Jeff Z

Understandably, NYT believes that if I solve enough of their puzzles, I will eventually remember all these rappers' names. Well, going on a few years now, and my retention is still zero.

20A was a little misleading for me. All my prayers end in "or else."

Perfect Sunday puzzle, in my opinion. Fun theme that helps you solve, not a brain-breaker, but you still feel "I'm so smart" upon solving.

I think this is the only Monday ever that used a word I'd never heard of: smew. And I love birds, so shame on me. Also, my spell checker is flagging it, so shame on spell checker too.

As mayor, lifetime resident, leading citizen, and founder of Cupertino, I was dismayed that Cupertino wasn't given more prominence in this puzzle. Not only should it have been in the first spiral, but in all four, ideally. Come visit and you will see why Paris is often referred to as "the Cupertino of Europe."

Why should Laos get all the elephants? I'm afraid another Executive Order is needed.

I got more than a little lucky here. Still, it impresses me that a constructor can come up with a unique yet worthy theme after zillions of puzzles that came before them. I rather enjoyed this one.

I don't usually watch sports, but last weekend I was hanging out with two friends who were watching the Brewers game and switching over the the Lions/Bears game during commercials. I was APPALLED at the number of ads for sports betting. They even inserted them into the baseball game in little windows off to the side. Then on Sunday night I watched the Crawford/Canelo fight. Nothing but ads, ads, ads, all for sports betting. I would just as soon see ads for heroin, but I guess I'd better learn more about sports betting, judging from today.

Terra Chips might be "healthful" compared to other chips, healthful implies they are conducive to good health, which is quite a stretch. Oh well; I don't expect constructors to run such clues by me first.

Aaaiiieee! I almost went up/down in flames on a Wednesday! It all boiled down to stubbornly sticking with value=price rather than value=prize; I was reluctant to realize that "prize" is also a verb.

Maybe it's geeky, but there's something about opening the Sunday Crossword and seeing that 21 x 21 grid that sets my heart a little more at rest.

I inexplicably geek out when a puzzle prominently features an otherwise marginal letter. It's nice to see x have its day. Let x equal a geekly position of prominence.

If I'm going to gripe about annoying themes (and you know I am), I've got to praise the enjoyable ones. Clever, fun, and helpful toward solving. I was able to get this at one sitting. Nice job, Sam Brody.

I can't ever remember throwing in the towel on a Wednesday, but there were enough obscure (to me) answers--"inrun," "eames," "brb," and even "antegg" (I suck at food questions)--that I had to hit Reveal and not feel too bad about it.

Okay, you know I had to come here and post one of my lame-o, barely relevant comments, but here it is: Under no circumstances should "veggie bacon" be paired with any term suggesting healthiness. Healthier than regular bacon? Sure, I'll buy that, at least after seeing some data to support the claim. (Not a very high bar to clear, though.) But read the ingredient list on any version of veggie bacon. Holy mackerel, what a load of chemically junk and weird extracts. You know what's truly a healthy veggie dish? VEGGIES.

Where punctuation: When I first read "Simpson's judge," I thought of the judge who occasionally appeared on "The Simpsons"--did that character have a name? Then I remembered that there was one judge later named Constance Harm. But three letters, hmm... Because it said "Simpson's judge," not "Simpsons' judge."

Having a degree in Spanish doesn't make me infallible, and Google Translate is not the final arbiter of all things, but neither one of us has ever heard "nene" used as a synonym for "niño" or "bebe." Is this for real, anyone?

Whenever I don't dig a puzzle (which was definitely the case today), I come to the comments section to remind myself that people have a variety of preferences, and that a dud in my book will delight many others. And my day will come!

Okay, I didn't get the theme until after I finished, but once I did, I said, "OMG, that is so cute." It brightened my morning.

These cartoons show just what a waste it was to extend the US interstate system to Arizona. Never a car--not one! Imagine spending all this money just to facilitate the antics of a bird and a coyote. Barry Goldwater would be rolling over in his grave.

Somehow I solved it with 0% certainty on about 33% of my answers.

Ah, how Ayn Rand hated the myth of Icarus! The poor fellow dared to aspire, and he paid for it with his life. The universe itself must be a collectivist second-hander! This is a fine debut puzzle, and just right for a Tuesday.

Very nice. I got the theme quickly enough, and then I realized it wasn't sufficient to help me solve, and I got angry at Alexander Liebskind and at myself, but mostly at Alexander Liebskind, but then I realized it was the depth of my understanding that was insufficient, and through this realization it became sufficient, and my love for Alexander Liebskind grew by leaps and bound.

I stared at LEGOTATMAM for ages, knowing it couldn't be right but not being able to see anything else for the life of me. AND I SAW THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE.

OK, this one was weird. I stared at it for 90 minutes and only managed to fill out five or six clues. After that, I filled everything out within 20 minutes . I didn't even get the usual "Grr! So close!" response. Exponential growth, I guess.

I finally hit Reveal, not because I couldn't possibly finish, but because I just didn't care.

Yes, I dug it. NYT informs me that this was 11 Thursdays in a row for me, which legit amazed me, because Thursday is so often the day that derails me.

Thanks, Jacob McDermott! I'm stuck at home this year due to illness, and your puzzle made the day seem a little more like Christmas. Well done!

I pretty much felt flat on my face on this one and didn't enjoy it a whole lot to boot. Still, I can't help but be impressed by its cleverness. Does that make me a masochist?

I will take a break from my usual griping about overly-complex themes to praise this puzzle, despite its difficult (for me) theme. No, it did not help me solve the puzzle, but once I saw what it was doing I was actually somewhat delighted. Very enjoyable solve.

Can a puzzle be tricky and easy at the same time? I felt I was stumped repeatedly but still solved it in my usual Tuesday time. (Example: "plotzed" came to me easily enough, despite not knowing what it or "verklempt" means. I think I've heard "plotzed" from Krusty the Klown.)

As prepared as I was to be outraged upon hitting "Reveal," I have to say the clues were fair. Probably the worst I've done all year. I guess it wasn't my day.

At first I was all like, "barf out." But by the end I had to confess this is probably the best theme I've ever encountered.

I was never going to solve a crossword with "held serve" as an answer, so I don't feel so bad about today.

More often than not, a puzzle's theme is a nuisance to work around. But this puzzle's is GREAT! (Read in Tony the Tiger voice.) It's one of the rare ones that both entertains and facilitates solving. Rare for me, anyway. I'm not as sharp as I used to be. Very well done!

Feeling pretty good now. At first, I was able to fill in about six, and I felt worthless, hopeless, and caffeineless. Fortunately, the theme isn't ridiculously cryptic, and once I got it, I was able to get the rest. Now a semblance of self-esteem has returned.

Man, I LOVED this one. The gradual revelation of what first seems impossible is my favorite element of solving these, and this puzzle really delivers on this front. I love clues like "Goes out in the winter?" And fortunately I'm old enough to remember Stiller and Meara (but only from radio commercials, though). But could someone please explain the answer to 41A to me?

1) Thanks for featuring me in today's photo; 2) I'm getting a streak going, but most of the time my solve seems attributable to luck. Hmm...

One of my bugaboos is misreading the clue. Today's: reading "under a mare's care" (easy enough answer) as "under a man's care." A WARD, right? Those are the hardest for me to catch, because once you misread the clue, your brain keeps seeing it that way.

Finally, an NYT puzzle giving the respect to Mr. T that he deserves. Which reminds me: How does Mr. T's wife compute integrals? With respect to T.

Outstanding. Nice job, Robyn.

A few years ago, my baby brother, who is 59, used the expression "slaps" on an all-sibling text thread. We all dropped him as a contact on our phones and didn't speak to him for a year. Harsh medicine? Sure. But he thanked us later. "It was the only way I was going to learn," he said.

I've seen plenty of evidence of beavers (gnawed trees, etc.), but only one live, actual beaver. It was swimming parallel to the shore as my ex and I were taking a walk along Lake Monona in Madison, WI. We thought it might be an overgrown muskrat, because we have a lot of those--if only we could see the tail. (Muskrats have regular rat tails.) Finally the tireless guy did us the favor of flipping over and changing directions so we could get a good look at it. Beaver tail, all right. I can see from the photo here that their noses are a lot bigger than a muskrat's, too. They're both a treat to see.

Hmm. Even after reading the explanation, I'm a little unsteady re: the theme, but I solved in near record time, so I guess I'm still pretty smart...??

I read Jane Eyre for the first time earlier this year. Man, was that a good one. Charlotte, that one was.

Arjun spent the last day of his life being a good fellow. What a sad loss. This is a great puzzle. Hard, but not in an annoying way, and fun to solve. I enjoyed the 15-square answers, too, which is usually not the case. (Did anyone else try FLIPCHART before FLIPPHONE?)