Moira

"By serendipity, the Times puzzle became an important part of her recovery." That's wonderful!

A vodka and lime cocktail is NOT a gimlet! That's gin and real lime juice. “We sat in a corner of the bar at Victor’s and drank gimlets. ‘They don’t know how to make them here,’ he said. ‘What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.'” -- Raymond Chandler

I was moderately wowed until I saw those four Qs pop up! Magic moment. An excellent puzzle for that alone.

This felt way too contrived and badly clued, just not good at all, sorry to say.

Aww yay Octavia E. Butler!

"Happy Birthday U.S.A.! The American experiment has made it to a quarter millennium.' That is really debatable right now.

"And, most important, we will inhale as much chocolate as needed in order to keep our energy up throughout the solving process." Deb, you are the best.

"But what if we read it from left to right until we get to the I, and then read up until the next black square and down again?" I thought it couldn't happen, but today's offering has actually made me wish for a rebus puzzle instead. This makes nooo sense.

Nobody said there would be sports!

This was just not fun at all. Way too gimmicky.

Aww don't go!

"Growing up in the 1990s," //cries

Oh man, I should have checked before beginning this one. No offense to the creator but I loathe this kind of puzzle.

This theme was just forced and confusing. Some of the clues were good. The column has HORA not HORAS and it's PLAYDOH, yeah.

"[Things that send people into hiding]" reads a bit off, these days.

"For a minute I wondered if the “Dad” in question was the same everyman behind all the jokes, but it’s surely a reference to the lineup of sodas made by Dad’s Root Beer, a Chicago brand founded in the 1930s." Now that's elegant.

I was very, very disappointed to see 7D. Please do better.

“In a Schrödinger puzzle, each theme entry can have two possible correct answers in the same slot that differ by one or more letters, and the crossing answers work with either entry.” Dear Will Shortz, I'm very very sorry I was mean about the rebus puzzles.

Very impressive! Doesn't feel forced or cutesy. Sadly even the wily constructor of this gem couldn't escape the ORCA.

Yeah, this wasn't great.

These puzzles are frustrating -- weird and complicated setup, but a lot of the clues are the same old gimmes: SLR, ACT, APNEA....i'd like to see better formats without gimmicks and harder clues.

"I particularly noticed and appreciated the ancient history trivia, a nice break from trendy factoids" I liked those a lot too! Not an ELM or OREO in sight either, I think.

"“fly” was a high compliment in the 1980s." OMG not unless you were completely clueless.

The column is wrong, it's SAINTED not SAINTS. "34D. I thought this clue — [Like John, Paul or George, but not Ringo] might be “knights” at first, but Ringo is one. The answer is SAINTS and, indeed, Ringo is not one (yet)."

A rebus where the extra letters aren't in the circles (and the circles almost weren't in the puzzle at all!)....after slowly trekking through this I'm not sure whether the constructor should be permanently hired or never allowed to make another puzzle ever again. Possibly both? Bravo sir.

The theme is elegant but the puzzle is really easy.

I just didn't enjoy this one at all. I really don't like those long arbitrary crosses.

ENHALO, really? Really?

Great theme, I loved it!

Once again we had ORB, SSN, ANI (love her music!) and EMT, but at least no OREO. And quite a nice refreshing Monday puzzle.

Boy that was humbling. I was nearly happy to see SMURF and ASHE.

Oh God these are the very very worst kind of puzzles. I loathe them. I should have checked here before wasting my time.

A lot of these clues were forced, like RATSNEST for "Big mess." Not that enjoyable.

That theme feels like a real stretch!

I struggled with this one too, but I honestly don't think the clues were very good. At all.

There went my attempt to build back better after last Sunday cost me my streak....and the Sunday before that too....All THREE times it was a typo I just couldn't find because the grid is so big on my phone screen. Sigh!

"the [Margaret Atwood novel with a love triangle involving a paleontologist], which solves to the excellent 1979 book “LIFE BEFORE MAN.” Those circled letters, F-O-R-E-M-A-N, answer the question in the title: It’s that guy, hiding in a work of feminist literature." >:-(

ANOTHER nonsense words puzzle? Joy.

Who put the Thursday puzzle up early?

I will say it's really wild seeing how many people have no idea what AZT is, if you are Of A Certain Age.

Solved it pretty fast, didn't need to look up anything, and didn't need the theme. More of a Monday than Tuesday?

Nooo not another missing-letters puzzle. But the new words formed are actually words, so, kudos! Lots of stale chestnuts though: OREO, EMU, TSA. But the clues are witty and actually funny, so kudos again. I think that's the first time I've ever seen HEGEL in an NYT puzzle! IVES was also nice, great neglected composer.

Not only is the key indecipherable if you haven't seen the musical, AND advertising, we got OREO'd to boot.

What a delightful concept for a puzzle! Lots of nice fills, too, not the usual suspects, and good cluing. Nicely done!

I don't know what it was but I just couldn't clock with this one at all. I was hopeless at those long evil compound word entries.

Mammals don't have optic lobes and 'stable females' really isn't that cute, either.