Jeff Z

When a puzzle asks for the singer of a 2006 hit and your first reaction is, "Come on, I don't know this new stuff," and then you realize 2006 was 18 years ago, that's when you graduate from old to whatever it is I am today. I loved the accompanying photo of the Northern Lights!

I breezed through it, and you know what? It's nice every now and then to come across a Saturday puzzle that doesn't brutally crush your soul.

I don't think I got more than four or five words the first pass through and thought, "That's it for me." Then I got a solid half and thought the same thing. And then three quarters, etc. In other words, it was a perfect Saturday puzzle.

This puzzle wins some sort of prize for the "Able is he, and he is Elba" clue. A nice touch for a Tuesday puzzle.

I found this puzzle super helpful, because for years I have been saying "anenome" (not a word) instead of "anemone." Representing the word in letter form was instructive for both solving and pronouncing.

Oh, for crying out loud. Merriam-Webster cites the "first known use" of YABBER to 1855, so there goes my main complaint for the day. Different etymology from JABBER, too, if you believe them. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Boo, yabber!

This one was an enjoyable struggle for me, and it felt good to finish it. One gripe: I'm getting tired of "feh" and "gawp" and other clues that just seem like one-letter distortions of other words meaning the same thing. Where is an old bat like me going to encounter such nuances?? ("But no, 'feh' is more an expression of displeasure, while 'meh' is an expression of disinterest, whereas 'bah'..." Yes, yes, yes.)

"A destroyer of cattle, perhaps." Well, that kept me stuck, even when the answer became obvious. And yes, I was wearing my glasses. Amazing how often that happens... about once a week. And yes, I'm old.

Don't feel bad if you missed the "McFlurry flavor" clue. You will likely live longer than the people who got it right. Okay, that reads a little snarkier than I intended...

"Good morning. Solving a crossword puzzle today is less a quiet test of mid-20th-century minutiae and more a spirited conversation with modern culture." Melissa Kirsch This goes a long way to explain my declining performance. I still like the minutiae, though, and hope this whimsical policy statement doesn't have undue impact on the creators.

The name for Crisco, the original seed oil, was derived from "crystalized cottonseed oil." (Today its main ingredient is soybean oil.) It was pitched as a healthier alternative to lard, as most other seed oils are today. As 7A advises, Crisco was initially created for soap making.

OMG... that Whac-A-Mole setup was TOO CUTE! I struggled a bit, but I really enjoyed this.

The clue "First, and so far only, chimpanzee chimp to orbit Earth" should be amended to read, "First, and so far only KNOWN chimp to orbit Earth." There may be many others. As written, the clue smuggles in the speciesist assertion that chimpanzees are incapable of doing this without humans assisting.

"Word that sounds like its first and last letters." That one really threw me. But it does! I got the little jingle immediately upon entering the last letter, which surprised me, because I guessed a fair bit.

I thought this was a particularly well-clued puzzle. Not gimmes, but things I could work out without being reduced to tears.

YES. Unusual for a Tuesday, and maybe a little hard, but a cut above, in my opinion. I especially enjoy the sound of the song at the end after submitting a grid containing words I've never heard of (e.g., 9 Across). Great theme!

That might be the hardest puzzle I ever solved without cheating. Diznang!

Sometimes I get stuck on the dumbest things. For "number that looks like 16 down in binary," I thought, "Hmm, 10 written in binary is 1010," and I could make no headway. Finally it occurred to me to look at it the other way around: "10 in binary is the same as 2 in base ten." Anyway, great fun for a Sunday.

Well, I came pretty damn close, but I think it's safe to say I wouldn't have been able to complete it in 100 years.

Man, this was a great puzzle. Nice work, Ryan.

Gawp? I tanked a 15-day streak on gawp? (and, to be honest, a few other clues as well...)

One of the best in recent memory. Nice job!

At first I thought SPARRRIINNGGPARTNER was a misstep because of there being only 3 consecutive Rs, but the final display disabused me of that notion. And I didn't even notice before then that we were spelling out fingers! I thought this was fantastic in every way.

Not bad for a debut. Once I got the theme, things fell into place except for my apparent utter inability to spell "heigh ho." Never did the little jingle at the end sound so sweet!

Probably the first post-1980s pop song reference reference I got right in... well, ever.

It might be an irrational reason to celebrate, but it's also transcendental. Don't worry, Jeffrey Martinovic gets it!

This puzzle has underscored my ignorance of TikTok stars. I guess I'd better brush up on that. While I'm at it, maybe I should... Okay, I'm going to self-censor here.

WHOO, this one feels good. For the last couple of Saturdays, I've been completely stumped, and the rest of you were saying, "Tough, but I got it." This one fell into place bit by small bit, which feels quite rewarding for me on a Saturday.

Any puzzle that cites the great Mr. T gets five stars from me. (Also, very enjoyable to solve.)

Okay, the theme here is a bit out there, but once I figured it out, I was able to solve the puzzle, so hooray for me, the puzzle, and everyone else.

I don't usually single out particular clues for praise, but I got a big kick out of 32A. Very clever!

I got the jingle at the end while thinking one-third of my entries were wrong.

The notion that all those animals are capable of playing those instruments is patently absurd. A bird playing a horn, without lips? Not likely! The pictures are cute, though, so I'm letting it pass.

Very nice debut, Jake. I enjoyed it. Also, I love it when that jingle at the end catches me by surprise.

Hmm, that was more of a struggle than it should've been. It was the puzzle's theme that enabled me to cinch it. Very nice!

"Slow down!", spelled unusually. Not sure what the editors were thinking here. Do we really want to open the door for made-up words? Sometimes it's fun to really dig in and try to solve a tough puzzle, but stuff like this inspires me to move on to something else PDQ.

I almost didn't make it--I had somehow come up with OSLO (???) instead of OHIO and couldn't get past it.

Hard to know where to land on this, but I'll give it credit for being ingenious and unique. And everyone else seems to like it, so what the hey. A thumbs up from me as well.

Just right for a Wednesday. A little surprised that the you-know-what isn't Missouri's first largest city. I drove through it a few days ago, and it seemed plenty big to me. But I looked it up, and--who knew?--Missouri's other big city is substantially larger.

Tuesday, and I struggled a bit. WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

Oh, man! I am now digging 2D to the max--after having it explained to me, of course. I felt a nice sense of accomplishment after completing this Friday puzzle.

I thought this was the worst puzzle ever published until I got the theme; then I thought, "Oh, this is so fun!"

I actually stumbled a bit on 21A, "Opposite of none." I, of course, filled in ANY. If you have anything at all, then you don't have none. Mathematically, I think, this is a more pleasing and accurate answer. But it was easy enough to fix. Not sure why I'm even mentioning it.

Well, I solved this one by accident. But, according to Google, "punt" really IS a kind of boat. So I'll allow it.