Joya

I had a truly unpleasant time with this one. I'm familiar with the logic but it just was not fun.

This one could have used a cute animation! I didn't see the nuts until I read the article.

That was cool :) I caught onto the theme at HEARTTRANSPLANT, then specifically went to work on the rest since they were fun to solve in their own right. I had a little trouble in the North East because I was thinking FORhire before realizing it was FORTUNE. Once I got past that it was smooth sailing. Very very impressive theme, and I don't think the rest of the puzzle suffered for it.

I had a typo in the NW led me to make other mistakes that left me thinking the theme answers were going to start out nonsensical. Once I cleared up that haze MYSOURCESSAYNO became clear and I smiled through the rest of the puzzle. Years ago I wanted to go to a special Alicia Keys event, so I figured out the A&Rs email address at her record label and asked him for a pass. He ended up giving me a series of vague answers, so I sent him a magic 8 ball to “bring some ease to his decision making” and he gave me the pass lol!!

I love looking up location clues on Google Maps (even when I know the answer!) and today’s at 13 down about Mount Chimborazo did not disappoint. I ended up falling down a rabbit hole after seeing a photo of a man ice mining. A little googling let me to an article about him that’s totally worth the read! <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18161337" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18161337</a>

it was all fun and games until nope... that's not a rebus. LOL! I noticed the theme immediately which made the whole solve more enjoyable. And I'm actually not mad at thinking the clues were supposed to be entered as a rebus because it actually helped me make sure I had all of them. And replacing the rebuses with the proper letters in the end wasn't all bad lol.

Suuuuuuuuuch a good theme! I skipped it at 1 Across but caught on at 9 Across and it was off to the races from there. Some I needed a few crosses on and some I was able to get outright and both methods were equally as fun. My parents are Trekkies so KLINGON was nostalgic for me. I cracked up at JOHNS, especially after PEE. I needed the comments when I didn't get the music on completion. I had CHOkER/TAkE. I had never heard of CHOLER and choker loosely made sense for [fury], and take certainly made sense for [account].

Man I flew through 2/3rds of this one and had an entirely blank SW corner. I can’t even say what opened it up for me. I truly had to peck my way through it lol. At one point I even tried LIAMNEESON for [He’s Taken] even though I had some crosses I was confident in already that made that not make sense lol!!!

I saw the random circles and shaded squares and went henpecking for the revealer and tried Donkey Kong after staring at the puzzle a bit which didn't fit. I then tried to solve the area with the shaded boxes first but that didn't click so I headed back up to the SE and WHACAMOLE came with SMASHING. Actually I left out the C just in case it was a k. In crosswordland you never know... there may be a DUkETS lol. I had the toughest time in that shaded area but it ended up helping when I realized they spelled out MALLET. When I got the music I was a little disappointed with the lil rebuses but when I closed the overlay and the little graphics showed up I was hooked. LOL. super cute.

I definitely cracked up at JunK in the trunk until I realized my error.

I second guessed a lot of answers because my brain was on Friday and the puzzle was a bit Wednesdayish but I absolutely cracked up at GASSTATIONSUSHI. :). Today's mini was a fun one!

What a charming lil theme!

How can sooooo many wrong answers feel so right???? and FIT!

I figured out we had to twist the words early on and my heart dropped because I have a tough time parsing downs longer than 5 (visually) but I persevered and got it done! One time I had box braids and went to the library and all the little kids thought I was actress/singer Brandy lol.

LOL! I should have known given this is a Robyn puzzle... I filled in the long answers easy peasy with such flair and then got sooo stuck on SO many short ones. ABSENT and MUTT cracked me up so much once I realized what those answers were. So many "oh... duh" moments. Loved it!

Whew! So happy to get the music without having to go back and correct something. UHOH definitely eluded me for a bit because I was trying to think of a one word answer. Super grateful for the anagram info to solve the Hall Of Famer clue. This puzzle taught me that I need to work on letting go of answers I THINK are correct sooner so they don't get in the way of the ones I KNOW are correct.

I lovely workout, although I missed the theme altogether. I adored the ALEXTREBEK clue/answer.

I loved this one. It was a great challenge for me. Nothing too obtuse OR straight forward. I just chugged my through doing and undoing until it was done. None of the longer answers were gimmies so I had a lot of great moments where the crosses helped me see the forest through the trees. I’m definitely looking forward to more from Kelly Mornus!

I LOVED this puzzle! I went into it with dread because of its closed off corners, and I got nowhere pretty fast until STENO, ORZO and WEE lead me to BRAINFREEZE and JUSTFORSHOW which opened up things for me. Those got me to JIBJABs which are not your average ecard! They’re way more fun. NEARSIGHTED stumped me way longer than it should have considering how nearsighted I am, and have been since 3 years old. I couldn’t think of a word shorter than short that fit, until I got DAN by guessing which male name with an A in the middle fit there best lol. THATAWAY and Zsa Zsa’s MARRIAGEs gave me back to back chuckles. Loved the Rebel/OBEY opposites for the same reasons I loved its cross’s firs/beeches vs furs/beeches for TREES; the latter being my new favorite clue of all time lol. I could see George sitting in front of RUDI in my head but I needed the UDI to actually remember the name, but I loved the nostalgia. Just a really fun puzzle!

I loved the clue for MAILMEN and QUITEQUIET and that’s about it. I passionately hate CUKE. Looking forward to Wednesday’s puzzle.

For the Mini: O-nay a-way... IXNAY does not mean no. For the main: [In the main] felt super dated, but the rest of the puzzle felt pretty fresh. I really loved [Messing around on set?] for DEBRA and the fun fact about the ASCOT [Tie named for a British horse racing venue]. And I liked that SMART/phone/*** combo could have also been jack/phone/***. Maybe we'll see it later this week. (apparently the word I censored is ok for the puzzle and the column but not ok for the comments) Oh and every part of an elephant is big lol.

I cracked up early on at BOOTYCALLS and again when I finished the puzzle and the music played. I breezed through a lot but also got stuck in places scattered around the board. Finally I just plugged in a bunch of educated guesses thinking “this can’t be right and I’m going to have a hard time spotting where I went wrong” when the music played. Also count me as +1 for thinking SexSTORY, especially in the single person clue area. It was short lived however since it was clear that answer was SOLO.

Got the theme fully at ARMSOFCOAT even though I had LIFEOFJAWS, CHANGE, LABORS and PRIDE. I think I was just overthinking what the theme might be. The northwest was very Friday for me. Long downs that aren't gimmies are always tough for me. My brain has a hard time parsing the words so BEHAVIORAL came cross by cross which came inch by inch. LOL! I didn't know STELLA, didn't expect two words for OHCOOL and NONEBUT and I didn't think we'd have COITUS in a NYTimes puzzle. I also had bUTS for OUTS and eary on I had cry for SOB.

@Deb I'm so sorry for your loss and am thankful to your dad for the gift of YOU!

That was great! I really enjoyed the solve. I loved GOODKARMA for [clean energy?] and of course MEDIUMRARE for [a little unwell?]. I had MEDIUM___E and still needed 2 more crosses before seeing rare. FALSEIDOL was a gimme but I really enjoyed seeing it in a crossword. Well, not exactly a gimme... there's a Ten Commandments song from my childhood that I had to sing in my head for it. I was annoyed with the [unrealistic claim on the packaging of a kids toy] until I got the NOMESS answer. That combo has my utmost respect, and I don't even have kids lol.

Of cooooourse I cracked up at BOOTYCALL because I’m a grown up child lol. I also loved the clue for STUFFYNOSE and RAWR was fun. The only thing that tripped me up was originally plopping in Iffy for IDLE, but that was a quick fix. Otherwise fair and fun!

Wow then whew then Wow! That middle part was tougher with the colors but switching between my phone and my computer helped a lot. The phone was actually better for the mixed color downs for me. Thankfully that overall challenge was balanced by the ease of the puzzle overall. Loved it!

What an awesome debut!!! I loved the stacks, but my favorite entry was FINE! BE MAD!

NUNnery before NUNHOOD and DeepdIvE before NUNHOOD and DATAMINE slowed me down a bit but once I reworked those it was smooth sailing to the music. And I loved that clue for DEW!

What a great Monday with a perfect amount of chew! LOVED the clue for EDIT and OWELET. MOOCH and SHOOS were fun and TUNISIA and ARMADA were nice to see. When I was done I looked back to check out the theme and thought "is that it? just a little do re mi???" and then it hit me... 'post IT notes' and I cracked up. Needless to say I am easily amused. (Hi Elie!)

Drew CAREY, PIANO TUNER, CARESS and bunch other answers came so easily that I thought it was a super easy Saturday but I was wrong wrong. There were tough spots all around for me so it took work to get it done but I enjoyed it for the most part. I had Tom for TAZ for a while and correcting helped a lot. I had to do some plugging on the Latin and the German crosses (ending with the Latin) but I got it done.

LOL! TIL MCNUGGETS have regular shapes LOL! I love them (although I only occasionally eat them) and never noticed this.