Les

I was getting ready to hang it up after about three quarters of the way done. Then one clue got the ball rolling again to help me solve this triumph of a crossword.

One of those, “I’m never going to finish this one.” but then, rethinking the clues met with one success after another . I particularly liked the constructor notes as it brought back memories of our family’s long drives from NYC to Miami Beach to visit my grandparents.

I was doing fine until I ran into snags in the upper left and lower right corner. I left 67 across unfilled and finally completed the upper right. As soon as I did, my screen flashed to “Congratulations!” I thought it was a mistake until I realized by leaving 67 across unfilled, or blank, it solved the puzzle! I didn’t get it until I accidentally solved it.

I got all the clues but also played each number as a rebus. I feel I should have gotten some credit to keep my streak going. Very, very clever.

For some reason I thought the answer DISSONANTCHORES was DISSONANTSHORES because if you substituted a T for the SON you'd get DISTANTSHORES. I thought that was clever. I hung onto that, not knowing how it made any sense. It didn't and I surrendered after getting everything else.

I was about to give up on this one early on but at various times during the day I'd sit down and see if I could come up with an answer or two. It was working and then once I was about halfway through, I just started to roll. What a great crossword today. The clues were amazing!

I thought OK, it's Thursday, rebus day. I put a rebus in the leading circle of each biased word. Shame on me.

Very clever and enjoyable. Certainly the William Tell Overture is known to older TV fans from the Lone Ranger but it also had a nice cameo role in A Clockwork Orange. It ran while Alex was having some fun with a couple of "devotchkas" he met while shopping.

This was more difficult for me as a Wednesday crossword. Difficult that is until I accepted the fact that the same answer (i.e. Tesla) had to be used twice. Very creative. The WORMHOLE thing was icing on the cake.

Started off struggling until my first aha moment. That was followed by bunches of feel-good aha moments. Thanks for creating this one!

I think for clues 53 across and down Tass and Tower could be substituted for Bass and Bower.