Ernest

I swear most of the difficulty on Sat nowadays comes from how annoyingly vague the clues can be. Absolutely terrible. If I have to guess and check multiple combinations of words just to find one that kinda sorta maybe works ish? I'd rather just look up the answer.

Constructor here, hope everyone has fun with today's puzzle! Glad most here seem to enjoy it. Some other harder (maybe) clues that didn't make the cut 1D One of two in a chest 8D Acronym that omits the word "acid" 24D What cars or genes might do 50A Notable sit-in protester Not sure how to ping but @Deb, my name is misspelled in the first line.

Didn't like this one at all. Inconsistent and tortuous theme, odd fill and US centric cluing with obscure references all over. yuck Even yesterday's one was oddly tough but fair.

Very painful puzzle for one that doesn't know Spanish or much American cultural references. (aka me) Had to come here just to get words like NOCHEBUENA SENORES DALOR and things like PFLAG ALASKAROLL PAGESIX. BURP cloth? SACRA? Can't say I liked it much but whatever. It's done.

As a chemist I have to object to APOLAR. Technically correct but almost no one uses that term. We prefer NONPOLAR. Rest of the puzzle was fun though.

Really smooth Friday. Was syncing very well with the clues and beat my average by about 9 minutes which is unheard of. Impressive fill for such an open grid too. Only confusion I had was me guessing TATTOOED instead of TATTED UP. And yes I see you NUMBERS and FLOWERS of the world. You sneaky little clues you.

Very sloggy and tedious. And 56A's clue felt way too vague for the intended answer and made the twist less fun. bleh

Theme didn't really land for me today, but fun puzzle overall.

I appreciate the feat of construction, but if you're going to stuff the gaps with names and trivia clearly meant for a US audience, I'd rather just skip this whole slog and fill in the trivia using google. ERASERMATE KLEENEX REDD ACELA RIPA VEZ/ELIA/ZINN MARLO/DOERR CARA/OTRA RENATO/DOLAN TKTS??????? ???

Wasn't too familiar with the poem so couldn't really appreciate the theme. It was... confusing. Like trying to find meaning in modern art. and 20A... nah. Too stretchy even for a question mark clue.

Nice to see a shoutout to my part of the world in SATAY. Fun puzzle overall.

Cute theme and fun puzzle. But what the heck is NERTS? is an off brand Nerf gun?

Fun theme. And finally a rebus free Thursday with decent fill for once. No idea about JAKE though. Happy? Really? "I'm so jakey to see you." weird.

Nice Monday puzzle though honestly I didn't catch the theme until the revealer, very subtle. WAWA was a bit questionable and the CAPRIS x NEPHRON and ADRIAN x ADUBO crossings were a bit oofish for Monday. Overall, good.

Not a fan. Vague theme and longest words felt arbitrary. So so.

Nice and choppy today. Was able to instinctively fill in most of the long across entries due to the on point cluing and fresh phrases. Great job constructor and NYT team!

Rather choppy Saturday today. First time seeing words like SEGO PLUOT TIGON RELO and thought I had a typo somewhere. Meh.

Theme was fine but had a lot of trouble with the fill, very sloggy even for a Sunday. So many names...

Fun Saturday. Please tell me SUSHI PIZZA is not a real thing? BOBA TEA was more familiar to me as BUBBLE TEA though. Also what is with all the Zs in the puZZle too...

I hardly know pig Latin so today's puzzle was tortuous from start to finish. All the themers were just nonsense phrases to me and the pattern wasn't even consistent. Add the typical Sam style obscure fill and US centric cluing and it became a complete slog near the end. ULTA? TAXER? GOOD OH? yuck

Decent Sunday with cute overlay. The shaded squares being homophones for gossip is... ok. Worked sorta for me tho I think those with diff pronunciations might object. DIC was a bit of a groaner though.

Missed most of the conversation due to time zones, but some final notes: I didn't realise OPENENDER would cause such a stir... in my mind it fits noun-like words like FIVER or ALL-NIGHTER so it worked, and SDS just felt uglier than SRS. oops. PEC also, maybe SEC/SASS would have been better? Thanks for all the feedback all! EL out.

Overall ok but PHANATIC needed a lookup. No idea how the clue for WINDOW WASHER works.

This is one of those weeks, isn't it. Great.

Breezy and punchy. Could be wrong but is there a typo in 27D? Due?

Cute theme but the use of slang in the words and clues was just confusing to me as a foreigner. Even after completing I have no idea how LED AREEL CSPOTS NOFEE and LSD even make sense with their clues.