Carrie G

The theme was fine, but too many obscure names/proper nouns. It felt hard for a Wed puzzle. Icelandic poet Sturluson? County in northeastern Nevada? I don't work crosswords to hone my google skills. I prefer clever clues over obscure trivia/names.

Every time I check the comments on crossword puzzles many are either "its too easy, therefore quality is down" or "cluing is too obscure/difficult, therefore quality is going down." I just wonder why people keep playing if it frustrates them so? I'm not a good Friday solver, and Saturday is rarely doable for me, but I try every week so I can learn more. And when a difficult clue clicks for me with no help I celebrate, even if I bomb most of the puzzle. Life's too short to be unhappy about my leisure activities.

The optical illusion was fine, but some of the cluing felt unnecessarily obtuse for a Wed. Too many proper names. It felt more like a Thurs puzzle.

I loved the aha moment when I figured out the theme! I didn't use any helps for today's puzzle. I know that's not like getting the Friday/Saturday puzzles without help, but it makes me very happy to have grappled with this and come out on top! Have a great day!

A Thursday puzzle I could figure out on my own! Very clever and fun.

I can see most people enjoyed it, but it felt much more convoluted than most Sunday puzzles. The clues were vague and reminded me more of the non-themed puzzles, like Friday or Sat. That's fine, but I look forward each week to relaxing with the challenging but doable Sunday puzzle, and my skills simply weren't up to this one. So, sort of dissapointed today.

This was a lot of fun. I got the revealer before I finished the themed clues, but I still needed an ahha moment to "see" the shaded squares! Not difficult, but it made me smile.

Definitely tougher than usual for a Tuesday, but I liked the themed entries. Struggled with some clues and thought I'd never get the breakthrough I needed. Almost cried when I had it filled but got the "error" message at the end. Took me forever to find that one letter I mistyped. :-)

I'll admit I'm not up to solving many Thursdays or Saturday puzzles without help, so I expect to look at Wordplay and get some help. But there was no place for me to grab onto and work out from. I need at least a corner or a spot where I can get the answers so I can start spreading out from there. Today there was no joy. I'd have to look up too many answers to make it fun.

Wednesdays used to be my sometimes challenging but doable puzzle, while Thurs-Sat were my "learning" puzzles where I leaned into the hints and tried to gain skills. (Sundays are usually doable for me, maybe with a hint tor two.) The past two Wednesdays have felt oddly tricky. I agree with one commenter that there should have been a "revealer." Please give us usual slope up to the difficult days. :-)

I got 18 Across but still didn't get the puzzle theme until I finally read wordplay. The theme was ok, although I never did figure out the pun in 62A. What I really don't care for is all the names, especially when you can't figure them out just with crosses. It lowers a puzzles enjoyment when there is no way for me to solve it without looking up names.

I've always thought "take a powder" referred to taking a bathroom break, as in going to the "powder room." It can also be used to allude to being annoyed and needing a break from people/situation. "I/you need to take a powder!"