Ellen in Tucson

@Barry Ancona But if you play from the site, not in the app, the puzzle name is displayed before you start.

@Lynn Totally agree! Had never heard of Galois, but a little knowledge of French educated my guess; “boardies” just made sense, etc. I loved this puzzle - had to think about it a lot instead of just filling in crosswordese

@Steve L Question about Global Stats: is the average difficulty, solve time, etc. truly average? I suspect only the most avid, and the best, puzzlers subscribe to this app/site. I wish the Times published the stats for all its subscribers, as it does for the News Quiz.

@Ben Biggs I didn’t need to Google anything thanks to my NY native spouse (BIALY)

@alpal Solved this in the back room of Bevel Brewing, one of the few breweries still frequented by locals. 🍻

@Barry Ancona Thanks for the stats. I’m a unicorn who solved it in 30 minutes, which was 30% faster than my usual time. Maybe because I didn’t wait until happy hour?

@Mikey And there is no longer a date associated with the personal bests.mine we’re all during a 28 day streak in 2019. I must have been highly caffeinated in those days.

@NYC Traveler oh boy - that’s throwing down the gauntlet! Will it interrupt my streak (96!) if I try it and fail?

@NYC Traveler Thanks - I’m going to have a go at it.

Ok. I got to the last square and I’m stuck. Going to drink on it. ;-)

@Francis I get it. I’m sorry that even here people feel free to hate.

@HeathieJ Like you, I solved the puzzle pretty easily, in less time than normal for a Wednesday, but never got the theme. I couldn’t see the two I’s even when I squinted, so I was never going to make a connection to sequels. Good at some things, bad at others.

@Crevecoeur I’m with you - solved in half my usual Wednesday time, but don’t get the theme, even after reading about it.

@--art I, too, solved without the trick, faster than usual. The crosses were too clean to be wrong, and the trick answers were all real words, so I just kept going. But understood it as soon as I looked at the completed puzzle. A different experience, for sure.

@Dave Munger Same here - never watched it, so just worked the crosses. Seems like actually knowing the show had another sister named Maggie might have slowed some people down, so ignorance was a blessing.

I just hit 100 and am feeling pretty good about it. Previous was 28 in 2019, and then I stopped doing the puzzle until the end of last year, when I started back with just Thursday-Friday-Sat. Still haven’t beat the personal best times of 2019, though. Age has taken a toll practice can’t seem to overcome.

@Akin I was stuck on what was for me a natick, with ANI crossing SEITAN. Had ANN and SENTAN, until I finally cheated to look up “sentan protein” and got a “did you mean seitan?” hint from Google. Happy music not so happy when I need to look something up. :-(

@The X-Phile But isn’t octopus from Greek?

@Roger Yes - SYD and ETDS were my hangups. I had SID and ETAS.

@ANF An easy answer for those of us who live in the Beaver State!

@Barry Ancona I think she’s referring to the extra theme clues in the constructor’s note.

@Fly Fisher Agree. In the app on an iPad, the bold letters were barely discernible. Had to solve just using the down clues and looking for a phrase thst made sense. I can see well, btw, so I don’t think it’s our eyesight.

@Mean Old Lady And we Bend residents are Bendites, although it would be a lot more fun if we called ourselves Benders.

@HeathieJ I gave up. I think it was over-the-top-contrived. I did learn, though, from these comments, that the first letter of a rebus = a solve. Thanks for your encouragement!

@SP Consider it filed! I didn’t mean it to sound like a complaint.

@Troy Same here! Got two of the long fills (REVERSEENGINEER & TRAD’LIRAS) with only a couple letters for a breezy 16 minute romp. Not my personal best, but half my Friday average. Satisfying.

@Tracy The “answer” is KSU, but the Wildcats are university of Kentucky, so I think it’s wrong?

@Bay Area Native I’m searching these comments to find someone who says University of Kentucky is not KSU. I think this is a mistake.

@Adam Me too! A minute less than half, with no lookups or typos.

@Bill As a devout craft beer enthusiast who lives and drinks in Bend, I have the obligation to tell you that there is no apostrophe in Deschutes Brewing.

@Lorenzo “The most correct and widely accepted plural of "octopus" in English is octopuses. While "octopi" is also used, it's based on the mistaken assumption that the word is Latin, but it actually comes from Greek. The historically correct Greek plural is "octopodes," but this is less common in modern English. (AI summary)