GingerR

Thank you, Mr. Hale!! I had such great fun and enjoyment with this puzzle, especially because it’s rare for me to solve anything past Tuesday without a single Googling! At least there were enough crossings to help me solve the trivia clues I didn’t know. I was totally able to hear—and ENJOY—the long theme entry puns. 👏🏻👏🏻 Please send more! I will be watching for your name on future puzzles.

I had to look up “chonky” to be sure it’s a word. My autocorrect doesn’t think so, but now I know. Chonky puzzles are daunting to me, but I look forward to any more Mr. Wagner wants to gift us.

At 64, I’m still learning new trivia from these puzzles. “Does it scale?” (26D) was not a phrase I had ever heard before and only solved it by crosssings. Similarly, knowing nothing about chess, “mate in three” (58D) was difficult for me. However, I really appreciated the clueing of the themes at 3D and 35D bc I knew the answers and since they both “fit” lengthwise, I guessed the trick before getting the theme after just a few crossings. Thank you for the fun, Mr. Ernst!

I had exactly the same path, using the northeast quadrant and trying rebuses first before realizing the down entries above the Ts ended in T and then I was “off to the races.” Very satisfying and solved 28 minutes faster than my average Thursday. But I failed to see that the entries were also good words without the Ts at the ends. Glad I came to read this article and increase my awe.