Erik P

Very very cool concept, love the build and I was excited to finish a Sunday so quickly and with only one "check puzzle" usage. My only sadness was that the grey square didn't, like, do something, haha. After the "blinkers" puzzle earlier this week I was half expecting some silly celebration animation. Give a mouse a cookie...

RATABLE: adj., 1. Able to be a rat

Can't believe I finished a Saturday, wow! I'm sure this was considered easy but it was just wonderfully challenging and satisfying to finish without hints. Love when confusing l and I make a clue look like gibberish for a moment. Love a rare pun. Love the fact that I went to a karaoke party at a bar during the last game of the world series so I just happened to know that sports answer. Love that I only know who hosted a rival late night show against Conan, briefly, because they made light of their similar names on a random weeknight that I happened to be awake at 11:45pm to see when I was 12, and for no good reason, stayed in my memory for 27 years. Why do I still think about that... So SAYYST I.

Growing up in Glendale, California pays off again with ARARAT. Not just knowing the Armenian's sacred mountain, but friends with the name as well. Fun puzzle!

How often do you get to see a Q without it's U? It's not the start of a punchline but maybe someone can provide one? Be the U to my Q.

Wow, seven days of gold stars! Fun theme! SODA SHOP is what got me there. So many brain busters for me, and red Herrings, and I had to put all my faith into leaving ANIL alone, but it all fell together in two hours.

Count me in the P Suite, preferring PIZZA PARTIES, PEPPERMINT PATTIES, PUMPKIN PIES, and ... PICKED PLUMS. Yes, the famous picked plums. That's why I solve, not construct.

Couldn't quite get a CTRL in there, eh? 🤔😘 Happy New Year to all reading THIS right now.

I need to see a XY plot of solve time and age for this one. I was kind of shocked by how easy some of the answers were for a Friday but reading the comments I get why this would be tough for the older crowd. Flip the script, do random trivia from +30 years ago or sports and, yeah, I'd be in trouble (like most Fridays)

Two toddlers so far and TOOTSY has yet to be uttered! Failing as a parent, too busy thinking AUDAL was a word.

SOU, as uttered at least once in another musical, Les Miserables. Intentional reference or happy accident? Either way, a GUCCI puzzle for a happy Wednesday!

When the theme clicked, I smiled. Really fun puzzle even if VSOP nearly ended me... (thank you to brute-forcing on that one <3)

I can't believe I finished it, I feel like a cat that squeezed through a C INCH gap between the "what the hell" and "there's no way" mental spaces.

I had EVAL which is a funny misspelling, especially for 3D

PIT is the kind of answer I like and gain the most personally when doing crosswords. When I see "Stone" I think, in just word association order, "rock", okay that can't be it, 3 letters... pffff, well, stone as in verb, "hit" okay, put HIT in... then post-filled-but-there's-errors-audit, the crosser HSAS makes little sense on that answer... man, _IT... pfffffffff. PIT is a word, lets try it. Boom, Gold Star Ohhhh, pit, stone fruit, got it. What a great clue! Perfect Friday type answer :) Overally I found this mostly easy, 80% so, then the head-scratching resolving into actually filling answers, super satisfying. Spent about 30 min on this one overall. Nice!

Why HO when you can HEH. That's what a socially awkward Santa would utter, no doubt. So many expressions that I say but never spell. Well, more like EXHALE 😮‍💨 especially on the 25th. Be merry, y'all!

Wow, nice 5 letter acronym! I had the entire right side solved first, thanks to the cool theme!

Perfectly challenging for where I'm at. Almost had me. Almost. BRAVA, Kate! I finally got a full-week streak on since last December <3

When a Thursday is a bit easier than usual I always think I'm being played. Not this time! 22:57

Although it was challenging, got dinged by a blue star today, I think it was fair enough. LDOPA and ADOLFO was brutal. I also struggled remembering TEMPE but I think that's pretty common crossword-ese at this point? Where I got doinked was on HEM because I had "SAT IN..." on my crosser there. Oh well, tough for a Tuesday but I think I learned a lot, so my brain thanks ye!

I was so convinced of _____NOVEL that it lead to INVEST__PACKAGE which obviously is insane. This is one of those "waterfall" puzzles where a few key hits unraveled the rest quickly. All really started bottom right, zig zagging up from there. Had a better time today than other days this week, pretty neat!

Spent too long thinking CAUCUS wasn't a "real" word... "Cow-cuss, what the heck".

Q Q Q Q Felt so wrong going for it until it was very obviously correct.

Sometimes you put letters down, reflect, and say "Yep, that's an English word" and hope for the best. Other days, your crossers deliver you an unequivocal QQ and, after a moment of disbelief, it all quickly comes together. Then later you see... BRYN. Yep, thats four letters in a row, I guess.

Fascinating comments, I think all are valid, but it's kind of interesting how words mean different things depending on context Reading people say, with some indignation, they never seen frog legs on any menu, and also, don't know about "diner lingo" means something, it must, and I can't put my finger on it. Do they not make shows or movies about diners like they used to? I don't even know how true that bit of diner lore is, but when I finally got there with crossers it made sense to me. Fascinating stuff!

Annihilated by random trivia. I don't hate that, I gotta learn something some of the time! The theme literally had me "AHA" so that is my kudos to you!

BEAR CUB was really well clued. Very clever red herring type phrasing that makes you feel smart when it clicks. Also, any puzzle that mentions the film Clue is a winner in my book!

ELSA because I've seen that answer only five billion times, zero hope otherwise. Tough but I got lucky with these references, they clicked quickly... Except for ASTI. Gotta look that one up.

Just FYI, you don't need to rewind you DVDs!

I managed to finish this in about 30 minutes and even then, even after reading the article, the theme is still a challenge. I'm HIGHLY skeptical!

This is one of those days where my BLUE STAR = Me Learning something. OSSIFY being the big one, an actual, usable word (not random trivia, which is fun but not exactly OFUSE)

Perfectly attuned to what I'm able to do with crosswords, it was a real pleasure!