Amy

Big Three for Dwight Schrute: Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. I’m another one who missed that all the clues started with B, and once I went back and looked I wonder exactly how I missed that. Which has me wondering how many other things I miss on a regular basis. Now I’m questioning my life. I thought this was a perfect Wednesday, and fortunately my tastes run more toward The Office than Bach, so I had no issues with it.

Just here to counter the rebus haters: The only thing I love more than a rebus is a surprise rebus. I had my suspicions at SPRAY TAN but caught on for sure at STRAY/CRAY. Fun puzzle, and still finished in less-than-average Wednesday time.

This was one of the most enjoyable puzzles in a while, although eventually I had to give up and autocheck for my error (AURAs/FERRULs). I always check the info button first thing on a Sunday puzzle - there’s always a theme, and in the iPad app you have to click for it. It took me a while to realize, though, that I hadn’t come across anything Pixar related - the penny dropped on EUPHORIA/DUPLEX. Excellent Sunday.

I thought I’d never get through this one and then all of a sudden, I did. Like Caitlin, I was thrown off by reading “Guinness” as Alec Guinness. Appreciated the crossing of BEAT IT with MAN IN THE MIRROR. Excellent puzzle.

This one was fun. I had the same experience as Caitlin, where I got the revealer before any of the clues, but still had a wild ride figuring them out.

My Battlestar Galactica-loving self got a little hung up by putting “so say” for 18A. I was sad to replace it. Other than that, a quick and enjoyable puzzle for me.

Great puzzle, although I had to read the column to get the revealer, and as a huge King fan, I was ashamed that the penny (haha) didn’t drop for me on IT. I do think Sam gave away her age, however, by not recognizing those two great 80s icons, the POWER TIE and the PONTIAC Firebird.

I learned how to spell ONOMATOPOEIA in 7th grade and have never forgotten it. Finally came in handy.

I’m never sure what’s worse - my memory or my Spanish 101. Either way, PLATeS canyon had me stuck on this for far too long (after having to look up SISI. I really didn’t pay attention in high school). I did know PLATOS canyon but it would never have come to me from the clue I don’t think. Sadly, I did get KFED. Sometimes I’m just embarrassed to be me.

I enjoyed the unexpected extra toughness of this one - this is a challenging Monday anyway, and I appreciate having my brain otherwise occupied. I didn’t get the theme until I read the column, but that didn’t hurt my solving. Came in about 2 minutes longer than my average Monday time.

I thought this was a fun puzzle. I know a DITCH isn’t a tunnel but appreciate the artistic license because it’s a crossword puzzle, not a dictionary. Even though I had to run the alphabet to drag DOGE out of my memory (had no idea from the cross), never heard of PDQBACH, can never remember my Roman numerals and it took me more than halfway through to figure out the trick, I came in under average time. Learning about the pangram added to the fun. Nice job.

I love rebuses and I enjoyed this puzzle. A great “penny dropped” moment that you don’t always get outside of a Thursday.

I did not get the theme, and didn’t love it when I read the column. However, my first thought upon solving 54A was of Jim’s costume on The Office. Seeing that was the inspiration makes me love this puzzle.

Solved on an iPad with no problems and without looking at any instructions. One finished, I enjoyed staring at it for a while too, watching the Ts reappear and then “leave.” Not a hard puzzle, but a fun trick, and obviously impressive construction.

Fun puzzle. When I finally got PILOT I immediately thought of “The Right Stuff” with space as the final frontier … too deep, apparently. But then again, I had “tissue” instead of RESUME for a while, thinking of some nice padded Charmin, which was clearly the opposite of deep. Fortunately my love for Night Court means I will always know Mel TORME.

I immediately heard James Earl Jones’ voice when I read “This is …” but hesitated to fill it in on the first round. Fortunately everything else fell into place pretty quickly - the polar opposite of yesterday’s. You win some, you lose some I guess.

I loved this puzzle. But I love a rebus and I love a trick clue. I was stuck on the NW and finally looked up Jason Mraz’s discography, which gave me the “aha” moment I needed to finish. (I always feel like if I look up the overall category and make myself learn something, rather than just googling the specific clue, it’s less of a cheat). Two thumbs up from me.

Welcome back Will! Fun Monday puzzle.

I got a lot of the clues fairly easily but struggled hard with the trick and (not coincidentally) the revealer. However, all is forgiven for unlocking my memory of SHMOO and for being a Gilmore Girls fan.

Sure sure, the theme was cute, and me, a math hater, saw it immediately. But how about the bookending of the METs and ATL Braves?

This may have been mentioned further down in the comments, but I had to close out of the app on my iPad and re-open it to get the animations to appear. That was after I did a “check puzzle” because of j/DAM and coming here to see why I couldn’t rotate the dials. Eh. Decent Sunday puzzle with a gimmick limited by technology, probably. Still better than I could have done.

It took me a while to figure out the game - for some reason I was thinking owls were involved (not enough coffee). I figured out all the entries and rebuses before I figured out the revealer, though, so when I got it it was a literal laugh-out-loud moment for me.

I could tell there was something going on with codes, but thought it had something to do with swapping Cs for Rs or something like that … so found it harder than I needed to until the penny finally dropped. Also got stuck in the NE because I couldn’t think of a word with a j and an h for the longest time. Might be time for a vacation.