Perplexed

As a pretty good, not great, solver I loved the puzzle and was proud of my almost perfect solve. Kudos to those who found the crossing of Snellen, slag and emi “easy”. Not me.

Finally, finally solved a Sam puzzle. That made it very satisfying. I don’t have streaks or track best times. I often find clues unfair (unless I know the answer). I just enjoy trying to solve. Looking forward to another year of challenges. Kudos to all constructors.

I filled in all the squares. Had an error on the crossing of 64A with 52 D and 57 D, but I enjoyed the puzzle a lot. Kudos to the constructor. Count me among the solvers who enjoy the challenge and don’t care about streaks or record times. To each his own.

I’m just your average solver, trying to solve on any given day. No streaks or best times. There are Thursdays when I never figure out the gimmick and can’t finish the puzzle. There are Thursdays when I finish the puzzle without paying much attention to the gimmick..like today. Seems like figuring out the gimmick should be mandatory to finishing the puzzle. Or am I off base. Kudos to all constructors and editors who clearly have more creativity than I.