RL

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Creative in a way that didn’t seem forced or overly complicated, which is always better. The cluing was great, loved the theme and the interplay between the top two corners. Very fun Wednesday. In other news, my app still will not connect to the wordplay column, yes I updated it twice, today and yesterday, I still get “page not found.” The app is broken in terms of linking to this column. Hope this can be fixed soon.

As soon as I see a rebus puzzle I stop, I neither appreciate, nor do I care to participate in that nonsense. I know many like them, and good for you, to me it’s one of the laziest and silliest concepts imaginable. “I made a crossword puzzle but the words don’t fit.” So instead we all have to pretend it’s interesting or novel to cram multiple letters into the same square. No. Ill keep my sanity and peace. Thanks.

I’m over an hour in and not even halfway done. Slogging through a relatively unenjoyable puzzle. Feels more like a chore today.

From a cluing perspective, shouldn’t 38A include an indication that the answer is an abbreviation? ADOUT is the abbreviated form of “Advantage out” but nothing in the clue indicates we are looking for an abbreviation. I had ABORT in there for some time before the downs cleared it up,

Honestly just didn’t like this, PAH - which, whatever I guess, crossing PATCHOULI, having to translate an entirely Spanish clue to get ENERO, I could go on but honestly too much of a chore for Tuesday. Not a difficulty assessment necessarily, although I think this will come out on the harder side stats wise, just not breezy and kind of felt like a grind. Too early in the week to feel like I’m doing a homework assignment. Don’t really get the theme, read the word play column after solving and seems like a stretch. My own opinion, hope others enjoyed it.

I didn’t care for whatever this was. Appreciate the effort of course but this was absolutely awful as a puzzle to solve.

4/10. Reasonably easy, fine Monday level, but some cheap difficulty from an overuse of Spanish language clues. After the third or fourth I was rolling my eyes.

Rough Tuesday. Unnecessarily difficult for the day. For those in the comments talking about how good they are and how they didn’t have a problem, great, how quickly we forget what it’s like to be new. I would wager when you started doing this you probably started with Mondays and Tuesday’s to get better and grow. The whole point of easier days is to allow more people to participate and get better. Puzzles like this ruin the whole concept. Congrats on getting it. So did I, but making it this challenging on this day prevents others that may be newer from growing and getting better and participating. There are decades and decades of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays that may be more your speed if having slightly easier days is so annoying to you. This puzzle would make for a great Wednesday. But it is not a good Tuesday. No fault to the creator who made a good puzzle, this is a NYT issue. They put the puzzle on the wrong day of the week.

Good one today. Perfect Monday puzzle.

Very enjoyable Monday.

Good one today, congrats on the debut.

Not a Monday.

Second poor puzzle in a row. Monday and now Tuesday. These are feeling tedious with no tangible reward. I very much dislike calling a puzzle “chewy.” It’s used too broadly, sometimes for difficult clues, sometimes for unexpected wordplay. This puzzle isn’t “chewy,” it’s tedious.

After 30 minutes I revealed the whole puzzle and I still don’t understand many of the dramatic leaps taken. “Intwoacts?” I get it kind of but it’s a huge stretch. love a hard puzzle but this was as close to unworkable as they come.

Too many proper nouns for a Monday. Felt more like a Tuesday. Still would have been too many names and places for my liking if on a Tuesday, but a bit heavy for a Monday. Otherwise about average. Maybe slightly below.

15 minutes in, I have 8 answers and I’m not confident they’re right. Today is not my day. I cant catch a single break with this puzzle.

Pretty difficult for a Tuesday, especially the OHDAMN and AWCMON as Downs sharing a difficult across clue, those were very openly clued and frankly weird entries. This one far exceeded my average Tuesday time. Apart from the theme answers it was a slog. The theme however is magnificent.

I’d rather have a themeless puzzle than one that forces a nonsensical theme. It reminds me of watching Darline Grahams debate performance and thinking - you know, you don’t have to do this and we’d all probably be better off if you didn’t.

Not a Monday puzzle. Disappointing.

Another poor Monday.

Terrible Monday. This felt like a Wednesday. Leave Wednesday for Wednesday. I put it down honestly just lost interest for a long time. Begrudgingly came back, only for the streak, but otherwise I would have been better without it.

Yea I’m cranky about this too. Mondays are getting extremely difficult for the day. Maybe I’m just not good at crosswords but I’ve done every Monday and Tuesday for months now and this one is going to take me over twice as long as average and I’m still completely stuck on the right middle portion. It may be the first one in maybe 6 months I just give up on and don’t solve. Some obscure cheese crossing a cat clue? Pet cat? Lap cat? Fat cat? Whatever the clue about lying about the reason for doing something I have most of that and still have no clue what it could be, I used to have at least one a week I felt I could do enjoyably. Maybe it’s back to minis.

My time on this was extremely long for a Tuesday. Close to double my average time, I found it cumbersome and difficult for the day of the week. Felt like a Wednesday.

Enjoyable Monday puzzle made for a record setting Tuesday.

It’s rare for me to dislike a Tuesday. This one was one of the worst I’ve ever played. I’m sorry. It feels clunky and forced. I’m still not done and I honestly may just give up for the first time in over 6 months and not finish a Tuesday. Ifs the puzzle version of nails on a chalkboard for me.

Average puzzle, A rebus puzzle in my book usually registers as a lazy way to inflate difficulty of a puzzle for no reason. Today is no different. It’s akin to a golf course with an easier layout making the greens exceptionally fast and challenging to increase scoring. I know some people like them it just has never been my JAM.

Unreasonable for a Tuesday. Missed the mark here.

Tuesday puzzle. A bit forced. Awkward solve and some weird clues for no reason. 2/5.

This was the hardest Monday I’ve ever seen. I normally look forward to a casual Monday but this felt like homework. Too much obscure trivia too many obscure names. Not fun.

Fine with exception of western middle. Multiple proper nouns crossing with a movie role left 10 minutes pass to get 3 answers. Otherwise normal but that area was a bit difficult for someone who knew none of those answers.

I’m in the minority here but being unable to name a single Stevie Wonder song or album made this a more difficult puzzle than a Tuesday normally is. Puzzle is a bit heavy on the gimmicks and misdirection for this early in the week. Ex. Bloc party is a Thursday clue. 6/10.

Good puzzle. Should have been a Monday, and Monday’s puzzle this week should have been a Tuesday. So that’s the editors fault not the creator. Quality breezy puzzle.

4/10 Tuesday. 3D was too much for a Tuesday, especially crossing an obscure basketball term that you hear a lot more in football. That particular term has never been used before in the format of an abbreviation and it’s not something people would think of. MEME is becoming overused. It seems to be in every puzzle as a solution to a different clue. USWNT I saw complaints, I think it’s fair. Although it felt like a Wednesday or Sunday situation. BOINK, eh - I mean whatever I guess. Otherwise fine. I also recognize that the skill needed to create this crossword is infinitely more than I have and for that I am appreciative and recognize my minor complaints are EXCEEDINGLY (dim witted).