Bart

On my phone the bold letters were nearly indistinguishable from the others. Made it very difficult. Hated the clue for GIBE, way too obscure for me, perhaps I’m too obtuse. Otherwise I enjoyed it.

As a relatively newbie I was surprised that I found a Thursday puzzle to be fairly easy. That’s not a complaint! I enjoyed not being frustrated beyond belief. I was very surprised that I figured out the “connection” between the shaded squares before finishing all of them. It helped me solve the puzzle. My last square was a guess, the G for geo/GPS, it was a Doh! moment for sure.

Almost had it but the SW had me stuck. I had DIREC instead of DIVER and it just wasn’t working. Gave up and read the column. I had all the “hard” answers, and TOAT, but was missing DOWN. That helped me finish the SW corner. As a relative beginner, not too bad. Maybe if I had slept on it I would have solved it on my own.

Put in the O for BOOKTOK and aargh, “at least one square is…” Start combing through the puzzle… Ya know that’s a funny way to spell WHATABOUTYSM, but I learned POLLYWOG when I was younger. Problem solved and an alternate spelling was learned.

Harder the usual for me, but managed without lookups, albeit 20 minutes slower than normal. SW nearly defeated me, I was stuck with WOLFTEETH for a bit and wasn’t sure if Bruce Lee had played CATO or KATO, but got it figured out.

Weirdly, I’m a new a slow solver, but I found this one pretty straightforward. Especially once I figured out the theme. Only real issue was CUTSTHECAKE instead of TAKETHECAKE, but THREEPIO didn’t fit and ARTOO did.

Now I’m hungry.

LOOK I’M A DEA HAT? What the heck is a DEA hat? Oh, LOOK I MADE A HAT. Okay fine, but so what? I’m guessing it relates to Sunday in the Park with George. I prefer puzzles where the theme/trick can help you solve the puzzle. Not some reference to some rando musical that I’ve never heard of. Other than that, not too hard, not too easy. A good enough Wednesday puzzle for me.

Perfect for a Tuesday puzzle. Fun and quick, but some crosses needed in order for me to figure out a couple. I too was wondering whether SOBA or UDON would fit, luckily a quick look at the first cross and it was obviously HUN making UDON. And so it went.

A surprisingly fast solve for me for a Thursday. I thought it might be a rebus, but realized quickly that the crosses wouldn’t work. I had LOSAES, filled in and then when I got STRANGELOVE and the revealer I was able to figure out the rest without too much trouble other than not realizing I had FALLEANGELS when I needed FALLENANGEL. Once I found that mistake the SE corner succumbed. I liked it overall. Enough “easy” clues to help with the crosses a bit of confusion about the theme to keep it interesting.