Jay

DAYS OF OUR LIVES brought back bad memories. As a kid who woke up early and watched a lot of TV (only 7 channels), on weekdays with no school, I'd be up waiting for the test pattern to end (with the star spangled banner) and watch the kids' shows, then the game shows. After the game shows was the dreaded period of soap operas, starting with the above. When I saw the opening screen and heard "like sands through the hourglass..." a feeling of sadness would fall over me and I knew I'd have to find something else to do for the next three hours until the afternoon cartoons came on. It was a hard life.

In re Dan's note about hate mail, know this: if one is even considering sending hate mail to a crossword constructor, one should back away from the writing implement and quickly look up available psychiatrists, because the chance that one has gone completely off the rails is very high.

I don't have time to read through the comments, but has eggplant EMOJI over D to F been pointed out yet? Make no mistake, it's no mistake. Bro culture indeed! Nice tricky Wed. Thanks Dan!

Very fun puzzle. Tough for me, but that's a good thing, and the theme was great - clever in the bestest of ways. My only hitch was when I was staring at FEELINGS thinking "ok, but what the heck are F - LINGS? Is this some euphemism the kids are using these days?" Then light dawned. I had been contradooked.

Like probably no one else, I put in rOtotiller first thing, thinking myself so clever. Then ON TAP gave me a little confirmation, and off I went down the east side and up from the bottom, back to the NNW, where I sat for a bit. Nice Saturday - lots of new PPP that I didn't know or forgot existed, but very gettable on the crosses. Had fun.

Coming in late with a long one for all three of you still reading the comments an hour before the new one drops. I liked the puzzle - even showed the person next to me at lunch, who is not a puzzler, the trick. But ... In Mendon, MA, there's a place called Southwick's Zoo. It's a not very small zoo in the woods that has been there for 60 years or so, and it's a really neat place. I would go to it when I was a kid, when it was called Southwick's Wild Animal Farm. When you walk in and down to the intersection of a few walking paths, there's a little white shed with a few steps on either side that lead to little windows in the shed walls. Around the shed are signs proclaiming that the Great Red Bat, which can be seen in the shed, is a dangerous animal, no pictures, etc. So, when I was little and saw the shed for the first time, I was really excited to see the bat. I walked up the steps, peeked in the little window, and was struck by two emotions at the same time - bitter disappointment because all that was in the shed was a red whiffle ball bat hanging from chains, and delight at the word play. But mostly disappointment. Shed's still there, at least last time I went maybe 8 years ago, when I introduced my son to the bat. Also disappointed.

I'm not a fan of poetry for the most part, but what I do like, I really like. Frost is one I really like - his poems are very simple and straightforward - not frilly or pretentious at all - but paint a picture in my head so easily. I still remember the exact picture in my head from "Mending Wall" when I read it in 5th grade - two neighbors slowly waking on each side of an unmortared stone wall, the same type of wall the ruins of which ran through all the woods I spent most of my childhood in, slowly picking up the fallen rocks and re-placing them, while chatting about nothing. And the sentiment of the poem was shared by me, which made it resonate even more. Stopping by Woods is much shorter, but gives me the indescribable feeling of being alone at the edge of the woods at dusk, with snow falling all around, enjoying the silence and maybe the mystery of the dark woods, as if I was there. The forces pulling me away?... not in my head version of the poem 😁 Thanks for the memories, constructor.

I saw the KAC byline and almost had a ... well, you know, I was pretty excited, in any case. Good solid Saturday with some words I didn't know thrown in. Normally I wouldn't leave mATERHORSE in the grid for so long, but on KAC I would. Thanks Mr Collins!

I used to work at a campus that abutted wetlands and had loads of green space. Every spring the place would get taken over by Canada geese, who defecate everywhere. I was often singing or thinking "Little goose poop..." quite a bit during those times.

I liked absolute UNIT and HUNDO - made things feel fresh. On every x-hundreth episode of the podcast Comedy Bang Bang, the host refers to "lopping off another HUNDO" which I think is pretty funny. OMNI magazine, that mysteriously inappropriate magazine I read and loved in my teen years - a strange mix of science reporting, pseudoscience, sci-fi, drugs and sex that got me rather excited about my approaching adulthood. And, finally, my favorite pie, RHUBARB. My grandmother and I loved it - most of the other family members didn't - and she'd make one for the major get-togethers from either fresh or frozen stalks from her garden. No strawberries please - that's for people who don't like rhubarb 😁

As a logical fallacy hobbyist (it's great fun at parties) I appreciate this puzzle and its constructor. Loved the theme clues' self-referentiality, along with the continuing comments through Joel (ad hominem and straw man). Very nice, indeed!

Great Saturday! Not a fast or slow solve, just steady progress. The northeast, the second to last area to fall, was on the edge of chaos for quite a while. Generally, one clue lead to another in a very pleasing way for me. And, as far as I can reckon, ODES is the only piece of crosswordese in the whole thing - maybe RHONE as well, although not as much lately. Made for a very fresh feel. Can't wait for more from this constructor.

Just adding to the chorus - loved it. Work-of-art theme clues.

Have fun STORMing the castle!!

So, just saying, I played Tetris on its original platform, DOS, when it first came out. Sure, it was ported to NES, but it was ported to everything. The question was basically Name a gaming or computer operating system. Didn't affect anything, though - nice fast Saturday.

EURIPIDES, ancient tradgedian and OG of dad jokes, is my second favorite dead Greek guy, next to the outspoken philosopher Testicles, known for his feats of daring more than his ruminations. I know, emus, I know, but it's a word play, not a dirty joke.

Nice puzzle today - SE corner was a little rough, taking about a third of my solving time, but I'm not complaining. I really liked the twin clues - very fun solve. A note, for those who don't know and may care. KUSH is a strain, and it has middle-high levels of THC if grown to maximize it, but can be found with a wide range of THC levels. KUSH doesn't mean high THC. An alternate, accurate answer with that "k" would be Kine or Kind, which specifically means strong cannabis. All that said, I figured the constructors wanted KUSH and put it in with no qualms. As people say, it's a clue, not a definition.

I loved most of these themers, but the clue/answer combo for WHYOMING really got me chuckling. When I see THAT'S IT as a stand alone anywhere, I think of Charlie Brown's angry, out-of-nowhere yelling of the phrase at Lucy in the Christmas special, as she names phobias. It's always been an odd moment for me. This was sent to you from a state some people have voiced as a malapropic pun for the weight of a couple waste products. Too gross? Definitely. Funny? Maybe!

I thought "start of a quip" puzzles had gone extinct (with good reason), but this one had an added twist that justifies a brief resurrection. Love Steven Wright - this quip's not near his best, but it had to serve the theme.

I think that article in re Peoria is a little too kind to its reader base. I've always taken it as asking if the act in question was too coastal, with all that entails - too intelligent, too ethnic, aimed too high. If it wouldn't play in Peoria, if the average American wouldn't like it, then it had to be dumbed down, homogenized. The same formula is applied for TV shows and movies today. Luckily, starting with HBO, premium and streaming services realized they could make money off shows that wouldn't play in Peoria - not as much money as in the network heyday, but enough to keep the golden age of TV going for the last 20 years.

Sometimes seeing the constructors' names can help with the solve. Knowing Rafa was involved, I had no qualms about filing in ASSBACKWARDS with only the third A crossing 😁 A fun, funny, fresh, smooth solve. A very nice Sunday indeed - thanks Danny and Rafa!

Way back, at Salisbury Beach, one of the carnival rides had a sign that read "The smoke you see is part of the ride", to avoid FALSE ALARMs, I assume. I thought it was hilarious. A friend if mine had a heap (slow, rotting mustang) with a valve cover leak that allowed oil to drip onto his exhaust manifold, creating lots of smoke that poured from the engine compartment. I always wanted to swipe that sign and attach it to his car. The smell of burning motor oil still transports me. STEVE CARELL went in right away, which got things kicked off nicely. Good Saturday puzzle - thanks constructor!

Very nice puzzle. A little fast, but highly enjoyable. Seems like everyone is enamored with the spanners, as am I, but I loved "Service agreement". I had _MEN and just went "Ahhhhhh, OK! Very nice. I like seeming the big D in the puzzle. Means something very different to the kids these days. Here's something from Wet Leg, a duo from some British ile, in honor of that answer. <a href="https://youtu.be/Zd9jeJk2UHQ?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Zd9jeJk2UHQ?feature=shared</a>

As I filled in my last clue, I got an image of stevedores, lined up in rows, tapping their hook handles on the boards to the unsung beats. IT'S A HARD DOCK LIFE for us! IT'S A HARD DOCK LIFE for us! Emptying these ships of stuff And the pay is not enough IT'S A HARD DOCK LIFE!

Late to the party, but I have to say, this puzzle has everything I want in a Thursday crossword. Really liked the mixed spanner. Thanks Josh!

Flew through the puzzle, but had a hiccup at 10A [Summer specification at Starbucks]. Took me a few seconds to come up with ICED, as iced coffee is a year-round drink here in Boston. More specifically, it's a way of life for some - a double-cupped Dunkin iced is as much an accessory as a handbag.

As a big fan of the moon and tricky Sundays, this hit the spot. Thanks Jeffrey and Jeff! Macaroon rant - back when the "macaron" craze was revving up (late 2000s?) a coworker was gushing about them and I thought I'd introduce a bit of trivia that I found interesting - that we in the US call them macaroons and they have been made here for centuries in almond form and later with coconut. She got very upset, surprisingly, and insisted that lowly coconut macaroons were a totally different cookie - not a macaron - and that perfect macarons were very hard to make. Even after explaining that the only difference was that one had flaked coconut and the other had almond flour, she just got more angry. Prior to going back to college in the 90s, I was a professional baker for many years, and one of the many products I'd turn out were almond macaroons, baked just like you see in the pictures (though we didn't fill ours). Granted, coconut macaroons are easier to make, as you have to pay more attention to your meringue quality with the almond version, but it's not rocket science - I mean, I made them as a new baker in my teens. Fetishizing food, especially when there's an added snob factor, bugs me, I guess.

I love a big open themeless, and this didn't disappoint. Was it too easy for Sunday? Maybe, but wooshing through the grid, top to bottom, getting those long ones with minimal crosses, was a lot of fun. Thanks Mr. A. J.!