Joanie

A puzzle that truly made me say, "Girl, I don't KNOW." Not much fun for me and a lot more lookups than I've had to do, but in the discomfort is where skill improves. Glad to see many did enjoy this one. (And relieved that xwstats rates it as "very hard.") Still chasing that 7 day streak, but I'm taking my mom to a protest tomorrow and trying to get ahead of some school deadlines...so I don't think it's in my near future. Have a good weekend, y'all!

This one was really fun! I eventually had to break down and google some of the movies, because I figured out the theme but I just did not know the movie titles. I'm looking up less and less though! I want to say thank you to Sam for the comments in the column today. To be honest, as a newcomer, the comments section can feel really unwelcoming. It's discouraging to struggle with a puzzle and then check the comments and find others thought it was so easy they never want to see such a puzzle again. But I understand that people who want harder puzzles have a right to share their opinions. Everyone just wants to be heard, at the end of the day. I stuck around because, weirdly, I just love this forum. I love hearing what flowers are blooming in Mississippi or about life in Minnesota or learning about parks in Poland. I tell my friends about what I see in the comments and I always get the same response: "What are you doing in the NYT Crossword comment section?" or "The NYT Crossword comment section has a comment section?" But I check every day to see what the regulars are up to. It's such a weird little space in the post-forum internet, I love it. I could give a masterclass in complaining, but I try not to here. It just doesn't need any more of that. If you're new and you feel unwelcome: Don't worry. You'll build skill. If you share your accomplishments, at least a couple people will be glad to cheer you on.

The first time I encountered a rebus, some six months to a year ago, I ragequit and complained to my friends about how freaking clever the NYT thinks it is. Sadly I was informed that this was normal, desired, and typical for Thursdays. I think today was the first rebus I figured out entirely on my own! Loved the feeling of it all coming together, even if I still had to look a couple things up. Sorry to be one of the newbies messing up the puzzles for everyone, but I really enjoyed this one! Although with all the SIN, I do wonder if it was meant for Ash Wednesday.

Great puzzle! I was very relieved to come to the comments and see many people found this more difficult than a usual Monday! Took me longer than average but much less time than when I first started out. :) Hang in there.

Still new to the crosswords...this was close to a Friday PR for me! My mark of shame though is failing to understand TOTALLIE to the point that I googled it multiple times and couldn't figure out why no one was asking what a "totallie" was. Now, a "total lie"-- that I understand!

Standing up for the rights of all gullible rubes to say that I don't care for April Fool's Day. I have four older brothers; I get enough tricks...and I still always fall for them. That said, this does seem to be an exceedingly gentle trick. I didn't fully get it until I read the column. Alright puzzle overall, light and breezy.

Nothing more disappointing than filling in your puzzle and getting the "Not quite!" pop up. Couldn't make the connection on the theme and I gave up at that point and checked the puzzle answers, then I didn't understand the theme until I read the column. Bummer! I think if I'd let it sit for a while I could have cracked it...gotta learn some patience.

A new Friday PR for me! Not bad, considering I had to run the alphabet on APERCU. AND no lookups, possibly a first for me on a Friday. Several fun personal connections for me. Around here, no one specifies KANSAS after MANHATTAN, often leaving me confused about someone's plans for a day trip from Kansas City to New York. (I've only been to the Big Apple, myself.) And for my high school graduation, my older brothers gave me 100 SACAGAWEADOLLARs in a drawstring bag.

I like a Wednesday with a solid step up from a Tuesday, to be honest. I'll never complain about a Whursday. Not my best time, but I really enjoyed the theme! If you saw my comment yesterday, you might like to know I got 100% on my essay, so skipping the weekend puzzles to write was worth it in the end.

This had so many words I'd never heard of before but it wasn't tedious or frustrating at all, and the theme was so well constructed. What a delightful puzzle! I also got 17 seconds on the mini today...PR is 16 and I never expected to get close to that again. I do usually think of kitten heels as being chunky so I was stunned when I searched them and saw so many narrow kitten heels...apparently they were developed as a more modest style of stiletto for younger teen girls. Learn something new every day.

Clever puzzle, but far too PESKY for me. Very bad at math and kept coming up with the wrong answer for how many inches 8' 4" is T_T Glad to see it was satisfactory for most though. :)

Lots of highs and lows for me in this one. Psalm 91 (liturgically appropriate!) and OKRA had me thinking this puzzle was specially crafted just for me but after that the clues relied on knowledge I just don't have...a tennis clue in the themed clues killed me. Still, nothing beats that aha! moment when the theme comes together! Very fun construction.

I know someone who knows so little about The Brady Bunch that when they saw 3D fill in with S__PSON they entered "SOUPSON" on said "that's weird maybe it was some kind of catchphrase" and didn't catch the mistake until the next pass. Not saying who.

Delicious puzzle today! All the desserts got me thinking, is a tough puzzle crunchy or chewy? I've seen both.🤔Personally, I think crunchy.

Very fun puzzle! For once I got the theme in time for it to help me solve. That northwest corner was really tough for me. Started with Wagner and switched to Rahner thinking "that's a composer, right?" No: theologian. Not the first time seminary brain has taken over...last night when writing about TV I wrote "last semester" instead of "last season." Anyway, this puzzle had me at ANGELADAVIS. I'm literally always saying read "Abolition. Feminism. Now."!

Devastated to find that xwordstats shows this puzzle was "easy," because I nearly gave up on it. I'm afraid I'm going to have to learn about sports if I want to keep playing the crossword...but I hate to give up a 34 year streak of not knowing.

Very fun Monday puzzle! I didn't get the revealer right away...I had HURRICANESEASON filled in first and couldn't figure out what one might say with "hurricane" to express joy. So I got to have the fun of watching the theme come together, which I sometimes fill the Monday in too fast to really notice. That's worth a cheer to me!

Got a text from my spouse mid-day that said, "I. Did. Not. Like today's puzzle." Well, I did! I was expecting something much harder to figure out based on that text...I saw the Ts in the puzzle right away and had an inkling of what was going on. Deceptively simple gimmick for what must have been a really complex design. A long solve for me (the SW corner really held me up) but a far cry from when I would close Thursday puzzles in anger! 😂

TIL how to spell LANGUOROUS...I thought I knew before, but I was wrong. Fun puzzle! Another one where I actually got the theme...I think I'm getting them more often. :)

Pretty typical Tuesday! I had a really rough time with that southwest corner and once I filled it in, I was like, where was my brain for this? French always gets me, though.

Really great puzzle! It's fun to see all the people stumped on BUILDABEAR because that was the themer I first caught from the crosses and really opened the revealer up for me. I have vivid memories from the assembly line in Build-A-Bear as a kid. :) A clue for the millenial solvers, perhaps.

I agree with with Sean that this puzzle had a trivia feeling to it! I really enjoyed that though, it was very fun. I love a puzzle that leaves you with a few new fun facts. Got held up in the southeast corner like a lot of folks, but with a little patience things filled in from the crosses. I did have one lookup; I had no clue what the king of salads was.

Thought for sure this would be my week to get a 7 day streak but I had a 30 page essay due over the weekend and barely got halfway through Saturday's puzzle. Getting back on the horse today to a fun and quick puzzle, loved it! Did not really get the theme but my brain often doesn't work the way themers' do.

Surprised to see that this one was a new Friday PR for me because the solve did not feel easy! Got JUSTSOWERECLEAR filled in one letter off and could not make sense of it. If I'd known I was solving so fast I might have sat with it a little longer before opening Wordplay to check but oh well. Happy Friday! Hoping this weekend will make my first week long streak.

I really didn't think I was going to make it through the puzzles this weekend, but I sat down to fill in just a little bit on this one so I could try to finish it tomorrow and ended up doing the whole thing in one (long) sitting. I don't think this was the most "fun" puzzle for me but it was certainly engrossing. Had to peek at the tricky clues but that's okay. One day away from my first week long streak!🤞🏻

Regrettably, I found this puzzle unfortunate. That's probably a little too strong for how I felt, but I couldn't resist. On an 8 day streak, though, which is my longest ever! Now that I've passed my long-time goal of one full week, I need a new goal...

Completely lost my streak over Easter (haven't even started a puzzle since Friday), but what a fun puzzle to come back to! I didn't really get the theme until the end...I kept trying to figure out how the halves of each phrase led to someone being in a BALLANDCHAIN. Really fun once I put it together though!

Sad to say I thought I was going to start today with my first ever week-long streak but for some reason it didn't catch my Saturday solve! I don't know if I got it done too late in the day on Sunday for it to count or if it didn't register because I finished on my phone. Got Sunday done today in time to have a 2 day streak. I just don't have time for these weekend puzzles over the weekend! Anyway, very fun Monday puzzle. Thought I'd get it in under five but the southeast corner threw me. One of my very few puzzles with no lookups and it was fun to see the theme come together. I'm getting better at this. :)

Luckily I didn't have any of the technical troubles others had with this puzzle. I thought the theme and the grid art was a lot of fun. The revealer did get a chuckle out of me; I'm easy to please.

This was my fastest Thursday ever!! I loved this one. Not sure I could have gotten it without the squares...definitely not in 20 minutes. But these used to take an hour so I wouldn't mind. :) The "cry from Missy Piggy" double cross was a pain point for me (glad to see it wasn't just because I missed out on the muppets) but overall it was such a fun theme. SHE-BEAR was probably harder for me than it should have been...among BTS fans we sometimes call Taehyung "Tae-bear" and I couldn't get it out of my head for the whole puzzle to think of anything else. But I've got BTS on my mind with the new album out.

Another streak-breaking weekend for me, but the Monday puzzle was a nice relief!