Mike

Truly excellent. Clever, challenging, but fair. A delightful Thursday!

This is maybe my favorite Monday puzzle - not hard, but not a long list of stale clues. I enjoyed seeing whether I could come up with the theme answers with no or only a couple of crosses. Great fun!

A new personal best! I’ll go to bed now with a happy glow, and be sure not to come back for the comments about this puzzle belonged on Tuesday.

Fo such mun!

I really enjoyed this. It felt like gradually weaving something lovely into a whole. Bravo!

This is one of the most wonderful puzzles I’ve ever completed. I caught onto the idea very early, with the fictional composer crossing Fast/car and then protective outfits crossing Wild/bunch. It was great fun to find the other combinations, and on top of that there were so many entertaining entries. I got stuck for a while in the NW. I just don’t know many names from popular culture, and I thought dip might be SkIM. But it was a fun fun fun puzzle.

Great fun! I caught on halfway through, which is to me perfect: soon enough to be fun, late enough that the puzzle doesn’t become too easy. In the end I spent a good while finding it was not sIDED but AIDED, which meant hard-core was about muscles rather than some unknown X-rated acronym.

This was fun! A nice Tuesday with an enjoyable theme.

Great fun. Admittedly easier than usual, but still fun.

A truly excellent puzzle. I usually aim for speed on Tuesdays, for fun. But after one pass it became clear I would need to buckle down and think. Clever clues, and entirely fair. A delight!

Truly elegant. I love puzzles that gradually unfold, where an inkling of the theme starts to emerge and then … aha!

One of the most delightful puzzles I’ve ever had the pleasure to solve. Figured out the stilettoed parent and the rest unfolded into a lovely little wedding album.

This was fun fun fun! I like it when I understand a theme early enough for it to help. Fun!

My vote for a perfect clue: “Basic plot lines?” A lovely misdirect!

A really fun theme that made me smile. I caught onto A CUTE ANGLE quickly, which helped with the others, and led to a personal best. I’m tickled to find it entertaining as well as a smooth solve.

A very pleasant puzzle with a delightful theme! Great fun!

It took me a ttiimmee but was great fun.

So much to like! It felt like the hardest Monday puzzle I can remember, but in the end I finished in below average time. The apex area really hung me up, what with two unknown proper names. TEA TREE, VDAY, SALMON BERRY, so many new to me entries. And then a graphic as good as fireworks. This was fun!

So much fun! And a sparkling theme to enjoy.

What a brilliant puzzle. It was hard, it was fun, I had to look up a few to finish … and I still had to read the column to understand what had just happened. Fantastic!

This is a terrific puzzle. Fun misdirects, way longer than my average time, and full of good humored answers. Loved it!

So elegant, and so much fun! I got the theme clue from crossings, saw the need for double rebuses, but still didn’t get the point until near the end … and then, tada! The solution! I love it when the theme gradually emerges and then the trick jumps out. And the substitution for the rebuses was simply beautiful.

This went so smoothly at first that I felt like one of the cool kid solvers, but the SW got me stuck for a while. Not dAreWE, not ROut, too many blanks … but then trying ROMP opened it up, and still gave a new personal best at just over half my average time. Hooray!

That was fun! I couldn’t figure out why so many Spanish speakers were in Ohio … until I didn’t.

Great fun! Tried the rebus, saw the bias and switched back. This was a very pleasant solve.

I liked this a lot. I didn’t really know the musical terms, but could see the wordplay emerging as I filled in the crosses. That was fun.

“Fear for a launderer” … great!

This was great fun. It seemed unusually hard for a Wednesday. But then I caught onto the theme in time for it to help, and what looked like a few impossible crosses fell into place. And so many fun clues and entries. Stock quote? Sees red? GOURDE looks like the invention of money. I fondly remember my mother recalling FALA - years ago - from her childhood. Even SNORRI looked familiar in the end. Wonderful.

Much fun! It took a long time to get the trick - which made it a delightful aha moment. Great puzzle!🧩

Great fun! Plenty I didn’t know but the crosses revealed all. And a clever theme too.

This was a delightful puzzle. For me it hit the sweet spot - not so easy that I whipped through it, but not so hard that I needed to start googling. I caught onto the theme towards the end, which is always the most fun. The little section with solitaire and razors nearly did me in, but I guessed UP and all was well. Great fun!

I’m tickled to get this one without help - especially since the SW was almost blank with the rest completed. I even dug GALOIS out of my mathematical memory. But OCELA (never heard of it) crossing LEASALONGO (never heard of her) about did me in. Crunch crunch crunch eventually I just had to guess a vowel or too. This was fun!

What a delightful struggle. I found it harder than usual, but wonderfully it was not because of a bunch of proper nouns. Brilliant!

Very sweet and fun. Thank you!

That’s more like it! Chewed and tried and eventually got everything. Great fun!

This was fun, clarity gradually emerging from confusion. Thanks!

I loved this. I caught on almost immediately with family hiring, confirmed it with Dick and Jane, and began understanding the down answers with Mr. Frost. And a new personal best, less than half my average time. In sync with this one!

Great fun! Entertaining and gentle entries - WAXING, MINIMOON, CLASSMATE, and my second personal best this week to boot. IMAFAN.

A lovely puzzle, some crunch and a nice theme (well, for those of us in warmer places). SLicK (4D) slowed things down for a spell.

Made me laugh! Great fun.

A lovely puzzle, a satisfying struggle on a rainy morning. Fittingly, zeitgeisty was the last to fall.

Definitely slower than usual, but this was so very fun! Eventually I caught on, and finally fixed GutTER. Then it all fell into place. The very best kind of Thursday.

Pleasant, not as challenging as most Thursdays.

ANGI not ANGIe, AUDRE not AUDREy. Who knew? Proper names are my nemesis. 😉