DIVAS IVLIVS

SE corner was brutal for a Tuesday!

In my defense, sometimes earrings do need to be rescued.

Someday many years from now, a Wordplay column few of us will be here to read will begin, "Today's puzzle is by Bryan Cheong, whose first puzzle was published way back in 2025 when he was just 14."

Within a ten minute walk of every MUNI line and I still put BART in first.

The puzzles aren't getting easier, I'm getting smarter. Yes, that must be it.

I appreciate having a new type of rebus to dislike.

Alumnae, not alumni.

Perfect Wednesday puzzle.

You open a case with a statement, not an argument.

Brilliant, thank you!

Great Tuesday puzzle, thank you!

This is the hardest puzzle I've ever solved without looking anything up. Need to look up a few answers now to understand what they mean, though.

My nominee for Best Monday Puzzle Ever, thank you Kenneth!

Genius-level puzzle. Well done.

That was hard! Way over my average.

Is it pronounced "Zed Zed" Top in England?

Nice puzzle. Great revealer.

Are party hats and balloons associated with SQUARE DANCEs and BOX SOCIALs? Are there really gatherings called CELL RECEPTIONS or is it just a play on words (uniquely, among the themed answers)?

Chewy for a Tuesday puzzle. Well done.

OHO is a no-no.

30A is genius.

Tolstoy would have used KAtarINA too if he had thought of it, probably.

Genuinely surprised by the strong negative reactions. Seemed pretty typical for a Sunday puzzle.

Sure it was Loonie, wondered who Mel H is.

Breakthrough finally came when I realized the revealer was not a pun meant to be read "dark N or G."

Chewy for a Wednesday. Good stuff.

Thank you, Deb, and best wishes! I started puzzling as a distraction from the pandemic and I doubt it would have been any more than that for me without your joyful, inspiring columns. It won't be the same without you, but you got me hooked and I won't be quitting anytime soon!

Now that's a New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle! Well done!

Feeling lucky that it only took a couple of minutes to find and fix UnLIT/nEWEES for the happy music.

ATLAS held up the heavens, not the earth.

Yes, this puzzle was too easy and lacked a certain something, that's why it took me so long.

My car is parked on NOE and I am drinking a PERSIMMON smoothie, does this still count as an unassisted solve?

Also still singular if you instead add an A at the beginning.

Down answers need to all be real words or phrases as written (just not the right answers to their clues) for this to work.

Great Tuesday puzzle. Made me work for the happy music!

Love it, thank you!

Nicely done.

A new record for me! (Slowest Saturday solve.). But no look-ups. I'll take it.

My average Monday time has been going up recently and I love it. The puzzles have been really good.

Usually I struggle through a puzzle and come here to be told it was too easy. This is the rare day when I breeze through but others don't. So, yeah, more like this please!

Perfect Wednesday puzzle.

Brilliant!

Epic puzzle, thank you!

Polyphemus was not "the" cyclops, he was one of many cyclopes. But he probably did yell something like "I can't see" when he was poked in the eye by No Man/wily Odysseus. Too bad the constructor couldn't get that one "I" into "Poseidon," Polyphemus' father.

An allele can be dominant, but not a gene.

My golden-doodle resents being reduced to a caricature. But I thought it was a great puzzle.