Erin

An easy and pleasant Thursday puzzle, but as a college prof., I have to say: your editors missed an opportunity to hold out for a release date closer to the end of a semester, around the time we're all entering final grades!

I believe TSEW should also have been accepted in the rebus spot where WEST was the only accepted answer. All the other cardinal DIRECTIONS could be read by FOLLOWing the answer to the non-dash clue around the corner---WEST is the sole exception. Why? I'd have been happier doing this puzzle out on paper instead of grinding away for my little gold star...

Really enjoyable puzzle! Usually when I log a time longer than an hour and it isn't Sunday yet, it means I feel asleep with the app open (I am a night owl, husband is not, and doing the crossword in bed is how I cope... have awoken more than once to a nearly-dead battery and a grid full of nonsense because my face was on the app's keyboard). Not today---this was a fun one, and it took that long to sort out my misfires. HAKE instead of PIKE, SIMMER, then SEETHE, instead of SEERED, FCC instead of FAA, and I am sure there are others (too inconvenient to be typing this comment in the same app as the puzzle and so to be unable to bring the grid back up to see it). The whole west side of the puzzle took a while to break into. But what a nice exercise to start the weekend!