Catherine

@LW Now you know them! Onwards and upwards

@Rachel That 'g' is so not silent 😄

@Lewis You've echoed my thoughts exactly. My brain is deliciously happified this rather gloomy afternoon

@Isabeau Same here. The names didn't leap out at me at all! A couple like Beau and Ty wouldn't actually register with me as names... Had to head to Wordplay to see what was going on. Enjoyable puzzle though

@Hugh Agree, I'm nearly 64 and despite never having played a Mario game had very little trouble with the theme. It did help having sons who, back in the day were playing the games and there were a spattering of Mario related toys about the house

@Darcey O’D I love to learn new trivia. I had never heard of PAULINA or GOREY and the first entry I made at all when working through the Across clues was PANDA CAR. In the end there were quite a few new TIL moments for me in this puzzle

@Cat Lady Margaret yes it's just pitching a longer word into a statement to make it sound more impressive. I've noticed a far greater usage of 'existential' of late in newspaper articles. In many cases the word could be omitted without any lessening of the meaning conveyed. I imagine that journalists like to add a frisson of Sartre to their pieces

@Eric Hougland I grew up in London in the 60s and 70s. Never went on any long road but I Spy was played and it was always "I spy with my little eye..."

@Bruce I'm a 62 year old Londoner but I've done enough NYT crosswords to know what MRE is 😄

@Ben So sorry to hear of the loss of your companion at such a young age. Cats steal your heart

@Vaer Yes while I was there I did get drawn in and happily stumped up the $20 (or should that be 20$?- actually for me it was €19) to go further down the NYT puzzle rabbit hole. Cheers

@Sal Yup, the puzzle title is there to set us thinking, "how do I apply this to what I'm about to see?". I wouldn't countenance embarking on the puzzle without checking over the title. Fathoming it out is part of the pleasure of the solve. Very much enjoyed today's puzzle. I got my Aha moment and had a little bit of a stretch but nothing agonising. I knew idiolects though unsurprisingly it doesn't crop up a lot in daily life so I had to sift it out of the linguistic depths

@JohnWM yes I wasn't mad about the awarded bit. As if being a married woman was some sort of promotion in life

@Heidi I always read the title of the crossword prior to solving. Preferable, to me than being mystified during the solve. I like my aha moments to come when I can then utilise the knowledge gained to complete the grid. I really enjoyed this one btw

@Nora Going out for pints, possibly after work

@sotto voce My immediate thought re Flipper was burgers! Pinball or real estate (or snorkelling) didn't spring to mind at all

@G O Absolutely a thing though in the UK and Ireland generally referred to as Cosy Crime. Writers such as Richard Osman frequently top the best seller lists. He arguably relaunched the genre this century and has sparked quite an industry now.

@Helen Wright I was puzzled too as I saw nothing offensive at all in the crossword. A perfectly enjoyable tea fest. Like you I'm from England and now live in Ireland which is the world capital of Unnecessary Swearing

@Helen Wright I get exactly what you mean with "Have at it". It still sounds very strange though! (Londoner living in Ireland )

@Kelly H Agree with you. I put 'seeds' in initially as all the bulbs I have ever bought are for planting out Sept to Dec. They wouldn't even be as promoted in the gardening catalogues in the Spring! I keep procrastinating on dealing with bag of bulbs languishing in my garage at the moment!

@kkseattle Yes got Sun Yat Sen on the first pass due to having read a book about the Soong sisters back in the day. I still can't get my head around having a beer in the shower 😄

@Ιασων no idea what ROTH is either. I know that IRA is never what I first think it is but something to do with pensions/retirement so must be something financial. Will have to Google it! Fine puzzle

@Cat Lady Margaret I only learnt about Opera Cake as it's featured on more than one series of "The Great British Bake Off". It's quite the challenge to create

@Helen Wright As a late boomer Londoner all of the slang went over my head. Solved using the puns only and only caught on with slang aspect from the column. I needed full explanation 😄

@Helen Wright Enjoyed that one too. Dunzo was a new one on me though and I've been having a party with the NYT crossword archive over the years. Like you pulled a face at Kayo and moved swiftly on

@SBK I relish misdirects. Enjoy having to tweak various answers to nudge them all into accordance. I don't often read Tuesday comments but am currently avoiding dealing with a 'gift' that one my cats brought into the garage. It is not feathered...

@Chris CTA and LOON were gimmes for me and I'm a Londoner living in Ireland. However I've completed A Lot of archive puzzles over the past 3.5 years and those answers come up frequently enough to be recognised. I've even managed to pick up some baseball terms and the names of nail polish brands!

@Caitríona Shanahan Regarding 57 across Ryanair immediately leapt to mind 😄

@Nick the T and B switch here was the last to fall. I could readily accept that you might have a bagtie in your lunchbox but not a baggie (one-shot bags of spirits that Ryanair, the Irish airline, used to sell onboard)

@Mean Old Lady If you've forgotten to play just the one do it before you tackle that days puzzle and you ought to keep your streak. Was out all day last Thursday but made sure to avoid the new Friday puzzle until it was done

@Jane Wheelaghan Had to look up 'no cap', that one was srsly beyond me. Yuks too was baffling. Possibly have come across it before but still couldn't help but think of something along the lines of yucky = something unpleasant. Dollar was oddly enough a gimme...

@Matt For some reason (cultural differences, wheelhouse incompatibility) this was for me a slightly gritty 35 minutes (quite a bit over my average)