated into the solve, snappy cluing, some really fun entries -- especially liked AMSCRAY, LUCHADORA, and LADYBUG. Well done, John Kugelman!!

Brilliant Saturday puzzle! Elegant, lively, seemingly impossible at first pass, but once I found a purchase the solve was breezy and super fun. Love the clue for HOMEMADEBREAD, and chuckled at HEYBATTERBATTER (those baking references blended together by a small AMT.) Also delighted by the cluster of SOWHAT/OHWAIT/WOWME/HERESATHOUGHT -- felt like I was listening to one side of a conversation. Well done, Oliver and Juan -- seems like you had a DATEWITHDESTINY today!

Wow. Super fun solve, and the multi-layered theme is brilliant -- the mind boggles to think that anyone has come up with such an idea, let alone executed it so deftly. Hats off!

I caught onto the theme early on but was stymied by the NE corner. I realize SAMLET is sanctioned by Webster's, but as a 30-year resident of the PNW I can tell you no one but no one in these salmon-worshipping parts has ever heard of the term. Baby salmon are ALEVIN when they're hatched and FRY, SMOLT or FINGERLINGS as they develop. Other than failure to indicate what I can only assume is a legitimate British usage, it was a great puzzle.

The Saturday challenge I've been waiting for -- thank you!!!

Super smooth and satisfying solve. Less of a head-scratcher than what I usually expect for Friday, but definitely not one to be attempted ONAUTOPILOT. So many fun entries -- TIL that CHOPIN has a namesake airport; loved the clues for MOSQUITONET and GOTEAMGO; the crossings of ZESTY/TODIEFOR and CUPCAKES/CREAMERY made my mouth water. Nicely done, Jake Bunch -- take a couple VICTORYLAPS!

A really hard solve, not because the clues were difficult, but because it was so hard to see where the cursor was blinking and whether I was heading across or down. I didn't realize the colored squares had significance beyond a decorative flourish until I was nearly finished -- oddly enough I managed to fill in all but the blue rings without realizing my answers were missing anything. The cluing on the crossings were easy enough to allow that to happen. In the end I discovered the theme was more clever than I'd given it credit for, but it definitely would've been more fun if I'd keyed into the gimmick before suffering through all that visual obfuscation.

Tough but fair. I couldn't seem to get on the constructor's wavelength today. . .

I was as speedy as a MACO shark on 22D, a misspelling which led me to a variety of attempts at 25A that would end in ACES -- for a long time I struggled with the so-so NOTREALLYACES. The SHAVEDHEADS finally straightened out my SLANTS. Thanks for a great Friday work out!

Been solving for a long time and have learned to look forward to a brain-bending workout on Thursdays. Lately, though, the Thursday tricks seem to highlight extraordinary feats of cruciverbal construction at the expense of the solver's experience. I cruised through this quite smoothly -- which is not what I hope for on a Thursday! The circles and themed clues indicated there was something unusual going on, but it was possible to fully solve this puzzle without actually parsing the trick. Hats off to the constructor for being a genius, I guess. But the brilliance was lost on the likes of me.

What a work out! Totally flummoxed me until it didn't. A fun theme and a worthy return to Tricky Thursday's most deliciously dastardly form. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!!

Tough Sunday work-out -- like it's supposed to be. Enjoyed this immensely!!

Fair puzzle, but not much fun. I just couldn't get on the constructor's wavelength today. Afraid I CRAPped "out"!

Very clever theme; great debut! In the end I was done in by the MEEPLE/EELIER cross. Never heard of the former; as for the latter, it's a tad disconcerting to have a generic fill word like EEL deployed in a starring theme role. But that's picky of me. Overall, very impressive.

Great puzzle! The SE corner took me longer than the rest combined, but managed to finish in under 30 with no look-ups. The clue for 41A was the only false note, as it gave us no indication we were looking for an informal or slang equivalent. TUDE is righteous slang, but standard English it ain't.

Terrific puzzle! Congratulations on both your first publication and your graduation!

This was a perfectly acceptable puzzle. I still miss tricky Thursdays.

Great tricky Thursday -- keep 'em coming!

That. Was. Awesome.

Fun puzzle. Never heard of Wen Liu (but now I have, and she sure is pretty) and the clue for 62A was definitely tricky. Otherwise this felt more like a Wednesday -- but the smooth solve gives me more time for the rest of my day!

I'm sorry for your loss, Deb. What a sweet tribute to your dad.

Appreciate the more challenging puzzles of late. I had a hard time with this one, but what tripped me up wasn't an issue with the construction -- it's that my own mind is CLEARASMUD this morning. I initially tried ARDENCE at 33A, which sounded slant, but close enough. Ultimately resulted in NOSILE at 6D, which should've been an easy error to spot. But I'd somehow gotten stuck on the notion that disregard of privacy is described not by a single word but by some ARCANE phrase beginning with the word NO. NO _____? Doh! More coffee, please.

huh.

Awesome puzzle -- seemingly impossible until suddenly it wasn't. Got hung up for a while with LEMUR instead of LORIS at 6D and SPOT instead of ABET at 48D and had to consult Google translate for the Italian version of ATHLETE at 25D. Loved the long entries. Just altogether a fun solve -- thanks!!

So much fun!! Oh, for the good old days, when the worst we had to fear was a falling anvil!

Great Saturday workout!

What a great puzzle!! I was pretty much stymied until the mid-section -- thought I was falling FLAT but Michael CERA convinced me I was READYTOGO, and suddenly I had the GRIT to carry on. Loved the clues for the low digits and many bees. The NW corner had me stumped for the longest time, but somehow managed to finish in under 27 min with no look ups. Perfect Saturday work-out!!

Cute puzzle. Super quick solve, especially for a Thursday. But that's fine as I'm running late this morning -- hope the rest of the day is accomplished as HANDily!!

Great Tuesday puzzle!

A pleasant puzzle. Solidly constructed, with some fun clues. But honestly, it was just too easy for a Friday. . . This seems to be a trend lately; in my experience the puzzles are getting easier, especially later in the week. I'd like to think it's because I'm such a genius, but the rest of my life assures me that's not the case. Nor are my solving skills that much better than they were, say, five or ten years ago. I think the puzzles are just not as challenging as they used to be. And that's disappointing. A minor disappointment, in the scheme of things, but still. To answer Deb's question, I used to approach Tricky Thursdays on full alert, like I was embarking on a great mysterious treasure hunt where any square might be part of a hidden pattern that provided the key to completing an otherwise impossible grid. But too often these days it seems that understanding the trick is only incidental instead of integral to the solve. Yesterday's puzzle was an example of that. Cute theme, artfully executed. But the solving experience was a kind of a let down for a Thursday.

Great Wednesday puzzle -- breezy, fun, just challenging enough. Thanks!

Easy, breezy & fun. May the rest of the day be so!

Excellent Thursday trick!

Knew something was up with the circled letters, and got the revealer pretty quickly, but didn't understand what was actually going on with the theme until after I'd completed the puzzle. Mind totally blown. Coming up with such a theme is clever in and of itself, but then actually pulling it off is just 115D.

I'm grateful to Deb for patiently teaching us to appreciate the complexity of a puzzle from the constructor's pov. Still, appreciating someone else's achievement is not the same as actively grappling with a challenge yourself. This was a cute theme and a breezy solve, but not much of a work-out. I miss Tricky Thursdays of old.

Tough puzzle. Would've been thoroughly satisfying except the clues for ABC ISLANDS and STEM FIELD gave no indication that the answers involved abbreviations. A bit underhanded, in my estimation.

Great Saturday work out!

That was fun!

Fun puzzle! Cute theme (appropriate fpr allergy season!) and a breezy solve. I'm surprised at the haters in the comments -- seemed like a perfect little Monday moment. Thanks!

That was fun!!

First, Congratulations, Deb! You've been such a bright spot in the morning routine for lo, these many years. We will miss you, but wish you all good things. Second, what a fun Thursday puzzle -- loved the loop-de-loops! Also loved Kyle Perkins' description of what inspired this dizzy debut. What a sweet guy. Third, the cluing was generally great, but could someone please explain 42A to me? How does "Make it" equal TAG?

Bravo!!!

That was fun!

Great puzzle!!

Cute theme, but otherwise I was Just. Not. On. The. Constructor's. Wavelength. Never heard of ABFAB, and BRAVA is so obscure as to defy a basic top-line google search. I managed to cobble together the rest of the puzzle -- despite never having heard of URKEL either (I went sans television in the 80's and 90's, back when my brain worked much better than it does now) But the yawning void at top of the NW corner ultimately did me in. I threw in the towel at 30:00, about 3x longer than my Thursday average. Oh well.

Great puzzle! The NW corner was seemingly impossible at first glance, but got a toe-hold in the NE corner with LSAT & LOL and proceeded generally clockwise from there. I'd never heard SASHAYAWAY before, but it's definitely my new favorite activity!

Clever theme, but the clues were Monday level. Not enough crunch to satisfy that craving for a good Thursday work out. OTOH, I'm so grateful for the link to the archival puzzle! Eugene T. Maleska introduced me to the joys of cruciverbal challenge back in the olden days at UNC, when the Daily Tar Heel used to run the NYT puzzle M-F. "Exactitude with puckishness" is exactly what I remember -- can't wait to dive in!

That was fun!