Sam

A truly special Monday, congratulations Kenneth - I got the revealer halfway through the solve and worked out what was going on, but I thought “surely not, this is too good to be true”… WordPlay confirms for me that it is true. A remarkable crossword and moment, thank you Kenneth and NYT for happy gifts like this in a world that is increasingly in need of them.

A fantastic puzzle, one of the most enjoyable for me this year. I completed it quite quickly, in 9:38, which is only one second away from my Friday PB, but I do not think it was easy - rather, it was one of those puzzles where the wavelength really clicked for me, and many of the answers I knew from obscure but indelible places. Having visited the Grand Canyon in 2017, OOHAAHPOINT has always stuck in my mind because I found it quite humorous when we stumbled upon it, and fellow Australians will understand when I reference a certain fast bowler named Glenn McGrath. Being a fan of his, I’ve always recalled it. The Dylan Thomas poem was familiar to me and the answer a gimme, but only because of a recent reading by a certain UK comedian, Diane Morgan, on the series “Last One Laughing”, which once seen, can not be easily forgotten - if you have not seen that, do yourself a favour, but prepare to potentially be in pain from laughing, (if that’s your kind of thing) - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3nK3p9YG0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3nK3p9YG0</a> I’m a zythophile, so AMBERALES was great; as a secondary school teacher, I hear the term CRASHINGOUT at least every second day; I teach music so ABC was simple; BOOTYCALLS was hilarious and genius; everything just clicked today. An all-round great puzzle, thank you Adryel!

Wonderful puzzle, so clever and satisfying. All the theme material was excellent, but there was something particularly excellent about VIKINGSHIPS and its clue. Thanks Yitzi, looking forward to more from you!

Long time solver and lurker here, first-time poster, pushed into my first ever comment by the thrill of achieving my all-time PB for any day of the week today: 3:47! Just one of those days where almost every answer I put in on the first run turned out to be the correct one, requiring basically no changes at the end. Great theme and great early week puzzle! My thoughts go out to Nate for what must have been a horrifically challenging year.

Loved this puzzle, challenging but very doable once I found a few entrances. So funny to see a famous Australian TV ad for taco kits get a mention in the column from Sean too, as that is exactly how I knew LOS DOS also - the ad is very famous here in Australia (at least with people of my generation, who quote it often, as we grew up with it as kids), but I didn’t know it was famous in the US too. I also learned EDGECASES, I loved BZZT, and XMAS at JFK made me think of Home Alone, which is always a good thing. Thanks Spencer, fantastic puzzle! ADIOS AMIGOS!

Loved this puzzle, and a great feeling when the theme finally clicked - genuinely satisfying. Thanks Joel!

Achieved my all-time personal best today with 3:30! Lovely puzzle, everything just fell into place and I got most of the across entries on the first run, which made the down entries very easy with so much already filled in. One of those runs where I didn’t even notice the theme until after completion - I enjoyed the theme though once I saw it. As a Beatles zealot I knew the crossword gods were on my side early with the lovely George reference at 15A - WEEPS intersecting LSD was tasteful too, even if the boys had moved onto other sources of inspiration by 1968 (looking at you Maharishi). Thanks Hannah for a great puzzle!

Fantastic puzzle, lots of great entries. I’m a huge fan of HAZY IPAs, so it was satisfying to see that entry as a fresh take on the ubiquitous IPA that we see so often. Also for some reason I loved TAVERN next to THE RAT (great imagery I think, or half of a potential tavern name?) and ALARM on top of BLEEP. A Billy Joel reference topped it all off, thanks Ryan!

Awesome puzzle, great balance between challenging and fun IMO. Finished it in 16 minutes, one of my quickest Saturday times, which (I’m telling myself) was not because the puzzle was “easier” than an average Saturday, but because I was just on the right wavelength today… thanks Ryan, fantastic work as usual!