Jennifer

@Dan It's also a pretty common NYT answer, spelled just this way. One of those things to add to the mental database.

@Julia Lots of vowels!

@Jack McCullough The NW corner was unyielding, even with early fills of ECZEMA and PANZA, until I rethought the meaning of "characters." Once I figured that out, the whole thing fell into place.

@Jane Wheelaghan Haven't seen the movie, but I assume the setting for Emperor's New Groove was moved to South America.

@Matt I also began doing NYT crosswords in the early 80s, in college. The talking inanimate objects thing is definitely a fairly recent invention. I'm also not a fan since it feels a little childish. Still, if you go back to those 80s era puzzles, and even early Will Shortz (1993+), there's not a ton of wordplay, and definitions could be pretty stodgy and repetitive. So I'll take the talking-inanimate-object device if it helps with more lively and varied cluing.

@Laura I finally had to relent and look up Hunger Games and the last name of the basketball player. The Hunger Games actress was pretty far down the cast list. Even for a Saturday, pretty obscure clue.

@Brian Bragg I knew Max Baer from his son "Jethro." Also, my father, who was born in 1932, loved boxing, so I heard about the boxing Baer from him. Also heard about Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson before Raging Bull came out. I miss my sports-loving dad.

@Steve L The thing I love about ENO, ONO, OREO, SSN, and the like is the endless variety of clues that are attached to these workhorses. They're often still gimmes, but I'm impressed by the dedicated effort to not repeat clues.

@Bob Had the same thought!

@Jordan I thought this was an excellent Saturday. The few things I didn't know (PANDA, STYLETS) I could reason out. SANKA is a gimme for anyone over 50 (40?). At one time it was the generic word for decaf. SUN RA is a bit more niche, but not obscure, at least if you're over 40 or so. Think of it as the Boomer/GenX toll for current rap and pop trivia (which I don't begrudge).

@Barry Ancona I take back the complain-y tone of the initial post, since it doesn't reflect how I interact with this column. Was just making an observation about the photo caption, which was more explicit than usual. The photos usually subtly hint at a clue.

@Jeff Z They've definitely been easier for the past several weeks (months?). My solve times for the harder days are generally half of what they used to be. (Today's puzzle not so much, but still not too challenging for a Friday. Had a few mistakes that were slowing me down.) I think the proliferation of commonplace phrases as answers, like 17- and 60-Across, is one of the causes.

@Barry Ancona At the point I looked up EMEKA, I had only BARE ESSENTIALS for the first 4 acrosses, plus a few downs. The rest of the puzzle was done. I probably could have gutted it out without looking up the Hunger Games cast, but time wasn't on my side.

@Bruce For clues like this, I do word association. For beaver my first thought (because I am not 14) is OREGON. So that was fairly easy.

@Bill Yeah, I'm familiar with the photo spoilers, which are often clever and interesting. The caption is just so explicit in giving the answer to a clue. Didn't spoil it for me because I had finished the puzzle. My comment was more about the hamfisted caption.

@jb Same.

@Alex Good lord!

@GG That is a lifelong earworm for me!