Sonja

Why must people be so negative whenever we're given such a unique (and wonderful) theme? Was it a bit challenging to see? Slightly. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

What did we do to deserve two ASSHATs in one week?

Waking up to the news this morning was not a very pleasant experience. My thought are with you, America.

This was the Fridayest Monday I have ever Mondayed.

Not to take away from Mr Aaronson, who made an absolutely lovely puzzle that aired on a very unfortunate day. Thank you for providing at least some respite, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One could argue that getting a wordle in one isn’t ACING but lucking out, as there’s absolutely no skill involved in that.

While I appreciate how much skill this must have taken to construct, solving it felt like pulling teeth for me and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Today marks my 1000th crossword in a row. I'm not entirely sure there's anything else in my life I have this long of a streak in.

One of these days, the clue will be asking for a musical Brian and the answer will be May.

Oof, to say that I was not on the same wavelength as Mr Gordon would be a vast understatement. But at least I learned quite a few things today.

If you define BRIE as gooey spread, we must be eating very different cheese. This one unfortunately wasn’t for men on several accounts, too tough for a Tuesday and lacked charm.

As a community, I feel like we can find better things to complain about than a stRAY rebus. I believe in us.

I solved PUTINWRITING among the first clues and was VERY concerned about the circled letters for a while. Happy new year everyone, may it be better than the last. Lots of love ❤️

As a SERB MYSELF, having SERBS as an answer for my birthday made me smile so wide. :) Loved the puzzle overall, too. I figured out the theme relatively early on, but figuring out the rest of the theme entries was still a pleasant challenge. More like this! Have a lovely day everyone!

I will never live down the fact that I, an advanced SCUBADIVER,, didn't get 15A. You could say it swam right over my head.

Firstly, brilliant puzzle. Secondly, the cover photo today reminded me of last summer, when I saw my first ever submarine (it was indeed also yellow.) Unexpectedly. In action. From the outside. Namely, I was scuba diving in Tenerife, near a marina. We were having a regular, peaceful dive, just hanging out with an octopus, when suddenly there was a weird noise. Mind you, we’re at ~30m under but I figured it was a ship, didn’t give it much thought, there was a cute octopus, okay? Imagine my utter shock when a submarine passed us by, so close that I could see its passengers waving at us. I right about drowned then and there, and it took me several days to get The Beatles out of my head.

Considering starting a support group for people suffering from emotional damage from today's strands.

The problem with abbreviating kilometre as KIL is that it will inevitably get mixed up with kilogram. There’s a reason why the standard abbreviations are what they are and it’s best not to mess with them.

While I’m usually the first one to complain about a puzzle being inaccessible for us non-US solvers, I found this one to be absolutely lovely, with clues being, at least in my opinion, general knowledge also globally. Only when I solved the first part of the revealer did I realise the puzzle has yet another level to it, and I love it all the more for that. A pleasure,overall!

And how many of Edison’s great inventions were actually Nikola Tesla’s?

Don't let anyone see you bring a TOWEL in a sauna in Finland, though.

Never has a puzzle felt more exclusive than this one. There’s nothing here for me, better luck tomorrow, I guess.

Tour de force in Friday construction if you ask me. It was everything I love in a themeless puzzle and more.

SELF-referral goes straight to the list of my favourite clues/answers ever

While I tend to dislike name crossing, HAWKE x CROWE was adorable.

While I do tend to love rebuses and Thursdays, this one was an unpleasant mix of too hard and too American for me personally.

Just a bit disappointed to see a Shawshank Redemption theme not feature Rita Hayworth.

While TESLA's birthday is indeed Serbian national science day, we unfortunately don't really celebrate and barely even acknowledge it. Not nearly as much as we should. But then again, as a Serbian scientist myself, I might be slightly biased.

Interesting to see many people finding this one challenging for a Tuesday just as I came here to say I breezed through it and almost set my new PB! Regardless of the difficulty perception though, I'm happy most of us agree that this one was a pleasure!

What a positively charming puzzle, I was smiling at my screen half the time!

I generally consider myself to be an observant person, but then I solve the puzzle, indulging the theme, all without noticing that every clue also started with a B.

This definitely solved like a Tuesday for me, not because of the theme, which was cure and easy enough, but the overall fill, especially with so many proper nouns. Not a big fan. Also, justice for mezzo-sopranos, who never get any recognition.

Funny story, I once had to email all the coauthors of a paper I was submitting (some 20 or so scientific bigwigs) and I started the email with "Hell all" :)

Well I didn't expect to cry on this random Thursday morning, but here we are. Thank you for everything Deb <3

I know next to nothing about American football, so I may or may not have let out a groan when I read the revealer. However, TARANTINO and the crossings were a dead giveaway and from there on I actually found the theme quite pleasurable and fun!

I had sis instead of SIB for the longest time. Couldn’t find the mistake, since I’ve never heard of the root beer. Lovely puzzle overall!

Fun fact, schools never close due to bad weather in Finland. Kids go to school in snow storms, -30 etc. Also, it is very common here (at least where I've lived, can't speak for the capital) that even the very young kids walk or bike to school alone. That one was definitely a culture shock for me when I moved here.

Charming theme, but cluing brands using other brands was not an enjoyable part of the fill for me.

This one felt personal, between the MASTEROFSCIENCE and FINN though I’m not officially a Finn quite yet, but hopefully soon! It’s a race between getting my Finnish citizenship and my PhD so place your bets.

I vibed so much with the constructor that it felt like a Monday. Lovely puzzle and a new Wednesday best time!

Yeah this is one of my favourite puzzles in a long, long time. It was such a fun solve in general, and the theme was marvellous! I also adore minesweeper, I used to play it all the time as a kid and actually still do every now and then, just on my iPad.

Deer sir is one of the cutest clues I've seen in a hot minute!

I would like to remind the many shocked commenters that many of us solvers aren’t, in fact, American, and don’t get taught this in school. This really isn’t as common knowledge as you think it is, internationally speaking.

A shoutout to Phineas and Ferb for teaching me the word AGLET all those years ago. For some reason it is committed to my memory still.

There can be no space-themed puzzle without Carl SAGAN. <3 This was a pleasure to solve.

Loved this puzzle so much. The only thing I’m sad about is that the note to put in numbers spoiled it to me when I went to see the puzzle title. Also, PAC34 crossing 37GUNSALUTE completely stumped me, an a non-American solver, I had to look it up. The rest of the fill was awesome and this will forever be my favourite way to clue DANTE, 5x2/5x2!!