John

This puzzle was subtle to the point of obscurity and even perversity. Going beyond the use of red and green for go stop, calling some of its clues tortured would be charitable. Clues like "Left in" would have been more kindly expressed as "Left in?", and I'm sorry but my web search of weather whether pitsaw is ever used is a synonym for a whipsaw comes up with that it never is, although sometimes the worksite arrangement that a whip saw is used in is called a sawpit. Given that, at least in my mind, a crossword puzzle is a diversion and not a waste of time, I would call this one the latter.

"34A Noted chairman?"--EAMES??? I don't know, I'd say that one's a bit obscure.

"WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK"? Sorry, but I just don't get it. Are they saying flex is another term for bragging? I've never heard it, except in the phrase flexing one's muscles to show off, but seems rather tortured to me.

Hey–my momentary befuddlement at getting the 6th letter (after I’d gotten all the others) of the 36 down clue "You try!”, when I was sitting there going “hmm, have a what?”, thinking I was looking for a three-letter word that ended in “it”, instead of realizing I was finishing a two-letter word that began with “a”, gave me a great idea for one of those “this-or-that” clues that some crossword makers sometimes use; “Try this” or “Sow’s offer to piglet”. Get it? I’ll never design a crossword puzzle, but maybe someone who does can use this.

"For the record, I originally clued 3-Down as “Like MIT and Harvard,” but alas, the editors had other plans." Oh those snooty editors. I bet they never could have gotten into MIT!

Hmm... First time I've read this, and I read it after I worked the puzzle. It seems like if you read it before the puzzle, that it virtually works the puzzle for you. I thought for a Thursday puzzle, this one was pretty easy. I think I was helped on some clues by being fairly fluent in Spanish, and reasonably knowledgeable about French. I know almost nothing about, and actually detest, football, but I got the "passing remark" clue. I thought this was a fun puzzle, but then maybe that's because I could actually work it.

"36D. You don’t have to do any good deeds to satisfy this meaning of [Be a hero, say] — the answer is COSPLAY." IMHO, that one's obscure/tortured to the point that I suspect that was the only combination of letters the constructor could fit in to complete the puzzle, so they had to look up some obscure contraction, COSPLAY = COSTUME PLAY, i.e a "hero" might appear in a costume play. A good later-in-the week/clue is one if the solver doesn't get it other than by the cross-words, but then looks at what they should have gotten, they say, "Oh yeah!", not "What???"