Splat

@Jane Wheelaghan I always wonder about UK'ers with the NYT Xword, as it's not nearly as cryptic as the London Times offering (which I've never been able to make a dent in). But I wouldn't have anticipated the kerb-curb thing. (Spelling Bee accepts some Britspelling, such as "tonne", but not others, e.g., "lorry" and "gaol".) Heard the BBC this mroning, speaking of reCAPTCHA, noting that it can be hard to figure which picture(s) actually do contain a crosswalk. And they said that "crosswalk" is pretty much a US-specific term. I'd had no idear! Two nations separated by a common language. You bet.

@Sanjana Totally agree. This was a fun one.

@Remy Better still…don't grow up at all.

@liz Mother's daughter's daughter could either be your niece, or your daughter.

@Mike I will not cosine onto this degree of pun.

@Mike Recalls the incomparable Mr. Nash's *Very Like A Whale*, which finishes: And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket after a winter storm. Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of snow and I'll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical blanket material and we'll see which one keeps warm, And after that maybe you'll begin to comprehend dimly What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.

@Nobis Miserere It's not a showy bird; it's one with a showy *mate*, so you'd be looking for the female of a showy bird species—thus, Peahen.

@Sarah Yeah, that forced me to resort to pen & paper to get it finished. Surprised it wasn't set up that way.

@Steven M. For awhile after I'd solved the puzzle, I could not figure out how IAM was a correct answer. Finally, dawn broke over my Marble head.

@NH Thanks. I am now a smidge less clueless than before! I still think you guys spell "color" wrong.

@Alan Young First time I ever heard the term, early in the 1970's, was the sense that the puzzle contains—i.e., getting high from the pot smoke around you. I don't trust Wikipedia on this. If you google "contact high", there are a buncho lynx to articles about secondhand pot smoke.

@PK The annoying thing about young people is that they keep coming up with new slang to befuddle us oldsters. The saving grace of youngsters is that sometimes they deign to explain the new slang to us fogies. I have learned something today, and it's barely 8 AM. Thank you.

@CCNY And how! And I'll add that only the crosses got me 53D, because I'd certainly never heard of "rared".

@Joe It would be pretty easy to come up with a list of a few dozen words that are only seen in crossword puzzles.

@David I figure a few dozen faithful cruciverbalists exactly share your thoughts. Count me among them. Like, I don't normally goto the comments to say "I really enjoyed this one", but this one was just so much fun. Some pretty impressive construction here.

@Richard G You induced me to google "Dorothy Parker martini", and the delightful quote was easy to find. Thank you!

@B A nickname for a car is a "ludicrous variant"? As was once said to Churchy LaFemme: "Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohow permanent."

@Petrol However… "Hippy" means "having hips". A flower-child type from the 60's was a "hippie".

@Megan Same here. Is it any wonder, then, this was my Personal Best time of about 250 Sundays?

@Suzanne Bee Pretty sure the "Y" is a hole in the wall (carved out over several years with a small rock hammer).

@Stephen Guthartz Delightful! I completely agree that getting the theme didn't make the rest of the puzzle easy. I did better than my Thursday average, but there was still quite a bit of "Uh, what?", as well as blank corners.

@Apurv I did like the puzzle, but I agree that the title doesn't fit. I was expecting the double letters to be the symbols for chemical elements, or something. The double-rebus two-word theme is "fusion", I guess, but anagramattically, it's UNCLEAR that it's NUCLEAR.

@Rahul Yes, good on ya! And, yes, it is a great puzzle to hit 1000 with.

@Ben Smith Welcome to Thursday!

@Regine Yeah, I also liked "Service agreement". "Shell fish", when I figured it out, left me in awe. Because I don't eat that stuff, even in a fine restaurant. In that venue? Yiiiikes.......

@Nancy Yeah, I really enjoyed this one. In contrast to your experience, I only understood the theme after I'd finished it all. How on Earth would EXPONENTS be found next to cabarets??? D'oh. My solving time was within a few seconds of my average. Thoroughly enjoyed this very clever puzzle.

@Paul Well…so far, two of us have reported that this was our Personal Best, for exactly that reason. And the puzzle's only been up a little longer than an hour, so I'm guessing there'll be a bunch more.

@Steve L Just a week or two ago, I went back to solve that one. (I'd heard about it through the video, Wordplay, so its theme didn't catch me by surprise; wanted to see it for myself.)

@Splat Found my typo! I'd turned "IONE" into "TONE". Strange typo, as T and I aren't nearby on the keyboard, and they're not hit by similar fingers (i.e., I and E are the same fingers on the two hands for touch-typists). Andyhoo, some 20 minuets extra, and I got the congratulatory music. Thanks, all, for your suggestions, and I'm sure this is a load off your minds.

@John Carson Ha! Subsequent offerings would've scandalized the parent even more. Have you read Moon's memoir? She puts the "Dis" in "Dysfunctional Family."

@Kris H But ACHE would not really be the correct part of speech.

@JGinDC Strictly speaking, it's not pronounced "bimmer". Not in America, anyhoo. So BMW has a right to its opinion.

@Linda Jo I found Strands to be one of the easiest. Spangram first, no hints.

@Lynn Thank you and HeathieJ. I recall that I had a similar thing happen in 2023, and they fixed it within a day. It's unfortunate that (evidently) cost-cutting comes at the expense of timely service, but it seems that's the way of the current world.

@Jonathon Wright Thursdays often have hidden twists. Always approach with caution.