Calhouri

Oh, in re the moratorium on political commentary on the Wordplay column, I did start to vent in response to one of the conservative opinion columnists (McCarthy) but eventually I cancelled it. To paraphrase Gerald Ford "our long national nightmare is just beginning" and no amount of venting is going to change that!

Did anybody else have trouble with the top left quadrant of the grid? I had no trouble with the rest but i must've spent forty five minutes and I only completed it after looking up nori and taking an an off the wall stab when I remembered Gilda Radner's Baba Wawa from early SNL. Cheated but completed

I'm thinking what devil is an "ollid"? And what does "alo" have to do with Toblerone chocolate. I was beginning to despair when it occured to me that "mopey" is a synonym for my original choice "moody"and magically "ollie" (a skateboard maneuver) and "alp" (a Swiss peak) transformed my "sullen" humor into one of triumph.

Really tough one, but not in a gimmicky way. Just clues that made no obvious sense . . ,. until they did and I was like DUH!

I put ph in the rebus square but not the f, but got credit for solving. Should I have? My fave Steven Wrighty: Came home late and mixed up my keys. Tried to open my front door with my car key and started up my apartment.

For once I used the "get it" clue (double or nothing) to solve the puzzle. Very clever, a rebus without rebi(??)

Invisible rebuses are better because one doesn't have go through the onerous process of entering them. Especially onerous when one has an octogenarians's arthitic fingers!

As a martini fancier I define a wet martini as one that's heavy on dry vermouth. In fact I like those more than the so-called dry ones. And olives are de rigeur for any true martini.

Took me forever and I had to look up the Canadian mountain and the four letter singer, but on the whole I battled my way through and finally got it done. Even "bendy straw" and "bonsai tree."

Good fun and clever theme. Discovering it was truly an a-HA moment.

argh! took me almost an hour and a half, but eventually I saw the trick. fiendish but it kept me interested. that's a genuine compliment to the constructor

Fun puzzle, Loved whoopee cushion as "butt of a joke" but one slight correction (which perhaps another solver has already noted). As the Boston tea party involve tax protesting Bostonians throwing tea chests into the harbor, it was not flotsam but rather jetsam.

This was one of those puzzles that I had to put aside because the synapses just weren't firing. An hour or two later I resumed and as usual things I hadn't seen before became apparent and I completed it in anout ten minutes. To paraphrase one of the clues, I wish I could patent whatever that is!

I completed it by filling in all the clues that were obvious and filling the blanks with the obvious choice s (eiffel tower, party sub, cloudy skies) but I had to read the column to get the gimmick. I guess I'm too old to get hip to all the AI stuff. Color me clueless!

This was one of those grids that seemed unsolveable until I did one lookup: Passeridae. After that I buzzed right through. It's exactly these indefinable elements that makes puzzling so addictive

"Non eternal flames?" Luv it!!!

"Pretty decent" as George Carlin might say. Or "a place for everything in its place" as per my maternal Grannie. A very neat 20 minute Wednesday romp

Enjoyed this Thursday a lot. These "benders" strike me as more clever than rebuses, but that's probably just me. Had some trouble with cosy v. cozy since it's a British-invented genre and that's how Brits spell the word. Tizzy bailed me out. An fun three-quarters of an hour

I wonder how my CPA twould respond to someone calling him a "book keeper"

Took me an hour, but chiefly because I insisted on "moi" as a "cry from Miss Piggy" before going with "oui"and "oink." The latter of which I never heard her say on any episode of Sesame Street that I watched. Is that nit-picking?

Oday was the answer to a clue in a puzzle I solved yesterday ("She performed with Kenton") but I can't recall if it was yesterday's or one from the archive. I'm so strapped for ways to amuse myself in my dotage that I'm redoing puzzles I solved 40 years ago in the hardcopy Times with a pencil!!

Boy this was just tough! No gimmicks or trickiness, just clues that were elusive. Until they weren't. I shut it down two times and returned to complete on the third pass. And yes I had to look up Bibao province and the actors Feldman and Haim, so it wasn't really a true solve. It took and hour and a half to boot.

I misread etymologist as entomologist (insects, which fit) and that pretty much got me started on them wrong foot. Eventually slogged my way through but I had look up the slang term for mediocre when "meh" failed to work and I had no idea what a dongle was!

I did way too much googling for my my effort to be called a solve. True, most of that was to confirm initial guesses but even so without that cheating I would never have completed the grid. Kinda pleased I realized the "military leader" was a native American (Tecumseh) but other than that little reason to celebrate!

It was a tough one, but by applying my go-to strategy when I feel stumped I closed the page and about three later hours returned. Magically I almost immediately figured out the rebus (lie) and the "carat" effect that linked it to the clueless clues. It was indeed a sterling debut by college freshwomen constructor. Very impressive. When I was eighteen I was still learning how to tie my shoelaces!

No gimmicks. Just a cleverly constructed puzzle with a lot of clues that required a lot of thought. At first I thought I'll never finish this one, but I soldiered on and after almost an hour (and one last blank space, the "a" in Taosieach) I had to look up I completed it.

As a grade schooler during the Korean War I heard a lot about Pusan. I didn't know the name of the city was changed, but corn waste could only be "cobs" so I learned something

Nearly an hour and a half. Had to look up Lyon River (then decide between Rhone and Saone), but otherwise pure cement butt sticktoitiveness. (Would that last fit in a grid? Maybe the Sunday, but I skip those.) The use of "common core" to reveal the trick was quite elegant

"Fowl Pole" reminded of feeding the chickens when I was country boy some 75 years ago. And has anyone ever counted the number of consecutive puzzle that didn't inclue "Oreo"?

Pretty fun, but fairly moderate difficulty for a . . . Wednesday, no?

Much fun wordplay here. My favorite was Stetson Hat, but Travel Visa was a close second.

Occasionaly, by sheer persistence, the switch is found and illumination ensues . This is one of those occasions. Bravo to the constructor and (in all humility) this solver!

Very clever. Took me an hour but finally got the ( ) trick. But I admit I had to look up muscle protein to complete that gnarly upper right grid.

I like it better when the rebus squares aren't tipped off. Because when one finally gets it there's this "eureka, I did it!" feeling that really makes one'sday,

Lotta clever (mis)direction, but ultimately a lotta fun!

Excellent clues, as noted in the title of today's column. I had a problem with the request after a failure clue. My first entry was Can I Try. I mean why couldn't the Hindu God of Fruits be Cango? But after filling all the squares in I got that "something amiss" warning and wasted a good ten minutes scanning the grid before finally realizing that Mango was a better choice than Cango and May was a suitable replacement for Can. Et voila!

Actually I thought it was a hard but fair grid. At first I thought it might be trouble, but ended up solving it in under 40 minutes with (unlike yesterday) no look ups.

Decent Tuesday romp. I'm not sure how "To some extent" relates to "Any" but otherwise good fun.

A fun thing I sometimes attempt with early week puzzles is to create a frame of letters by filling all the outside letters of the grid. Surprising how often I fail even with the Mondays. Today was one of those rare triumphs.

Decent Wednesday offering. Highlight, that ""dotty" or "dashing" inventor. Still chuckling over that one.

A first! I actually learned a new word while doing a Monday puzzle. Lassi. Love Indian food but never heard of this yoghurt drink

"A tad" cutesy but in a clever way. Fave clue: "Peer group."

Well I learned a new word (edgelord), laughed out loud at the answer to pyramind builders and thought the clue for demo was clever. Nice Friday outing!

Nice use of word placement to supply directional keys. I saw that early on, but as usual what delayed my completion was a"nit." I originally thought the blank after Inter was alia rather than its plural alii. I had spend an extra 5 mins reviewing before I saw my error

Very nice. Stacked rebi. Took me a while (nearly 40m) but a very satidfying 40 m it was!

Just a just plain straightforwardly tough saturday, at least for me. Didn't rely on any misleading gimmicks.Took an hour plus but it was time well spent. No look ups (not even Chloe Zhao. whose movie I now intend to find on on one of my online pirate film sites (an advantage of being an expat!) I especially liked the the solve for "development area" but mainly a pleasure all the way thru.

I almost blew this one owing to my mixing up Japanese foods. To wit unami instead of unagi. I figured emomania (obsession with angst music) could be "translated" as extreme self-obsession, but when that seemed the only changeable option I made it and eh voila! Cost me five minutes of reviewing and a Tuesday high 27 mins!

Took me about ten minutes to see the theme. Very clever! And timely! LGM!! As to the fourth/home thing, I know that idiom mainly as a negative, like "Ah, nothing to write home about." I've ever seen it used as, say, "Now that's something to write home about!"

Tough but honest. Nothing sneaky or tricky. Even when including a Fowleresque "hardy indefensible" like "ASP" the constructor had a clever clue (Nile Nasty). Took me over an hour, but I persisted and am happy I did!