Brad

After a week in Kauai I don't recall seeing even one NENE. Lots of sea turtles though. And a few humhumunukunukuāpua'a - the Reef Triggerfish, Hawaii's official state fish. Work that into a puzzle!

Crowd pleaser, indeed! A quick scan of the comments revealed not one negative comment, although I didn't read every one. When has that happened? Part of me wishes I'd figured out the numbers earlier, but that would've made the puzzle so easy as to be unsatisfying. The blast of recognition at the end made me smile. Nice puzzle. Thanks!

I'm my 62 years of skiing, some years more than 30 days on the snow, I have never heard anyone say, "shred the GNAR." Maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd. Or I'm just old. Still, a fun puzzle. The rebus actually made it easier.

TIL how to spell QUANDARY. Never used the second A. Got to look up the pronunciation now.

I was stuck on 23D. Ike, JFK, LBJ, RMN? Almost like I wasn't alive in the 60s...

Wow, what a workout. Highlight of the puzzle was having met the answer to 26D backstage after her performance on George Takei's "Allegiance" on Broadway in 2015. To bad the heart-wrenching musical saga, based on Mr. Takei's time in a WWII internment camp, how they suffered, and how they endured, didn't get more exposure.

Had the wrong Yogi at first and entered CATCHER. He's my all time favorite baseball player and I strove to emulate him during my all-too-brief baseball days. But like my brief career, I had to pivot to another favorite Yogi.

SPOILER ALERT - I had a different amphibian name at 37A until I figured out POLLIWOG, but stumbled upon my first impression when the term became a pangram in today's Spelling Bee. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

I can't be the only one whose weak areas include "hip-hop subgenres" and Harry Potter trivia, so when they converge on one space, 12A/13D, it's especially frustrating. Enough!