JayTee

As someone who has descendants who have gone through periods of uncertainty regarding the persons and genders they are attracted to, my major concern is how happy and safe they are in their relationships. As long as those conditions are met, the rest is none of my business. My wife and I love our daughters and granddaughters, and my hope is that they will be with people who will love them and treat them with the respect and love they deserve. Living where I do, I am no stranger to Pride Month and its activities, I sincerely wish that there was no need to spotlight it or to celebrate any other f(r)action of the inhabitants of the country or the world because the rest of us have learned acceptance and tolerance; and not to be dismissive or afraid of folks who don't act or look like we do. Congratulations on the reveals, both in your puzzle and in your life, and thank you for a nice start to Pride Month.

Very nice tribute puzzle. Got to see the group with Billy, Frank, and Elwood (their former guitar tech) playing Dusty's parts; Milwaukee Summerfest 2022. They did a nice tribute to Dusty during the show. Only tricky part for me was figuring out what happened to the letters left behind, and of course the answer was just leave them in the same order and move the Zs to the top. Now we need tributes for Dolly and Tim Curry. It's been a rough week or two for the 70-80 year olds.

It's always a treat to have a Monday by Lynn Lempel. I didn't really like the clue for TURBOPROP, because that's not really accurate any more. Except for very small operators, most airline companies have dropped the use of turboprop powered planes and switched to smaller jet planes, which are more efficient and economical. The military still has some planes for use where there are smaller runways than jets can handle, the C-130 being one of them (the Blue Angel's 'Fat Albert' support plane is a C-130). But they aren't really short hop transports. And my first airline flight (in 1963) was on a Lockheed Electra turboprop that I took from NJ to San Antonio, TX, not a short hop at all. A little more trivia: The "Soarin'" Disney attraction was designed at home by an Imagineer and demoed for staff using an Erector Set. The Imagineer built a working model that showed how the seats for the attraction could be lifted into place for the show. Thanks, Lynn, for the nice Monday!

I neglected to look at who presented us with this lovely puzzle, and as I finished I was thinking "this is very like a Robyn Weintraub Friday", and then looked and found out that it was (seriously, this happened!). I am always delighted when I see that Robyn is the constructor. It's not necessarily going to be easy, but it is going to be smooth, and once you get a toehold the answers seem to give you just enough to get the next, and it keeps going until you've completed the solve. She has an amazing talent and is one of my favorite constructors. Nice to see your work again, Robyn, and thanks!

It's always appreciated (at least by me) when answers involve puns. Most of the themers came rapidly, but there were a couple of spots elsewhere that took crosses and a little thought. A nice, gentle Sunday puzzle, and a very nice debut. Thanks, Collin!

The clues initially seemed to be constructed by a certain diminutive, greenish, Jedi master, and reading them as that got me through until I'd gotten 4D. Nice twist for a Thursday and one we hadn't seen for a while. Thanks, Hoang-Kim.

Nice debut, David, and nice Tuesday puzzle. Thanks!

Quite impressive! Unusual grid, and a unique constraint that obviously took some time to assemble. Nice debut, Kathryn, and hope to see more of your work.

This was a bit tougher than most of the latest Sunday puzzles for me, but I stuck it out and finally got it done. Having attended a rival school back when both were in the then Big 8, KSU, located in the Little Apple, was a gimme. Most of the rest wasn't that easy, and it turned into a challenge. Need some of those from time to time. Thanks, Adam and Simeon.

Not too difficult, Alex, nice Monday with a few stretches. Thanks!

It was sometimes a bit tricky to decipher some of the clues due to the modifications made to keep to the self-imposed constraint, but overall it was a fairly easy Wednesday for me. Nice debut, and an interesting approach. Thanks, Mac!

I was very much perplexed by the theme clues for a while, since the answers didn't seem to make any connection with the clues. But, remembering it was Thursday, I took a harder look at the cluing, especially at 58A, and realized there were some reversals going on. Took me longer to realize that part of the answers reflected (sorry) the reversals. Of course, those weren't the only tricky parts. I particularly liked the clues for 22D, 14A, and 29A. Thanks, Rachel (congrats on the debut!), and John.

Fun puzzle and a tricky one at that. Figured out the missing IF right away, Got the AND and BUT farther down on the west side, and then plopped in the revealer without crosses. Took a little brain power to figure out to figure out some of the other theme answers, but it got done. Great DE[BUT], Timothy, and thanks!

I'll rate this one as "tow"-rifficly fun. Thanks Ralph and Doug! Here's some music that would probably be appropriate for moving that car: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9eQkTJZlNk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9eQkTJZlNk</a>

Important things first—Happy Anniversary! Loved the constructor notes. There's a different note worth reading at xwordinfo.com on the puzzle page. Took a little thinking, but the penny finally dropped and the 'aha' moment occurred. Thought about whether a rebus was necessary, and decided against it, as the O would serve just fine as a hole, although it would have been nice if the NYTG crew could have added some graphics for after the finish. My other complaint (of sorts) is that it was over too quickly, but it was definitely fun, and just tricky enough for a Thursday. Thanks, Zhou!

Always nice to see a puzzle from ACMe and Dena. Thanks for a nice Monday, ladies!

A nice, somewhat resistant Tuesday. Fortunately for this non-TV-watcher who is not keeping up with the indie music scene, the crosses were helpful and the puzzle did not require any lookups. Thanks, Hanh!

No difficulty for me with this puzzle, though I did notice some words that were a bit unusual to see in a Monday puzzle. Some filled in with crosses, but most of them I knew anyway, Nice one, Chase.

Quick one today, but quite a bit of fun. Thanks, CC.

Took me a bit longer than usual because I never had to worry about remote sessions. I always had to show up—you can't do some healthcare jobs very effectively if you're not there with the patient. Add the fact that I retired before zoom calls and presentations became a thing didn't help. My wife had to do some of that on a one-to-one basis during the pandemic, but it turned out to be somewhat difficult trying to teach something when the person you're teaching is blind, and she and the student had to meet in person at school. Still, other than the unfamiliarity with the lingo, it wasn't that difficult a puzzle. I just had to wait for more of the crosses in order to recognize what the answers might be. Thanks, Jacob,

Nice Monday, and quickly done. BANANA SLUG is memorable, because it's the mascot of UC Santa Cruz, and "UCSC athlete" was the clue for it's first appearance in the puzzle in 2012, and I believe it was mentioned in the discussion regarding its second appearance as well. Fun puzzle, thanks, Cristopher!

I found this to be a little tougher than the usual Tuesday, due to some wicked misdirection (which was much appreciated). It was fun, even with it going a bit more slowly than usual. Appreciated the URL clues and answers. Thanks, Margot and Paul!

Cute, but easy tribute puzzle, with a couple of interesting twists.

Nice puzzle, and the theme got noticed early. Didn't stop me from having some trouble with a few spots, and UnLIT/UPLIT was my finishing correction. Note to the Eds.: the CTRL key is not the corner key on some keyboards, including mine, so part of that was dependent on crosses. Appreciated the rebus to indicate the target, and the animation after the solve. Thanks, Jeffrey and Evan! It hit the spot!

Quite clever and entertaining, but also over too quickly. I could have used a little more of a challenge on a Sunday puzzle. Thanks, Rich.

No problems with the puzzle today except for trying to spell GAIUS correctly, but that got fixed quickly. A little tougher than most Mondays, maybe, but still went fairly quickly. Thanks, Alexander.

Peaked, pronounced as two syllables, is what I've seen in the past, never "PEAKY", and the use is a bit strange, because if you're peaked, you're at a low point of sorts, healthwise. Anyway, the puzzle solved smoothly, presented few problems, and took me a bit longer than yesterday's, so for me, an appropriate Tuesday presentation. Thanks, Adam.

Got 1A immediately, but I wondered how our British folks will react, as it's "Where's Wally" on the other side of the pond. The quotes quickly became pretty obvious, even if the dates didn't bring the speeches to mind since I did this at midnight. It was nice to have MAGE crossing ANORAK. I wasn't familiar with ROBOT SUMO, as the only contest I've seen is BattleBots. Thanks, Dario!

My trips to Florida from elsewhere (KC, or WI) were usually multi-day and often involved stops in southern Georgia (Valdosta, and sometimes Perry). The rest was often needed after dealing with Atlanta traffic earlier in the day. This was a nice Saturday struggle for me, but I managed without too much frustration. Thanks, Katie!

My first entry in the mini puzzle was MINI, then STEM came next, followed by YETI, AKIN and TAXI. Had a typo someplace so I wasn't sure that those were correct, so I was a bit in limbo until I found the error, having hit an N instead of a B in the NW corner. TAKE felt a bit strange until I realized the verb definition of APPROPRIATE was appropriate as the clue. Nice twist for a Sunday, and congrats on the father/son debut!

This was a bit tough for me, as there were a few spots that had me stumped for a while. I did figure out the theme answers, though, so that was a plus. Thanks, Ben.

Cute Thursday puzzle, somewhat on the easy side. I got hung up on the SW for a bit, and had to wait on crosses for a couple others, but once the rebuses were figured out, it came together fairly quickly at the end. Thanks, Joe.

Very much a fun puzzle, and just from the title I figured there would be some changes in altitude in the theme answers. So, it didn't take too long to figure out the theme answer paths, There were a few other minor challenges for me along the way, but nothing that the crosses didn't take care of, along with some semi-educated guesses. Seeing the capitals in the themers made this even more impressive. Thanks, Michael!

Thought it might have taken a bit longer than usual, but it turned out it was about 20 seconds under my average time. Fortunately, the showbiz clues either weren't too far out of my range or had decent crossings, and so I got through it without much pulling of what's left of my hair Nice debut, Jeremy, and congrats!

Very nice debut; very quick solve. Despite solving quickly, it had some interesting fill. Thanks, Sunny!