Doug Schoemer

I'm very old-school, I guess, but I really don't like it when reading the grid left to right gives you gibberish, as occurred here a few times. The trick was very cumbersome.

To have "hoser" (so London, Ontario, I guess?), "on dope" and "up trends" in the same region of the puzzle is incredibly frustrating. Challenging is fine - great even - but this one went too far. If this exemplifies a tournament puzzle, I'm fine staying home.

This was significantly more difficult than the usual Tuesday.

The problem with WRIST, aside from being a very obscure pun, is that WAIST can work almost as well both across and down there. I actually think WAIST is a better answer, and HAA seemed weird but reasonable. Also far too many "plug" words, and after yesterday's masterpiece this one fell completely flat.

I'm thrilled: got to work thinking it's Wednesday, only to discover it must be Thursday - a day closer to the weekend.

I really didn't understand how the confederacy was a farmer's market alternative, but shoved that "CSA" in there anyway. (I see what it really is from a comment below - thanks for that, as I had never heard of those.)

Having GENESET (very awkward answer), ATTACKAD (clever clue) and ANKLETAT all intersect was really tough. I kept wondering how an "ankle top" was an image.

I keep my stats (yep, nerd) and this Wednesday took me almost 3 minutes longer (in percentages, that's over 25% btw) than the next most difficult Wednesday, covering a period of over 5 years. I remember a few months back a similar thing happened, and wonder if some kind of adjustment is happening. Having "GASX," "PRGURU," and "AREPAS" bordering each other is sadistic. Often, difficult puzzles are fun to solve. This was not one of those.