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I am newer to puzzles, and generally still pretty intimidated by the latter half of the weeks. This puzzle was absolutely delightful, and I loved that there were so many aha moments that, for me, struck the right balance between head-scratching and accessible. I think this sort of puzzle is very much needed for this reason. It would be very difficult indeed to stick with solving crosswords if beginners like myself could never break into the weekend puzzles. Sure, we don’t want every puzzle to cater to my particular kind of solver, but I wanted to share my appreciation for this one in particular. All that to say, I had a blast!

Really did not appreciate how BIKINI was clued. Some people at the NYT specifically, and society generally, criticize women for wearing them, and criticize women for not wearing them. Plus, the clue once again reduces a woman’s participation in a (very, very challenging) sport to her body/clothes/potential lack thereof. This clue does not exist in a vacuum and should have been identified as imprudent at best, overtly sexist at worst, way before publication. Will not be supporting Mr. Fagliano moving forward unless something significant changes.