Andy

Ugh. Nasty puzzle today. So much name trivia. And the answer key I get is from 2018.

It takes a lot to get me to come to these parts to complain. I found today's puzzle inaccessible. Natick central, and Saturday level cluing. Easily in my bottom 10.

Ohio... O = rear wheel, h = seat, i = exhaust pipe, o = front wheel

A poignant column opener, condolences to you and your family, Deb Amlen. Fitting that the puzzle itself was a good one. No junk, no naticks.

I think SCRIP for prescription is a little tenuous. In the English-speaking world we use SCRIPT. (I'm not familiar with the Americanism.) Regardless, SCRIP is a valid entry. A more apt clue would have been something to do with paper records related to securities trading, ergo, scrip.

Too much junk fill, esp the three-letter entries. Acronyms and nonsense "words" like ENS, AGER, CSA, LAA, DEL. Entirely forgettable puzzle.

That was a toughie. I don't mind the theme, but was put off by (i) the words not being proper, when viewed in isolation, and (ii) two of the entries are singular genres, they aren't bent or melded - period piece and coming of age.

The column opening contains a spoiler... “What’s a [Ledger entry], five letters, blank-blank-T-blank-Y?” The actual clue is [Ledger item], which solves to ENTRY. No subs on duty?

Lots of junk today. ELA DIV WAS IRL RBI PBR BAS. Consequently a slow solve and not much fun. The theme was good. A massive pity the bases could not be arranged in an approximately diamond shape.

Loads of three-letter junk in today's puzzle. Not a fan.

Craters and depressions on the moon are said to be oceans and seas. As in Sea of Tranquility. The first maps of the moon created by renaissance-era astronomers were annotated in Latin, hence the frequent appearance of 'Mare', ergo, sea.

To sex up... made famous by Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's spin doctor, justifying intelligence to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Whizzed through this one. This is what a good Sunday should be. Attainable without too many TLAs or naticks. I found the theme helped rather than hindered. Sunday PB! PS: 'Canniest, for instance' is one of the best crossword clues I've ever encountered!

That was fun! See, it is possible to have a puzzle that is not the 7:46 to Natick Central.

With 3 triple-stacks, I was expecting it to be Natick Central, which is usually the case when constructors need to make long phrases mesh. Pleasantly surprised that it wasn't! Nice puzzle, as a result. Pedant mode on: Hotel California was released in 1977 (presumably recorded in 1976).

Thursday and Friday two beastly puzzles. Far in excess of my average solve times. Delighted to be sent down the Grace Hopper rabbit hole, what an extraordinary woman.

Howls with outrage! Juice Newton, not Olivia Newton-John. (Unless I am sorely mistaken and the Newtron Bombshell covered it too.)

Liked that! The 8:16 to Natick Central is not running today. No junk or TLAs to speak of. Great job.

Wrestled a bit with this one. North east corner stitched me... FIRE/LIFE. Gripe with the Mini... well. it's not exactly mini, is it? And ORE is not the metal that miners are aiming for. Ore is the gravel / sand / rock which is dug out and which must then be refined, through crushing, sifting and chemical treatment, to extract the desired metal.

Very nice!

What an appalling puzzle. Other than two-thirds of the long entries which WERE interesting (and deducible), the rest of this puzzle was junk. Naticks, TLAs, dull arcana, foreign language gunk. For the first time in my years of solving the daily, I couldn’t be arsed. Opened the solution and filled it in out of sheer streak retention motivation. Yuck.

Clever theme! Lots of black real estate and three-letter gunk, so a Sunday PB for me.

Cool theme. The rest was rather ordinary. CUKE? BAMA? 'K off.