jdc

Great puzzle, I'm proud to be among those who got TAOISEACH right on the first try, and JOANOFARC finally came to me after trying SACAJAWEA. On a personal basis, on November 16, 2016 I decided to distract myself from the bleak news of that day by solving the NYT crossword. It worked, and I kept it up through dark news days and better news days until now, 8 years later, my solving streak has reached 2,922. As luck would have it, November 16, 2024 is another bleak news day, so I'll keep on solving with the goal of eventually reaching "happy days" again.

Fun puzzle! And a great one for me to solve today as the 3000th in my solving streak since November 16, 2016!

I finally managed it, but I didn't find the clues to rebuses intuitive at all. More tedious than interesting is my judgment.

Who in the world says ABYSM rather than ABYSS, or ABYSSAL over ABYSMAL? I have heard WOAH every now and then, so I won't criticize it, but ABYSM? ABYSSAL?

This one was two Saturdays worth of tough. Satisfying to finish, but now I'm going to need a long nap.

Hard to get started on, but once I clued in this was one of the most enjoyable Thursday puzzles in months. Bravo!

One of the toughest Fridays I can remember. Rewarding to solve, but a work out.

I was today years old when I first learned of Pop Warner sports.

I've only seen "hoser" as Canadian slang for a loser, and "Oh, I see" is more familiar to me than "Ah . . ." Tough puzzle all the way through. I was tired but satisfied when the music finally chimed in. Now for a nap!

I never found an opening that really let me get into this one, so I spent a lot of time googling. I did finally finish. Maybe I can plead tiredness from a night listening to the heavy rain from Helene? At least it was just heavy rain and only slightly breezy because the storm jogged east and left me on its western fringe. Never heard of QDOBA, though after some googling I know there's one not far from me.

I liked this, the trick was clever and amusing when I grasped what was going on, and the fill was challenging but not impossible. What a Thursday puzzle should be, in other words. Bravo!

Good puzzle today. I've always seen "uppish" used for either a social climber trying to make it "up the ladder" or as a synonym for something a bit more expensive than the norm. On the other hand "uppity" means someone who is arrogantly trying to bully a social superior into accepting them. Therefore an uppish person is slightly more tolerable than an uppity one, though I prefer not to be around either one.

Toughest Saturday in a long while. Satisfying to finish, but now I need a long nap!

This one gave me a scare that my 3028 solving streak was in jeopardy, because it looked like a typical rebus puzzle and that's how I filled it out on my desktop. When it wouldn't accept it as solved I looked and looked for a misspelled entry and couldn't find one. Then I decided to remove the rebuses and not bother filling in the colors, and fortunately that worked.

Never heard of anecdata or Charlixcx before now, but I still finished a bit under my average for Fridays. Good puzzle!

Fun puzzle which I solved from the bottom up! Great debut and congratulations!!

Tough for a Wednesday, but fun. The NW corner was a huge challenge because I kept trying to put DATE and some plural form of VIRUS in there (yes, I know there's no weird form of VIRUS, but I was getting desperate.)

This puzzle could have been constructed with me in mind: British royalty, C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden, Russian history, and a little Pinocchio tossed in. Thanks, Natan Last!

Never heard of PARKOUR before now, but I'm glad to learn something new.

Toughest Wednesday I've seen in a long, long time! PRGURU baffled me for way longer than it should've.

Challenging but fun puzzle. As I was finishing I was certain I was going to get the Try Again screen, but instead I got CONGRATULATIONS! after only 16 minutes or so.

54 down farmer's market alternative is CSA???? The only CSA I know of is the one seven of my great-great-granddads fought for in the 1860s (my eighth great-great-granddad fought against it.).

Enjoyable puzzle over all, but I don't have brunch often enough to make it less challenging. In my neck of the woods we call them hashbrowns. Plain old "hash" is something you might have as a side for lunch or dinner.

Nicely challenging Thursday puzzle, but why is there a thicker black line on 64A?

Good puzzle overall, but I've never heard "Buy Get One Free." It's always Buy One. . . or Buy Two. . .