kittenhoarder

I feel like I’m back at the challah factory from Sunday’s grid. Adored this puzzle, from the theme (which I figured out pretty much immediately) to the clues. “Two in a row” was my favorite bit of wordplay from the day (and possibly the week), but I also enjoyed the surprise but welcome appearance from Batman,

This was barrels of fun and a good flex for the constructor to come up with all those distinct clues. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see this kind of mind-freak on a Monday. It was also a nice reminder of the flexibility of the English language.

I loved “sound made by a sneaker” and somehow zeroed in on it immediately, despite the misdirect. Also fond of the dotty and dashing inventor. Overall, a sweet and breezy puzzle for me.

This was a cute Sunday puzzle. I loved how many music-themed clues were implemented into the fill (many of them attached to the theme entries) and the two “alternate titles.” Haven’t gotten my jackpot music yet, but it’s a rare Sunday when I don’t have a typo somewhere in the grid. (On these days in particular, I wish “check puzzle” weren’t a streak-breaker, but c’est LA vie.)

By the time I’d gotten BUMBLEBEE, BABYBOTTLE, and BUBBLEBATH, I had a pretty good idea of the theme. Big smile when I noticed it extended to the clues as well. But that smile quickly turned to a frown when I got mired in the impenetrable (to me) northeast corner. By far too many proper nouns in what might otherwise have been a delightful puzzle. Bah, humbug!

I typically skip Fridays and Saturdays, but I’m glad I made an exception today. Loved many of these clues, particularly WEREWOLF and NAVEL. I couldn’t for the life of me recall the names of the raspy aunts in the Simpsons, and OPAH was a new one to me. The northeast corner had me stumped for a long time — I had “bird” instead of “WREN” and “Maui” for “OAHU.” Once I’d corrected that, I still had to fix “WHAT THE HaY”/“LaGATO” and “ROMe”/“ETTe,” but it was all around great fun for a themeless puzzle. Don’t think I’ll ever learn to spell those musical terms properly.

This puzzle was LOADS OF FUN. A brilliant reminder that just because a puzzle is on the easier side doesn’t mean it can’t be a blast to solve. A lot like MINI GOLF in that respect, in fact. (And like a Rube Goldberg-esque mini golf course, I’ll bet it wasn’t a breeze to construct either.)

This was a wonderful tricky Thursday! I figured out quickly that the starred clues were not enough to fill in the themed entries, but the crosses are easy enough that (if you are solving top to bottom) you can fill some of them in before you get to the revealer. Then, the revealer serves as an “Aha!” to illuminate the connection between clue and entry and help you fill in the missing ones. I had some issue with the intersection of “OUTEAT” and “TO A T,” but that is on me. My brain could not think of the latter as more than one word, and I went through the whole alphabet mentally filling in the first letter and coming up with nothing that matches the clue. Meanwhile, nothing seemed to make sense for the punny vertical clue either. My one complaint about this puzzle (which was otherwise fantastic) is that I still can’t understand “SHORT I.” The explanation in the Wordplay column doesn’t seem sufficient.

This was a cute theme and a relatively quick solve for me. However, I did see dark clouds on the horizon (another potential theme entry?) with the bottom-left corner. A 60s singer crossing with a former Today Show host, which crossed with a sports term, which crossed with a “famed” fireman I’ve never heard of? That was just too much stuff outside of my wheelhouse to solve without looking up. I ended up looking up the host, and the rest fell into place after that. The other dangerous crossing (theme entry?) in this one was WADI and NENA. Luckily, I guessed the vowel correctly on the first try, but it could just as easily have been an I or E for how unfamiliar I am with both those words. All nits being picked, however, the theme was fun, and I particularly loved the two-row-spanning entry.

I’ll be an uncle any day now, so this puzzle came at a good time! Cute theme, but it’s the first time I’ve encountered ODOULS or OMETRA… maybe I’ve spent less timr in bars or watching the Godfather trilogy than the constructor? Didn’t even consider Gen Z’er, as I and everyone I know calls them Zoomers “informally.” And of course any babies born these days would be the successor to Gen Z, which I’ve heard called “Generation Alpha.”

This was an absolute delight. Being short on sleep and unable to remember the lyric in question without crosses (“Can’t stop this”? “Can’t top this”?) just made the reveal that much more gratifying. I loved all the theme answers, which went beyond the obvious (third rail) for some clever and varied applications of the theme. Also a big fan of “Challenge for an under-achiever,” “Ursula’s slithery pets,” and “Spells danger.”

Add me to the list of solvers who’s never heard the word “arctic” used in that context, but I figured it out based on crosses. Had to look up Croce, as I initially had “archies” for the shoe and “Eroce” for the singer, both of which sounded just as likely to me. As a huge fan of the unfairly maligned branch of humor from which this column derives its name, the revealer left a sweet taste in my mouth.

Loved the misdirection in several of the clues highlighted in the column — CHIN was especially delightful, but also BETA (my brain at first went to flea circuses) and IRE. Also loved the rebus-adjacent theme that, thankfully, didn’t require any second-guessing if how the app expected me to fill in the grid. I knew “SWAK” from having listened to the audiobook of Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal recently (although it’s “SWALK” there). Not sure I’ve ever heard “BEERY,” and I know “DWI” as “DUI,” but that’s about it as far as questionable fill goes. Fantastic work,

This was a particularly breezy Tuesday for me — I finished in half my average time. I think it was the relative absence of proper nouns, geography, and pop culture trivia (I got Orangina and Chu from the crosses). Loved “okay boomer” and “drop trou.”

Just wanted to say that the misdirection at 17D was masterful. I already had a B there from the crossing, so the clue essentially was “what four-letter word, starting with B, goes with Body and Work?” It was impossible not to think of “Bath” even though I knew it was not correct. I always love this style of clue. Didn’t care for “verge in” as a synonym for “get closer,” but I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle, especially TSARS. Once I got the theme, I had a lot of fun trying to fill them all in based on the wordplay, whereas normally I wait until I have more crosses before guessing at the themed entries. Was frustratingly stuck and came in slow for a Sunday because I had “SABADi” for “SABADO” (and “iN KEY” made perfect sense as well), as well as “OASiS” for “OASES” (GiESE did not make much sense, but I didn’t get the wordplay in the clue and assumed it was a term I didn’t know).

The theme didn’t quite come together for me. Generally, I look forward to the (often pun-fueled) “aha” moment of filling in the revealer and seeing the way it ties the theme entries together, but this time, my reaction was more of an “I guess.” Pavlov and Quasimodo are gimmes, and Peale was a nice addition to the theme, but Willy Loman and Santa Claus left me scratching my head, Sure, Santa’s associated with the sound of sleighbells, but it’s hardly the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name. It took some further thinking to realizethe bells mentioned here are the ones associated not with Saint Nick himself but specifically with the Salvation Army Santas. And as for Willy Loman, I know enough about the play to know the name but not enough to associate him with bells — I came to the column hoping to be enlightened and was disappointed to discover that the only connection to the theme was that he is a door-to-door salesman. I did enjoy the repetition of “hold your horses,” the guest appearances by Eartha Kitt and Syd Hoff, and the tangentially theme-related “heralds.” (On that note, there are enough holiday-related entries in this grid that it might have worked better in December rather than May.) I just wish the theme had been a bit tighter.

Once I knew to expect it (I am fairly new to the NYT crossword), I love a good rebus puzzle. There was an impressive variety of EAR words on display here, especially with the added constraint that they had to be the start/end of the entry for the acrosses, though it was a bit disappointing to see TEAR show up no fewer than three times. Not much to do but grin and BEAR it. I struggled more than usual with the non-themed fill. I’m sure poor sleep is partly to blame, but there were also more proper nouns than I personally like to see, particularly crossing one another. DECOY gave me a sensible chuckle.

Loved the bonus in the southwest corner.