Steve

Tough one today. Needed more lookups than I cared for (1995 and 2008? an obscure Mamet play?), hence a few minutes over my Saturday average. While it didn't impact my solve time, I very much disliked the cluing for 25A. "Kennedy center" is either N, NNE, or ENNED. The ENS are very much left of center. It was easy enough to get past, but a very poor clue, nonetheless.

This was a really good Thursday puzzle.

As I write this, I see there are 224 comments. I suspect over half address how (relatively) easy today's puzzle was. So what? It was FUN, and that's why I do crosswords. Sure, I appreciate finishing a more challenging puzzle, too, but today's puzzle gave me joy. Perhaps that was due to the whimsical pictures for some of the clues, and that's fine, too. Oh, and also a no-lookup, personal best for a Thursday. THAT'S fun! ☺️

I'm 72, and had no problems with this puzzle at all. Now, that doesn't mean I got a personal best--rebuses always give me a bit of a test, but today's was pretty simple. I came here because I figured there would be a lot of complaints re: OHFERS, SIMMS, POSTSUP (basketball players hang out when they post up, too), MAGE, and I wasn't surprised. MAGE is very common in fantasy literature and all sorts of tabletop and video games, by the way.

I had the (somewhat) good fortune of living within an hour's drive or so of the Lorelei in the mid-80s, while stationed in West Germany with the US Air Force. The promontory is located on one of the more beautiful and scenic sections of the Rhein (or Rhine) with views of several castles. And just a couple years ago, we cruised the Rhein and Mosel (Moselle), once again (safely) passing by the Lorelei.

Figured out the gimmick pretty quickly, but had to come to Deb's column to be sure I was entering rebuses (rebii?) correctly. Puzzle was not that difficult (did require a few lookups), but took me longer than average, by about a minute. The number of complaints about rebuses surprises me. I mean, I'm retired, so which day of the week it is, isn't that important to me (as long as I get the trash to the curb for pickup on Mondays), but even I know when it's a Thursday puzzle!

I'm not going to go through 130 comments to see if this was already pointed out, but "PWN" was originally a typo for "OWN," but spread like wildfire through gaming forums.

Also, if anyone uses the word ARDENCY in my presence, I shall look upon them with PASSIONate disdain. That includes you, emus.

Fun and challenging. Some answers were arrived at solely through crosses (GALBA?); others fell into place with just a couple letters; many more took some work. All told though, I managed to finish almost 15 min faster than my average for a Saturday. I'm also proud to say I've stopped using lookups, which I believe has helped me improve my average times over the past two weeks.

I only put the U in the rebus squares, and the online version accepted that. No rebuses needed.

I don't feel guilty about having to check 1A in Tricky Clues. But after that, I managed to finish one second over my average for a Friday. It took me awhile (and crosses) to suss out Rod CAREW; I'm more of an NL fan (that league's batting champ is awarded the Hank Aaron trophy). NOAH, as many have noted, was brilliant. I really appreciated REGNANT, even though I was having problems using it for crosses: Act cAsUAL just wasn't cutting it. And "SyLlable" didn't work for 31D, either. I finally remembered it's Friday; not, say, Wednesday. Altogether, a very enjoyable puzzle, and a great debut.

Nope, did not like. Sorry . . . this is the first time I actively disliked a puzzle. Finally had to look up 29A and D: that arrow in the picture points to a HIGHWAY, and RAJh is perfectly cromulent.

One SEESRED after one SEEthED at the "Almost done" prompt, then realizes one did not check all the crosses as one filled. LGt? EAh??

What a great debut! Challenging, yet I finished about 14 min faster than my average. Like Caitlin, I got the lower half before the upper, but once I saw the AP in DEERSTALKER CAP, I knew 1D, and the rest filled in fairly rapidly. Had once hiccup at 18D/28A, and it was only while typing this note that I "got" 28A. (I had DIEs at 18D, before I grokked "paleo.") Some obscure clues (ELLA Jenkins; Cristiano RONALDO--which one I happened to know) but some fun ones as well. I was happy I knew of NED Kelly.

I'm sure a lot of people may complain this was too easy for a Saturday, but I'm simply going to enjoy my new P.R. for the day. (Yes, it did solve more like a Wednesday, but after the week we've had, so what?)

Coincidentally (?), I just killed a bug that was in the air: a FLy. Could NOT figure out what "YSS" was. (Also, I'm fairly certain no naval ships have "USS" on the bow: every picture I could find only had numbers on the bow.)

I guess this one was in my wheelhouse: more than 9.5 minutes faster than my average. (Thursdays are NOT my favorite puzzle day!) Caught on to the theme immediately, but I agree with Barry Ancona that this was not a rebus puzzle.

I got stuck in the SE for a bit, and *almost* had to do a lookup, but I left it while I filled in the rest of the puzzle, and suddenly (it always works that way, right?) the rest was a breeze. Weirdly, EXEC is what I was really stumped on for the longest time.

Almost a perfect Saturday puzzle. I say almost because I was really stumped in the NW & SE corners. And I had Great anaconda for way too long. Still, 3:25 better than my average for Saturday, so I SHA'nT complain overmuch.

@Deb Amlen Airplanes don't make re-entries so much as spacecraft do.

For me, this was a perfect puzzle for a Tuesday. Kudos to Mr. Benson.

I only got ETHER and ARO with the crosses. Hadn't heard of AROmantic before. Only had 2 or 3 letters in SLUMBERPARTIES before I grokked that one--fun clue! SE corner had me going for a bit until I realized that one who is TATTooed is TATTEDUP. As it was, I finished in about 2/3 of my average time today--a good, fun Friday puzzle!

New personal best for a Friday . . . just over half of my average time. But I thought it was a challenging puzzle nonetheless (there's a word I'd love to see in a crossword!)--the long answers just seemed to be in my wheelhouse, some answered without any crosses. Thank you, Ms Weintraub!

I think I enjoyed this one almost as much as Deb Amlen did! Managed to finish about 10 min faster than my average for a Friday, which made me very happy after Thursday (in which I had 3/4 of the puzzle done in 18 min, and the other quarter--the NW--took another 9 min!). WHOSAGOODdOg held me up in the NE for a minute or so. If I actually owned a dog, I'd have gotten it right off the bat, I'm sure.

Sixteen minutes flat--more than 9 minutes faster than my average. Also, I'm sure some wag will point out that many NFL teams have multiple owners--especially the publicly owned Green Bay Packers.

I had nothing on my first run through except COBS, AOL, ORIOLE, and BOOR. I also had BAR_ _ I _ _ _ . A couple lucky guesses there. Then I read more clues, knew COMOESTAS, and eventually managed a complete fill in 3 minutes faster than my average. It felt daunting at first, but for a change, I didn't dwell on stuff I couldn't figure out immediately. Quite an enjoyable solve, all things considered.

Interesting to see yesterday's Wordle as an answer today (6D). Didn't even need any crosses! (I got the Wordle in 6 yesterday.)

Fun Fact: 57A (Hideo NOMO, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers) is the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Denver's Coors Field.

I was fortunate enough to see that famous British rock group last spring. But I only grokked the clue with crosses. Today's puzzle was a challenge (understatement): took me a full 30 percent longer than my average. But enjoyable nonetheless. (I don't think my brain was fully engaged: took me forever to figure out OTOH, which is something I use with regularity.)

It seems to me a lot of people overthought this puzzle. I looked at the grid and IMMEDIATELY grokked the theme. The first fill disabused me of the idea of rebuses. That said, I kept wanting to use PURPLE instead of INDIGO. (Also, there is some debate in scientific circles whether there are only 6 colors in a rainbow, postulating that the difference between indigo and violet is illusory. Personally, I only ever see 6.)

With about 5 clues to go, my wife came in with flight information for a trip we're planning. I exclaimed, "Not right now!" as I pressed on to blowing my previous Saturday best to smithereens.

I have no complaints, since I scored a personal best today (yes, there were a couple lookups). Okay, one minor nit with 13D--in 71 years, I'd never heard that synonym for "peeved." Not a lawyer, but I do follow a couple of law blogs, so I had ENBanC until the crosses gave me the correct answer. ("En Banc" is the case where, for example, all of the judges in a Federal Circuit sit in on and rule on a case, rather than just one judge.)

Got through in pretty short order (about 8 or 9 minutes under my average), but the dreaded "One or more squares . . . " MCA is also a record label (or was), and World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy are also multi-player games, or MPGS. /le sigh

Very fun; just right (for me) for a Thursday. Or maybe a bit easy? About 7 minutes faster than my average. Fortunately, already existing fills saved my V for Vendetta answer from failing spectacularly, since my first instinct was Fry, but "DRD" and "EYD" made no logical sense.

Yes, it's Friday. Filled in the bottom half completely, quite quickly. But the top was another matter. Wasn't real thrilled with some of the cluing ("Look for" = AWAIT?) (HATEWATCH? What is this, exactly?), but BLANKETHOG and ITSAPLANE made up for those. I did write EAR but immediately changed it to LIP--it IS Friday, after all!