Joe P

CUREL crossing TRUELEAVES got me.

For a long while I had cOPs for “Fuzz”.

SKULKS is one of those words that sounds exactly like it should.

I deem this a good Wednesday.

It turns out “isaidso” has the same number of letters as BECAUSE.

OK well this is great. I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for probably 40 years, but never in the app… my daughter signed me up for Christmas, and I already love it so much it might become a problem! I especially like reading the comments after really good puzzle (like this one!)

Don’t ask me how I know, but “wakeup” has the same number of letters as BEREAL, and “breakfast” has the same number of letters as HOTCEREAL.

Whewf! Got it, but without getting it.

I love a puzzle like this. You go through it the first time and think “there is no way”… but you chip away and chip away and everything just falls into place. Beautiful!

Well kids, you won’t believe this, but “Disco Duck” was the #1 song in America in October of 1976… ahead of (for example) More Than a Feeling by Boston and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot (neither of which ever reached #1). Strange days indeed!

Good morning fellow WORDNERDs!

OK this was a great one. How do I know? Because when I finished it, I was impressed with myself!

Every time I see ERSATZ I think, “I’d like to use that word one day.”. But I never do.

Wow SCHWEPPES sure is a lot of letters for a one syllable word.

Wow. I fell so in love with LATRINE for “Private watering hole” that it messed me up for a long time. Very thankful I learned “nerfing” (the hard way) from a recent puzzle…

Just FYI, INSTANTRAMEN has the same number of letters as ramenNoodles.

OK, this was a good one (once I figured out that MEdARdAN probably wasn’t right 😬)... Each of the theme answers made me smile

Youngsters won’t believe this, but penny candy really was a thing.

LAY = “Ballad”? I guess I learned something, but sheesh.

The long-awaited moment of “Oh I see what’s going on here!”. And then, “How did he do that?”. A gem.

I had INkEd for INPEN for too long.

If someone asked me why I like doing crossword puzzles, I would say it’s because of ones exactly like this. It made me work, and felt like a real accomplishment when finished.

That “Spot likely to smear” was a gem.

Wow. Went through all of the acrosses and only had written in SHARD. So I thought to myself, “Uh-oh, this might be one I just can’t do”. But I persevered, and little by little it came together— just like it’s supposed to! The NE corner was the last to fall (probably because I first put VISITORS for “Company”). A good challenge, thanks!

First, “What is OBVS?”. But then, “Duh!”.

This one made me smile. That they weren’t ALL wrong was a nice— and realistic!— touch.

That was 40 minutes of “OK I’m definitely not gonna get this”, until I did! A bear though.

I ATE. Just sayin’

Good one! I had almost nothing on my first pass, and was thinking “OK looks like it’s payback time for all the ‘these puzzles are too easy’ complainers.” But it turned out to be doable!

You know how when you get a tricky one right away and feel pretty proud of yourself? Today it was UMP for “Make some calls?”… which of course turned out to be wrong.

Wow. What would life be without Mel Blanc?

Did it!

Well when I started this one I was afraid it was going to be too easy. But then it wasn’t.

Well I’m pretty proud of myself for wrestling this one to the ground. WEIRDFLEXBUTOK!

Good one! I liked “What comes before we go?”, and found that “upnext” could also be NEXTUP.

NEAT!

GOHAM crossing ESME was a total guess.

Wow. No way I thought TNIA was gonna fly.

A perfect Saturday knock-down-drag-out!

A tough Tuesday (for me).

I loved knowing there were exactly TENANTS.

ARMREST made me smile.

I was too sure of GOgETem for too long.