Clare

It’s a Wednesday! Not Thursday tricky but still cleverer than a Tuesday. Homonyms for how we say letters was pretty easy to spot. I have realized that I never have complaints about the crossword that are worth airing. My gratitude for the diversion, and what it teaches me, always wins!

I am sad that “barouse” (go on a pub crawl) is not a word. I think it should be (though the cross wouldn’t work…but still) Nice Tuesday!

I needed to read the explanation but that is quite something as far as puzzle construction goes! It’s been about 30 years since the wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, and I followed their progress for years. I am going in May in hopes of seeing them again. In the meantime, I monitor eagles that have nested in an urban park, as part of a citizen science research project. So, yes, this theme feels powerful to me. Thank you!

And I know no (none, nil, nada, zero) drink recipes! Yet I finished! It wasn’t a disaster.

Liked. This was an up, not a down. Thanks!

Whew! That went fast. My dad never made dad jokes, and a paternity test never came up! But he was great with fatherly advice. Most important, if I was walking across a stage and tripped and fell he’d have been no less proud. I miss him. Thank you for a Father’s Day - adjacent Wednesday that gave me a great sense of accomplishment (kind like my dear old dad, that old man).

BUCK O’NEIL! He’s on my somewhat eclectic (and presumptuous) list of people I am sad I will never have the chance to meet. The Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City was his baby, and it’s not to be missed. It’s quite worth the trip. I liked the theme clues — they triggered less verbal parts of my brain!

I ended with the NE corner and broke out in song upon completion… low bridge, everybody down, low bridge cuz we’re coming to a town, and you’ll always know your neighbor, you’ll always know your pal, if you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal. And I did! Early 2000’s, Seneca Falls to Rockport in a 42 foot steel hulled canal boat. It think it was 16 locks we went through. When a crossword puzzle throws you into good memories…. Thanks.

53 Down - Abey the giant black cat objects! I am less an owner than a servant. (But he’s handsomer than 98% of the cats, so it all evens out.) Eat that, JD Vance.

My favorite kids book is Go Dog Go where we learn that dogs have rich internal lives and really know how to party. It turns out that crossword puzzle grids do too! I liked the pretty cells. Thank you!

Love it! It’s like repping out on rebuses! Great practice at the thinking required. I was a bit intimidated at first, when I saw the design. But the enough of the clues were accessible that I could figure it out. (I started in the middle, unshaded squares, just to get a foundation/head-start.) Thank you!

MR BILL (1996-2014). Cat extraordinaire. My father’s name was Bill and he was a bit put out (why did you name your cat after me?!). I didn’t! I named him after the lesser known brother of my favorite baseball player (Cal Ripken). He started out as Billy, but he was the boy-cat with two girl cats, and over time his name got gendered: Mr. Bill. He was the peacemaker among them. What a cat.

I needed this puzzle today. When I turned 18, my dad gave me a red tool box and then over the years he helped me fill it. He started with a hammer, rather than a SCREWDRIVER. But whatever!

That was a w(hole) lotta fun! Very accessible rebus puzzle.

I learned a lot from this puzzle —just really interesting but still get-able clues. And I laughed out loud at the revealer! We’ve all changed!

Cute! I have a rule when hiking with kids. No whining until the last half mile (by which time they are usually so proud of themselves that the WHINING is tongue in cheek!). WHITE WINE (WHALE, BALL) reminded me of that.

Haha. Brought to mind… When asked for the abbreviation for Montana, I say MT as “in big empty state”!

Delightful!

Like My brain enjoys the little zap when the Ts make whole new words! And today I learned that ibex live in the Alps?! Off to Google and learn more.

So this was an unusual Monday in the length of some down, non-theme answers. Obviously not Fri or Sat hard, but a little window into that style. But still accessible! I liked it! BB. Yes, a thing. When I was a kid, seemed like bb-guns were ubiquitous except in our pacifist house!

No complaints! I like a Thursday. Look forward to it all of Wednesday.

I got to do all hyphens at the end, all in a row. Fun and satisfying puzzle and ending! Jamie MOYER had some baseball magic that wasn’t a blazing fastball or wicked curve. Just placement, pacing and smarts, I guess. It got to be pretty amazing to see him show up year after year after year.

Finally got the theme with the last theme clue I sussed out — men/u. I enjoyed this puzzle — and the variety of phonetic presentations! Thank you, as always, for the cognitive calisthenics.

Elks? Plural of the grazers is still just elk.

Great Hallowe’en theme! I had to google a bit but I sussed out the theme clues on my own. These days I puzzle over the PARADOXES we’ve FOMENTed and feel like I’m tilting at windmills, while always tracking the PROGRESS BAR. A good crossword is a blessing!

Fancy! I should not be surprised that, when clue after clue gets me nowhere on a Thursday, there’s a revealer that points to just as many rebi. Yes, that’s how I plural it up.

HEADBANGS (!!) makes it all worthwhile.

Regarding 57 Across, I saw this at the Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego a couple of years ago. It primed me for this clue! And is a cool SD outing. <a href="https://vmota.org/jack-of-diamonds-by-karen-felicity-berkenfeld" target="_blank">https://vmota.org/jack-of-diamonds-by-karen-felicity-berkenfeld</a>/

I have been playing Wingspan which has widened (though not deepened!) my exposure to birds. So I loved the theme, and CHAFF, and PUFFIN. I didn’t understand RUBBER until the revealer, however! Haha.

Charming theme! I don’t call my friends GIRLIES, however. Is that an age thing? Coastal difference? Maybe a TikTok thing (am regularly surprised by the names TikTok gives to things that already have perfectly good labels)?

Combining two of my favorite past times! I’ve been away a while but this was a great Sunday to come back to.

That was fun! Maybe even Tuesday fun!

The SEA ANEMONEs on the Oregon coast this spring were spectacular. I was there for some unusually low tides, and so there was much to see, including their color contrast with the many-hued starfish. The circles justified me but now it makes sense. Clever!

I did it! I thought the theme answers were clever, but not pun-difficult (puns make me sigh). Finally, Leslie ODOM Jr? Am still not over the majesty and tragedy of his Aaron Burr.

Is that photograph of a solar eclipse?! It’s lovely. I have some like that from 2017.

Groovy! I have such great childhood memories of mini golf - not in SCOTLAND but at the Delaware coast. The cluing was engaging!

I enjoyed that! English is a bear of a language, with just enough inconsistency to keep me on my toes. I remember the first time I saw “bough” spelled and did not know it was not pronounced “buff”. Then I heard it said, and I was like “wha?! why are we hip-hinging?!” Shout out to Jonathan Kellerman’s “When the Bough Breaks”, a 1980’s mystery that made me reckon with all of this!

Charming! I didn’t need the theme per se to pick up on the shrink-y trends. It felt very whimsical, in a good way! But upon completing the puzzle I loved the strong mental image of just floating away, watching everything get smaller and smaller.

I got the anagram pretty quickly but I don’t really understand the tongue twister part? Maybe it’s just that kind of day. Zichzelf…worth it for the sound of that!

I don’t track streaks so I am not much put out that I didn’t get the music. I did get the trick! Just not how to fill it in. I choose to not need external validation! The fill was less obscure than I feared (though I hadn’t heard of Anita O’Day - interesting lady!): TOO TOO, EONS AGO, LOCKJAW (duh, I was expecting Latin!). I know what an ear worm is (eg, the music that accompanies solving the NYT crossword - see, my brain can reproduce it for me!) but looks like I need to Google “WORM HOLE”.

I watch it whenever I can. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. I had a typo but the circled letters actually found it for me!

Great puzzle! Tuesday tricky! (And kinda annoying, like any good April Fools’ Day joke.)

I just spent too much time trying to think of a pun for a three star review of Tesla. Elon on my mind?! This happens more and more — I read clues wrong! Not a fan of puns usually but I liked this puzzle!

I guess I feel so close to those Friends (the trees) that I couldn’t see the theme (the forest)! Brought me back to early crosswords where even when I solved the puzzle I was stumped by what the theme could be. (Dumb, I know. But I am what I am.)

Ok, that was hard. No lookups or anything. So I do feel some sense of accomplishment. It is a cool theme. Not sure I learned much or delighted much, however … them’s my main side benefits of doing the puzzle.

Cute. Central OR thanks you!

Scattershot to start but once I got inFANT the clouds cleared. As I did the puzzle, I especially enjoyed the cluing (since the down clues were doubly helpful). It’s a good reminder of how constraints (fixing the first two letters of each clue) can lead to creative solutions.