Michael

What a boring and needlessly difficult slog. A jumbled themeless google flex of archaic pop culture, words, and trivia. Now I need a cold one to rehydrate from all of those dry riddle clues. Immix, pia mater, raki, midinette, etc... Wow, I must not be very smart.

Over 20 random proper nouns on a Monday grid... Didn't know at least 8. Way over my average.

This level of random trivia is beyond unnecessary, especially for a Wednesday.

Terrible grid. The theme is lame, the PPP is random and unnecessarily excessive, and the riddles are not even remotely clever. Mac is the worst entry YTD. This should have been published in QVC's magazine with all these product names.

This is the worst puzzle ever written. I'm not even going to try to come back and finish this abomination. Saturdays are supposed to challenge the solvers. This witless, arrogant, and sadistic construction does no such thing. Throwing a bunch of random phrases that nobody ever uses into a google salad of unknown trivia does not provide any sort of satisfaction. We're all so impressed.

This is the worst puzzle I've seen in months. How is this a moderate Wednesday difficulty? The clues are obscure and some are offensive. There are Naticks everywhere. What snobbish (or perhaps snottish) construction!

This puzzle is terrible. Friday's are usually my favorite. I don't appreciate all of these French terms intersecting with random names and words like idempotent. No one uses the word evict in programming BTW. Do I need to become fluent in other languages to solve these now? Certain other sections were too easy. An unbalanced slog.

This puzzle is beyond unfair. The last 2 headlines are too obscure and cross with random proper nouns and terrible riddles. An unbalanced slog fest.

Meh on the puzzle overall. The phrasing on the revealer clue (six "words") is utterly disgraceful.

If you are trying to make it difficult then at least make it challenging to the solver instead of using this awful method. I have no issues with the full grid phrases, but the rest is a different story. Random trivia scattered throughout creating multiple Naticks. Many entries were unclever and forced. 11D, 22A, 30A & 30D: Lame! I'll just leave it at that. 43D: Who on Earth says this? At least the crosses were reasonable. 44D: Sure, everyone remembers this bit of relevant pop culture trivia from 1951. 51D: That's not how anyone spells that word when using slang. 39A & 39D: No one pluralizes that word with an S, even if it's in the dictionary. Use it in an intelligible sentence to prove me wrong. Crossed with a random foreign name that no one could possibly know. DeJa'Vu from when I got stuck for 6 minutes scouring the grid to fix "aunaturel" from "aunatural" last week. At least the rest of that puzzle was fun and challenging.

Thank you for the delightful puzzle today. Lovely theme. This was a refreshing distraction from what has likely been on all of our minds this morning.

So much misdirection, I love it! And the rebus showed up a day early. Both puzzles were very fun solves. Thank you Katie and Robert!

I'm sorry, but this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I will not be posting again, nor renewing my sub. I am very disappointed by lack of quality in several of these recent puzzles. The theme itself was not an issue, but I had no motivation slogging through this mess. No fulfilling aha moments nor pleasant groans when solving the puns. I decided to end my 150+ streak by checking my answers to reveal 2 incorrect letters. 102A should win the prize - Overstretched and nonsensical phrasing which created 2 Naticks with 105D & 72D. What a beaut! Another Natick with the J at 107A/109D. I'm sure every solver knew this one except me. I would have had a better time if I skipped this and spent 35 minutes vacuuming instead.

Absolute ashtray... Just like yesterday.

This was an amazing construction. Well done!

Terrible puzzle. Random proper nouns, slang, and abbreviations everywhere with a thoughtless theme. Did AI create this snoozer?

Unbalanced, unimpressive, and too hard in the most unfun way imaginable. Save the random google searches for the weekend puzzles.

Very unbalanced and not fun. The SW area can't get any worse. A combination of Gen Z slang with foreign, musical, and elitist math terminology. That is not a good equation. 31D and 48A are overly vague and extra lame.

Perfect Sat challenge. NW section really tripped me up.

Wow, this one was hard but fair. A little over double my Sun average.

The SW area is a bunch of random junk and is very unbalanced. The rest of the puzzle was fine and on par for a Friday.

This is beyond unbalanced and not fun. Make it solvable by actually challenging the solvers instead of centering the entire grid on whether or not you know a bunch of random googled trivia. 20+ random proper nouns, foreign terms, and some of the driest riddles I've ever seen in a crossword. Several unfriendly crosses. The long quote fill-ins were fine. 30D/45D/53A is just plain inexcusable.

More like 24 proper nouns....

What a boring and unnecessarily difficult chore. Didn't feel any satisfaction nor challenge. 31A is gibberish (spare me the replies with links to the urban dictionary). I will say 14A, 15D & 64A were clever but that's about it.

Some unnecessary forced entries in this grid. Most of the solve was good but some serious nits to pick: 3D It's "All Rise". No bailiff ever says please. It's too informal for a courtroom. 9D is arcane and impossible to sound out unless you just know it. Unfriendly cross with 25A. 18A Dog is completely made up. It could be one of several dozen possible fills for types of balloon art. 61A - No, just no.... I don't care if it's "technically" correct.

Simply amazing construction. I don't think I would have stood a chance at this without knowing Star Trek.

This is the most tedious slog ever written. The theme itself was fine and on par for a Thursday. Bunch of random titles and names serving no purpose. Icier is not even a tad clever. Zork, bitte, kirov, etoilles, tseng... "I been had" indeed. (Please use proper English next time... Thanks!) What an absolute waste of time.

How many Natick's can you put into one puzzle? Definitely in the top 3 for worst puzzle of the year.

This was a perfect balance and difficulty for a Saturday. Several unknown entries, but the constructors carefully avoided entering Natick territory. Well done!

An amazing construction and satisfying fill. Thank you!

There is no excuse for this abominable construction. Natick after Natick crossing through ridiculous themed answers. I will say the first 3 headlines were reasonable. 91A is impossible to put together without actually knowing this headline from 50 years ago. Recycled clues, random poorly placed proper nouns (especially 110D), and terrible riddles. Truly an unbalanced slog fest.

What terrible construction. The theme was useless and all over the place. There is no rhyme or reason between the themed answers and their respective clues. I love how the clues vary from being pretentiously sophisticated to including gibberish that the 5-year-old which was mentioned wouldn't even say. I can google Latin phrases too... Y'hear...?

Such a rewarding and challenging breath of relief after yesterday's disaster of a puzzle. Many thanks!

This puzzle is not clever and full of random trivia that no one knows nor cares about. Naticky, unmotivating and unbalanced.

An unimpressive slog. Random googled trivia and foreign terms with a D- theme.

This could not be any closer to what should be expected in a Friday grid. Perfect difficulty, diverse, and well-balanced.

I don't care who coauthored this puzzle - name dropping won't change the fact that this entire grid is garbage. 24A is the worst clue ever and most of the intersecting clues are nearly as bad. Ant egg, pokey, gas???? Not to mention all the random trivia throughout the grid serving no purpose. This was a total slog - not challenging nor fun. PS - I admire your other stuff.

Why do you have to ruin a mostly decent puzzle with a clever theme by adding multiple Naticks? Ensor/Tabouret/"Teacup" Poodle, Samarra/Paren, Udo/Toddy. Also, not a Natick but - Cinc...?? I get what it means but no one has ever heard of that. What purpose do any of these clues serve? Do a better job next time.

Oh my gosh. Finally figured everything out and then had to spend 6 minutes running through the grid to fix one letter on my "PRRUSH" entry. A very ingenious construction and theme today and that's no lie! Thank you and congrats.

Got through it but I can't say I liked it. Too many names but they were gettable with the crosses.

1D/19A is utterly disgraceful. I am sick of these types of clues ruining my gold stars. Why would you intersect that H (which was not properly indicated) with an asinine slang term? What a total lack of consideration. I would have praised this puzzle were it not for this fiasco.

This could have been a decent puzzle if there was an actual clue containing a theme indicator and no awful intersections. Peretti/Parade Rest/Taio - what a janky mess.

I'm sorry, but this is an awful Sat puzzle. What a slog! Please don't refer to it as a "worthy challenge". It is beyond broken. It's funny because the right half and most of the center is balanced - perfect Sat difficulty level and lacks the awful slang and random PPP. 1A- can the setters just get serious for once? I don't care if this is a real thing. Couple of unfriendly downs to top it off. 24A/26D - R.P. should rename Natick for this atrocity. Random purposeless trivia. P.S. - Thanks for including 28 & 37A with these.

This was a jumbled mess. Hey, let's go pull some of the most random names and acronyms out of a hat and then call it a puzzle.

Challenging and satisfying Friday. SW corner tripped me up. Get thee to a nunnery! Or so I thought at first....

Challenging, yet balanced. This is how a themeless should be constructed. NW was the most challenging for me but it all finally came together.

Was quite approachable until I got stuck in the SW for several minutes. A very nice and enjoyable challenge.