Hugh

@A This older (65) solver managed to get by through absorbing cultural chatter over the years. It’s pretty hard to ignore.

@Steve L I’m in this camp as well. A bit of a slog with a good bit of flyspecking to find that one letter I filled in wrong. Not nearly as interesting as a good Friday or Saturday.

@Jordan Like any skill in life, you start off clumsily and over time develop your ability to pull it off. Accept the process and the struggle. With persistence, you’ll pick it up.

@Warren I’ve been a fan for decades.

@Andy K People talk about conditional morality as if that’s a bad thing.

@Dan I thought the whole idea was to be messed with.

@M Rebuses can often (Sometimes? Always?) be solved with just the first letter and not the entire string of letters.

@Enough Same. I wanted to turn it into a rebus, but I like the constructor’s solution even more.

@Andrzej Aw. Were you misdirected? That mean, mean constructor.

@Laura Stratton That’s the way to do it. Good job!

@Tom Om is a chant. Ooooooommmmmm. It’s meditative.

@David Gropper I needed to flyspeck to work that one out. It almost got me too!

@Convoid-04 Idaho’s border has the profile of former president Richard Nixon.

@Michael R I have to disagree. Part of the fun of long fills for me is teasing them out through crosses and running possibilities through my mind. There’s a feeling of reward when they finally come together. In today’s puzzle each long fills was virtually the first thing that came to mind. There was no struggle. And the struggle is the fun part.

@George Nixon You’ve only just begun to find out how the rules can be broken. Buckle up. It’s a fun ride.

@Vaer I shocked my friends this week when I mentioned never having seen “Frozen”

@BR If there is a Hell, flyspecking is a big part of it.

This was my last solve. Flyspecking and thinking my streak would end over a Wednesday was no fun. Luckily, I finally figured this one out.