Fritz

I now know that LEANTO and SHANTY have the same number of letters and share several in the same places.

I was really looking forward to attending a church that allowed me to BARHOP -- perhaps a different drink at each station of the Cross? -- and that had metaphorically personified that action into a clerical role! Imagine my disappointment when I worked out the theme.

That was fun! I chortled when I got TWISTEDSISTER.

I had never bothered to wonder what the Emmy statuette was holding. Now I know. I clung to OBVi for far too long. And I couldn't get an airplane image out of my head to figure out why a RAIL would signify a safe landing. I had to look that up after I finished. The themed entries, of course, were fun and clever.

Loved the clue for EMMA.

The themed entries were fine. But MUKBANGS crossed with IGA? And, to a lesser extent, LIANE with LUCA?

I'm new to commenting on these, so I have only just learned the verb "to flyspeck," which I needed to do for a while--since even though I was familiar with "otra vez" in Spanish, it did not occur to me that I could therefore conclude that vez was feminine and therefore would take unA rather than unO, and since paeAn and paeOn are both literary terms with too many vowels in peculiar places, well.... What a fun puzzle!

Weirdest Monday puzzle ever. Actors and podcast producers I'd never heard of... And SMEW? Didn't really affect my timing, but--damn! What's Thursday going to look like?

I giggled through the whole flight. Thanks.

Glad to see so many others shared my experience. I got everything, but.... There's usually a sense of joy that comes with working out the tougher entries. This was one after another of my saying, "I guess that sort of works," rather than saying, "Oh! That's so clever!" IMMIX? ORANGEVODKA? SOMEONEISGETTINGFIRED, indeed!

ALOP?

Oh, that was fun. Took me longer than usual -- I don't watch Succession, so I had IAGO, but if I'd thought about the title for even a few seconds.... Great puzzle. Very satisfying.

I had HELL worked out in 19D, but not the upper part. GOTO -- too short SEEYOUIN -- too long I was so delighted when I figured it out! Such a useful expression!

Whew, that was a workout! Loved it!

Really fun! I knew I'd work out the gimmick eventually--and sure enough, FIRES and SERIF helped me get the rest of them! Thanks! This is why I subscribe.

BLEH? LIPO? Really?

I do have to thank the NYT crosswords of the last couple years for familiarizing me with cosmetic brands that would otherwise have remained mysterious. Thanks, I guess.

The fact that I live in Honolulu helped with the NW corner, for sure. This one took me a while. I had lots of good guesses that ended up being wrong, logic that was full of HOLES rather than LEAPS. I now am in need of BACKRUBS, but apparently all I'm going to get is NECKRUBS.

Yay! GLUON and FACTORIAL -- be still my geeky heart. And SNIT vs SKIT taught me a new word. I need to find a good recipe and try it out. Thanks for the fun Saturday challenge! Timing-wise, it wasn't too bad, but I had to think!

That was a very satisfying, tough slog. Finished just above my average. Totally worth it. Didn't look anything up. This is why I subscribe. Thanks!

Is there a way to link to this puzzle for all eternity? Because if anyone ever wants a classically horrible example of a Natick (one that IMHO is worse than the original), I'd like to be able to point them to REEM and ROSAMUND.

It is entirely possible I groaned out load when I figured out what was going on. OVERBAKE -- had to be, right? Because XBOXES couldn't be anything else. So that B had to be there.... I already had GRADEINFLATION filled in, mind you. But this wouldn't have been the first Thursday I solved without really understanding the theme... And then it hit me, and out came the groan. Kudos! Fun solve! This is why I do these things.

What a grid! Sped through it like a breeze. I felt that I was very much on the same wavelength as the constructor.

That was fun. Thanks!

Had the boxes filled in for 18A and was really confused. Identity? Figured it out with WILMINGTON, and then giggled with delight at the rest of them! As a Honolulu resident, I was especially happy with 49A. What fun!

Yikes. Now THAT was a Saturday puzzle.

Well, I'm a little embarrassed.... I sailed through this in record time, a personal best that's about 1/3 of my normal solve time for a Thursday. Not once did it occur to me to think about the theme. Or the circles. Or anything else. Coulda knocked me over with a feather when I saw the completed solution after the music.... Really well done! Clever!

Odd how my brain works. I had no trouble seeing the "real" words when IF, AND, or BUT were removed from the middle, but it took me forever to understand BUTcher and BUTtoned.

Waaaaaaay over my usual time for a Thursday! That's not a complaint; it's a compliment to the constructor. (I'm just glad I didn't have much else going on at 6am....)

Natick hell, but there weren't many options. Weird combo -- lots of obscure proper names but not a terribly difficult puzzle overall.

The clue for ANTECEDENT made me groan. The clue for SEXTAPE made me howl. Well done!

Challenging, but fun. Clues were all fair.

This was awesome. I complain to myself that the weekend puzzles are too easy. This was awesome. That said, a STERN test? I've never heard the expression, which means I never heard my grandparents use that expression. Just how old or new is it?

Tried this last night and deduced only that there were rebuses involved--"Oh, this is one of those...."--before my travel-addled brain gave up and I went to sleep. Woke up refreshed and polished it off in near-record time for a Thursday. Fun!

That was fun. Perfect Friday puzzle. Got hung up on the SE corner, but I got up, grabbed my second cup of coffee, and when I sat back down it all fell into place.

Rough one, but fair for a Saturday. Had to look up GALBA.

I love history and trivia, so this was fun--and pretty fast except for that middle section.... The last square I filled in was the V in 58D, only because it was the only thing I could think of for the cross. I won't admit how long it took me to make sense of it....

You know it's going to be a slog when the only entry you get on a cursory first pass is due to a childhood spent in front of the TV: SELSUN Blue. Good puzzle.

Am I the only one who had trouble with the NE corner?

I chortled audibly as each theme clue clicked. Oh, this was fun.

Loved this one. Laughed out loud at several of the themed entries. I was aligned with the constructor -- third fastest of all time for me, only 42 seconds behind my personal best.

Miraculously aligned with the constructor on this one. Except in Honolulu at least, I've never seen GALBI, only KALBI. But that was the only KAP, er... GAP between us.

ORBED, ok -- I learned a new form of a word today. TEENTSY? Nah. I had SANDBOXES filled in when I got around to the NW corner, so TIL that BIGKAHUNA and TOPBANANA have the same number of letters.

Fun! ALOU crossed with ROLEO was my only quibble.

Finished the right half first for whatever reason, then did the anagrams to give me the footholds on the left half. CLOUTCHASING? Learn something new every other day....

That was fun! Fast, but not easy. Clever, groan-inducing clues.

Nice work! What a debut!

I'm not sure why people are whining about this one. 17A says there's an image. ...ILLUSION and ..FIGURE are therefore pretty easy to figure out, and then OPTICAL is logical, even if AMBIGUOUS takes a little longer. (Somewhere along the way, my brain started saying, "Isn't there that duck thing with the other thing that you're supposed to see?") I'm usually asleep by 9:30, but I've heard of (and can sort of picture) Seth MEYERS, even if I would have spelt his name wrong had I not been working on this puzzle. Didn't even notice that the circled squares were consecutive letters of the alphabet (since the clue had only said "alphabetical order") until after the fact. (I did spend too much time thinking about who played Billie Jean King back when I was a little kid.) Unusual? Sure. But that's what made it fun.

Started slow -- finished fast! That was fun!