alan

I’m irrationally annoyed this puzzle isn’t Halloween themed!!

LIPO / EPA was a dirty, dirty cross even for the worst Saturday

Could not figure out for the life of me what 300 ACtEs on the National Mall could be 😢

Puzzle creators and editors, please stand strong against those who would have you make easy puzzles to slake their fragile egos. Amen

This puzzle hearkens back to the very crunchy, Naticky, unforgiving, frankly mean puzzles of the naughts and nineties and before. Given how easy crosswords are these days, this puzzle was a refreshing slap in the face. Puzzles are supposed to be challenging. I feel so sorry for those of you focused on your solve time and streak more than actually, you know, the challenge in front of you.

I love rebus puzzles. The icing on the cake is all the pedants and egotists who write dissertations on how horrible rebuses are. Not ALL rebuses, of course, just this particular rebus because of the following methodically laid out reasons. But the rest of us see the reality, which is that their bruised little egos just can’t accept being challenged. BTW the theme was Western Union. It doesn’t matter that the states don’t abut. Cry about it.

Wow this was a bad comeback puzzle. Terrible cluing, clunky answers. Somehow a name combining three possible extensions doesn’t have to include any of those extensions? Bad clue. Yet another NEHRU and oh would you look at that, CDRACK, our old, old, old friend. Super disappointing from Sam Ezersky and Will Shortz

SPEECHTHERAPIST, before I got SPEECH and after I got THERAPIST, but before I knew THERAPIST was one word and not two, gave me real SNL Jeopardy vibes. Haven't laughed so hard at the crossword before.

What a conflicted puzzle. Several of the answers, TAXTIP eg, were quite satisfying. Others, such as EXTRAEXTRAEXTRA, read a bit desperate-for-fill.

The clue for DOGNAP is diabolical and I love it!

ECSTASY is such a strange-looking word. I can't help but Webster himself is wrong. I thought this was a solid puzzle of Friday-level hardness. Took me about 14 minutes. To the complainers, I recommend getting good!

Really liking pips

This puzzle would have been so much better leaving the Ts off. Not just technically but essentially. It's like a Thursday on training wheels, but worse because the way to solve mentioned in the notes was completely wrong!

I thought we had moved on from naticks

This is an impressive Monday. It felt like a Monday but had 15-letter crosses that would’ve been well-positioned in a Saturday. Good job!

I had CbSLOT which sounded very plausible! And Paul bANO is obviously not to be confused with Paul DANO

The theme is ridiculous but I appreciate the weird mind that thought it up

eRich was a STRETCH! But I appreciated it

Hard but not unfair. On my first pass, I thought I would definitely be looking up pretty much everything I passed but, after cracking into the southeast corner, I spread up the grid slowly, like a virus. Very good!

Good intro to rebuses? Rebii?

I’m not a fan of visual themes that are too cute by half. I thought the cluing was interesting and some of the answers were pretty good. But I think you should have a decent chance of solving the theme before solving the puzzle and not relying on sight gags to get it. That’s not a crossword, that’s a rebus

I really don’t do my puzzles to be sold things and find it distasteful when the NYT puts naked ads in their games. The puzzle itself was well made, though.

Now just to look at a solved board or access the link to the column, I have to click two X's to close out of useless screens. Last month it was one. This is the Spelling Bee fiasco creeping up all over again. Stop. Bloating. The. App.

What is the point of the "You solved it!" screen except to make it even more cumbersome to access the puzzle itself or blog? I am Sick of the developers of this app.

Can't say HOLYCOW without thinking of Seinfeld. HOLYCOW!

Fun puzzle. I had ARv/WAvE and GAeA which tripped me up.

Mostly enjoyable besides having to keep a bunch of letters in my working memory. I absolutely revile that ALI clue. Are you kidding us with that one? lol

itfactor for CHARISMA. Way off 😭

The long answers are great. There is some very sus cluing going on in this puzzle. I’m surprised to learn I’ve been an apparent “gownie” my whole life (gown and TOWN are not related). I’m gonna need the NYT to stop trying to make THE OLDS happen - never will.

dRAFTBEERS tripped me up!

WAKE and TRIM did me in.

TAN not fAN.... Not me googling CUBIf (I can't have been the only one, right??) What's TAN got to do with BUFF???

HAVE A TIT?? I wondered until I realized

That moment when you're almost done with the puzzle and the NYT Crossword app erases the board for the 8th puzzle in a row. Maybe the clues magically pop back up, maybe they don't; didn't this time. Unfortunately, I renewed my yearly sub before most of these bugs started cropping up, but the terrible app team has been making poor changes for years. I should've listened to myself when I said, "it'll only get worse."

INDeRA/EMIRATe and OrGA/drEAM led me astray!