Dale M

I don't do passes. I solve by quadrant. I don't time myself. I turned off the timer. I don't need bells and whistles and a pat on then back from a computer program. The more daydreaming and fact chasing I can get out of a crossword puzzle is a win for me. I am not in a race to finish. -- The NYT does keep records of my solve times and I wonder if my deck sitting and bird watching has an effect on solve time averages for everyone. Anybody?

I may be expecting too much but I would've liked to have seen more of a connection between the particular hook (the movie) and either the fish or the cross containing the fish. It seemed a bit random and not really bait worthy. I was snagged but not landed.

I am picturing a tornado at a tomato farm. SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT Onotomatopoeia!

I think a lightly grilled branzino pairs well with a dry bandeau. Two words I had only heard before today.

And a dollar short. I just solved yesterday's puzzle and I must interrupt today's proceedings to say I just love Saturday's 17A clue and answer. I don't get to type DIADELOSMUERTOS often enough. Thank you for indulging me. This was not a cry for attention.

I'll rate this one XS. But, what the heck, I'll be back tomorrow.

I am kind of shocked at how well liked this puzzle seems to be. I just don't appreciate all the clever frou-frou, and the light show, as much as most seem to do. Go figure! I am a big fan of Earth Day, though. Go Planet!

Did I hear "Boomer!"? Shoot me with a POTATO GUN! The last video game I played was Pong on a tabletop-cabinet screen in a Shakey's Pizza in the early '70s. Even after solving 24A PRINCESS PEACH I had no idea what the theme or the artsy grid was all about. Not even a genre. I think I actually "gulped". But it wasn't as bad for me as I then feared. While I still don't fully understand the gold question mark squares, by the time I got to FIREF-LOWER I at least wasn't wondering what a WARPPIPE might do. (Though I think FIREF-LOWER might be why I kept reading 105D as "daisies" even after typing PODIA.) My biggest hitch was the intersection of 77D's MOW (weak pun) and 88A's WARIO though "W" was my first guess. All in all, though out of my wheelhouse, a fun puzzle. Not overwhelming (maybe a tad under) and leaving plenty of time this morning to walk my NEOPET. Do I hear "Boomer?"

Today I'm reading the column and comments listening to my father's reel-to-reel recording of Don Ho. o o o o o o o o oo o oo o oo o oo oo oo o ooo o o oo oo o oo o o oo o ooo o oo oo o o o This has been a Rebus of "Tiny Bubbles".

"Deadheading" gave me a vision of a shears wielding gardener dancing in a tie-dyed flight attendants uniform. A vision, not a hallucination.

It was bumper to bumper at the intersection of YEOH and HITOUT. Nothing to MEWL about.

I had to work this one a bit but in a good satisfying way. I thought it a nice puzzle once I re-remembered how to work the rebus option. (I am more used to cramming in the letters with my ball point pen.) Today I learned an awful lot more than I needed to about slime mold. Fascinating stuff!

I wear a snarf around my sneck.

After 22A "Babes in the Woods" I kept thinking "I don't remember any Natalie in the Bible. Nor orphans for that matter." It took 28A "Beats around the Bush" for my eureka. Ginsberg makes me howl anyway. Kerouac makes me lay rubber.

I was thinking WaIST band not WRIST band (78A) and was open to WHoRLS or WHIRLS for Eddies and thus was wrinkling my brow at how could GaO_VES ever possibly lead to Pleasing rhythm so, being slightly discombobulated, I had to chuckle when my last entry finally came to me. Uh Oh. It's WARIO! At least I can't say, this time, that this Boomer has never heard of him.

I wouldn't want it everyday, but, I think of it as an interesting thought provoking exercise and kind of a paean to the versatility of the English language. A little light fun! Why not? (Rhetorical ?)

Today I remembered that the esc key opens the rebus square to accept letters. Yay! Other than that, this puzzle did not give me a Bono.

The best thing, if not the only good thing, that my older brother did for me was to turn me on to Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life". 1976 we had the bicentennial and arguably one of the best albums (one of the best triple albums?) of all time.

I swear there was a "search comments" option yesterday. I am not offered that function today. Anyone?

Yet another user friendly LSD reference. I never would have predicted that while expanding my optic lobe in the 1970's. I suppose, now, I could call 100 acid tabs an excellent sheet.

I was off to a slow start, with not much more than IGGY and TWILL, when I hit with REGGIE JACKSON . After that it was a romp. A fun romp!

I also got the huge Utah shaped blur for the animation feature. When I refreshed the page I saw the wee moving graphic. I enjoyed it so much more before I saw it. I may be a cubist rube.

Usually I dread the names in crosswords and it often takes getting the spanners to "confidently" complete them. Not so much today. It was old friends Rod CAREW, Harper LEE, KATO Kaelin and ANA Continents that gave me the whole upstairs stack. Then I chuckled when Eartha, Otis and Dr. Doom introduced me to Leonardo. Maggy CHO and KEIRA I met in puzzles and always make me feel less a wallflower.

My least favorite clue in a long time? 123A B.L.T. or P.B.J., cutesily - (besides what is with the periods?) In a grid full of names especially this strikes me too cutesily.

From the Midi - Today I learned that I have been misspelling "Froot Loops" for 63 years. Almost as long as I have been misspelling misspelling.

I ripped through this grid using only down clues in their numerical order. (-:?

One of the most important things to me in solving puzzles is not having to ever (hopefully) change an answer. I believe this comes from 20 years of solving in the paper with a pen before I even owned a computer and long before the 09-22-96 debut of the NYT online Xword. Once I realized 1A could not be "pals" (as I have never heard of a pAKER) I had some dread and thought about doing this puzzle from the south up. As it turned out, being extra careful and taxing my memory, 1A was one of only two I had to change and, pat my own back, I was able to correctly infill almost the entire north third (LINDT?) before I reached the bottom third. This puzzle was more daunting than difficult. My other edit was pilot error as I had BEeS for 36D "Kings and Queens" giving me IPAe for the 43A pro device Wich I convinced myself was a possible thing I had never heard of. Yes, more daunting than difficult.

What am I missing? Doesn't the gerund "exploiting" in the clue for 1 across call for a similar form in the answer? And the double abbreviation means what? I'm not getting it. And how do I fill in the rebus? (just kidding)

My own career in electronic gaming consists of PONG (on the big console) but never-the-less I managed to piece the puzzle together. Oh, I'm forgetting pinball and "Operation." I prefer Virtuous Reality mindsets.

MIDI puzzle- Today I learned that I have been living under an animated rock. Bugs Bunny has a girlfriend named Lola Bunny? Whatever Lola wants.

Breezy for me and I used only the down clues. I had never tried that before. Fun! Though I almost missed my favorite clue of the day (40 Across Blue state?) but I had time and inclination to go back and peruse.

Ah! Regularly tackling the NYT's Spelling Bee paid off today in the Xword. I knew 30 had to be RO4, oops I mean ROTI! Ah! It's the little words, oops I mean things.

I was a tortoise and not a hare. Slow and steady won my race. As Lovinger wrote in the Wordplay column, "just enough letters to keep moving."