Chris

Didn’t enjoy this. The theme is difficult to get - even if you knew the poem, you’d have to guess at how the author summarizes it. I also thought modern retelling would mean more than “phrase it normally, without poetic frills.” The differences here don’t seem to be much about the time period than they are that one is a beautiful poem and the other is a short summary. And finally the fill had too many obscure clues. Not my favorite Thursday

Really disliked this one. Not all difficult puzzles are good puzzles. I could make a crossword puzzle referencing all of my friends’ pets and inside jokes and actors from C indie movies and nobody would solve it. Does that mean I’m an excellent constructor? Or does that mean I failed to hit a balance that was challenging but fair and fun? I’ve done puzzles I’ve had to work for and the payoff was good. This one was just a chore.

Agree that homonyms for the theme answers was very underwhelming. I think it’s because usually when there’s something a little off about a puzzle, you learn it’s because of some clever wordplay you missed. In this case, it’s just because the constructor wanted to hide Bigfoot in the puzzle and couldn’t figure out how to do it without fudging his goal. Meh.

I usually like rebuses, but this puzzle was more annoying than usual rebuses. I don’t think it was the lack of a revealer. Something about it just doesn’t work for me.

Help me out. Usually the veterans here will tell you to be grateful for the chance to learn a new word, and that if it’s at all in the dictionary then it’s fair. That seems to fly out the window with ABYSM and I’m not sure why this one is the exception. If you even remember what Calculus is about (even if you can’t remember how to do it), then MAXIMUM is pretty straightforward. There’s also the added clue of lateral symmetry in addition to a fair cross. So I’m trying to work out when people are allowed to complain about an entry and when they’re not. Maybe it has something to do with abyss being such a common crossword answer that people are on autopilot and are averse to even trying to change it.

Definitely more doable than last Saturday’s puzzle, but I got the same vibe from this one with several iffy clues and a lot of obscure fill.

“Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America.” And this is why in November 2024, liberals will be wondering why we got Trump again. When this stuff is mainstream enough to be a crossword clue when a similar title for any other demographic group would be branded as hate speech (yes yes it’s different for white men), you can only hope that most white men will take part in the self-abasement for a very limited amount of time before they say “forget this” and join the side that’s not intent on casting them as a perpetual villain. I know who I’m voting for

I agree the AFTER answers are pretty redundant. This kind of theme is commonly used but usually the leftover, uncircled letters are left to speak for themselves. It would be more interesting (but extremely difficult to construct) if the leftover letters had significance to the thing being removed - but otherwise the theme feels bland. And also hooray for protecting endangered species, but I hate the feeling of being preached at, especially in a crossword or other form of entertainment. I’m not hunting any rhinos, lions, or seals, pinky promise. I get you’re making me aware, but I’ve got no extra money to donate to this cause (nor is the crossword the most effective way of motivating anyone to do so), so what does my “awareness” buy?

104 across is the reason you don’t have squares that are only a part of one word. I like puzzles that have an extra component, but I really don’t think that extra component should be necessary for completing the puzzle. I had JAM there and spent forever trying to understand what I had wrong. Only to realize that jam did not work with the lock turning puzzle. Also I did figure out what letters went in the circles before I finished the grid, but it would be nice if the animation didn’t play immediately upon winning so people had a chance to solve it themselves if they waited until the end.

Isn’t it Tin Pan Alley?