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I like reading the comment sections because I was able to fill this one out in on my own—my first Friday!! I now know how it feels like when people post their times or I search through the article for a hint that doesn’t exist and wonder how I don’t know it, but it seems to be commonplace enough to be a clue. So many times I have ticked on a hint or reveal for many a proper noun or phrase, and it reminds me of my demographic and that maybe mine is not the kind to usually solve the crossword past a Tuesday, and the occasional Thursday. This boosted my confidence. Thank you!

My first Sunday that I finished under an hour and I only had to correct one thing — what I thought was ANKLET for AMULET after seeing the crosses!! As a newer solver (less than a year) I get intrigued reading the comments. Some make me chuckle, some I respond to, but recently many have made me feel not part of the typical “solving crowd.” A history of my comments might hint towards that. A solve I felt like was at a great level for me for, say, a Tuesday, or today’s Sunday becomes invalidated when seeing complaints about what “day” a certain difficulty is supposed to be on or how “easy” something is. I get it for all the people who are used to a routine where a certain level of candor or wordplay is expected, but a big part of me remembers that trivia and wording change all the time with different constructors and editors: the more I play, the more this will get easier for me as I figure out patterns, like how this game really endorses OREOS. But also, the more I play, the older and more experienced I’ll get about certain topics that the NYT crossword may or may not discuss or phrases outside of my repertoire. So what if you miss a few, or if a day just doesn’t mesh with your abilities, when it finally instilled confidence to newer people like me?

Gonna be that obligatory *Pinoy Pride* person. Always a pleasure to see representation that way. My parents’ anniversary is today, and I was able to show them this. My mother was surprised I play, and she let me know that when she first arrived to the US she would try the NYT crosswords but it would be so hard for her (immigrants acclimating to pop culture, learning a new language, that whole thing). Showing her this clue and seeing my mom’s face light up that she knew the answer was so beautiful.

On Dec 22 I responded to a comment about how clues for AUNT and MOM were based on, well nuclear child-rearing pasts and offered the alternative “Zelda or Hilda, for Sabrina”. Based on the “recommend” numbers I could definitely feel the whole “stop making this more than what it is” air and it made me somewhat insecure about agreeing with the OP. I am unsure if an editor or the creator saw my comment and put that to use but either way I feel so seen and validated from 21D. Thank you!!

Going to post this longer comment regarding “Wounded knee site” for ACL as well as this coming out on Juneteenth because it is worth the lengthier discussion. The use of “Wounded knee” as a pun for ACL was so so so poor and disgusting and I can think of 2 reasons. 1. Ignorance on the Wounded Knee Massacre. It is clear that Native American culture and history are not a huge focus of mainstream education, and the victors are the ones whose stories are told. For the writer and editors, upon multiple reviews, to gloss over this clue, is alarming to me because ignorance would mean that Wounded Knee was not taught to any of you that no word associations appeared in your minds upon reading the clue. 2. Know of/heard of Wounded Knee, but not understand the severity of it, or think that it could pass because the demographic of NYT Crossword may not be majorly consisted of people who would dissent. Have similar puns/semantic relations been made about other genocides (I won’t list them, I’m sure you all can think of examples of genocide throughout history)? And if they didn’t pass, why not? What if you had data that more people who identify as Indigenous played the crossword—editors, would you still have double checked? I get this was deemed to be a Thursday puzzle but as a Brown woman who has just discovered the joy of NYT Crosswords to the point I subscribed and play up the archives, having this faux pas published on Freedom Day/Juneteenth felt so, so icky.

Somehow I find I solve more downs than across, so I typically start with down. I also always enjoy when the clue requires someone to think about it phonetically vs. semantically and it always makes me smile when I’m corrected! This being said for 8D I was reluctant to put A BALL simply because I felt like two words, specifically using the article “a” is rare, but then I saw KEPT TO and NO PUN so put it in. Figured it out once I started the crosses and it was delightful being wrong, gave me a good chuckle. 47A was a breeze. I wish there was a way to *save* my favorite puzzles on the app!

I love when my plans for the day aligns with the crossword— just watched Sinners today with HAILEE, then when shopping for the local Ren Faire coming up this weekend (HUZZAH! It will be my first time going), will be dressing up with my blue apron a la The Bear for Halloween (AYO), and my partner will be SPIDER-Man. Even better? Came across a skunk today and whispered “damn, that is BUSHY” so I definitely laughed when I saw that prompt!

I have been playing since February and have played most of the games, even going back in the archives since last October and am delighted to FINALLY have numbers involved!! I was stuck for the longest time, knowing SEEP made sense as I’d seen it before, but was stuck on (a)MEND. Do any other readers here have any favorite crosswords that included numbers? I’d like to give them a try.

1. I loved this SO much! 2. How can I find a list of other crosswords that end up being a drawing/having a visual component to it? I know XWord exists but am wondering if there is another website (or longtime user here who keeps their favorites logged somewhere?) 3. I know this illusion is a classic but, as someone who has watched “Severance” recently and for whom Milchick is a favorite character, it was a nice tie-in to “real” life!

Loved this theme! Took a couple look-ups but overall was able to get the theme. It reminds me of “258” in ASL slang which means “very interesting!”

Had to come here because I saw on Wednesday’s comment section that there were critiques about this day’s— I LOVED today’s!!! It was actually one of the first ones I did NOT look up anything, use a clue, AND got the theme answers correct; I love rebuses in (the original use of the term, where form reflects meaning) Bummed to see all the comments but this was absolutely right up my alley. It was beautiful and I loved the challenge, had to guess COPSE to correct SUBSCRIPTION

Curious— “number” as in grapheme of an amount and “number” as in more numb are not homo”phones” since they differ in phonemes (num-mer vs num-ber). What is the correct term?

Sol