97Bravo

Hate to be negative, but was not fan of this one. A bit too "cute" in several instances and a convoluted "theme" gimmick. Something new - I had not heard of DDay referenced as Operation Neptune (only Operation Overlord), despite have read many accounts of the action.

One of those rare days that I got all the themed clues right without any help. Nice puzzle to start off the week.

Had a very hard time with this. Had no idea what some of the clues were indicating and a number of answers did not make sense to me. Granted, I have not seen "Wicked," but this was a chore.

A rare "no look-ups" puzzle for me. Fifteen minutes, pretty smooth flow.

Wasn't my fastest solve, but it was a fun fill. My pun-addiction helped a bit with the musical clues. Very clever!

Took a while, but was satisfied when finished. Good, challenging puzzle. Had to resort to a few look ups, but generally was able to flush out my wrong entries when "the light dawned on Marblehead," as we say up East. Got the theme about halfway thru, thanks to some down crosses.

Took a while, but it was worth the effort. Well constructed puzzle.

Nice way to start the week. Quick, easy puzzle.

With the first pass through I had ten entries (two of which proved wrong!). After the second pass I only picked a few more. Had to read the intro after a few more tries (one line at at a time to cut down on reveals). Tough one for me, as the clues did not click.

Pretty good puzzle, and was able to finish it without peeking at answers. The long down clues and a number of short crosses helped with the fill-ins of some of the tougher entries.

One heck of a puzzle, very creative. Got the HILL part early, which gave me a "lift," but didn't connect the dots right away preceding the "slope." A number of early (wrong) entries that seemed to fit well ended up sending me "downhill." Took a while, but was a satisfying "run." (Pardon the Dad-joke puns, couldn't resist.)

Good puzzle. Zipped through without too much trouble, but did not get the "jingle" that it was completed correctly. My error was using "IKE" for JFKs predecessor. Led to a couple of other short errors, but had entered words that seemed to fit.

There were many words here I did not get, very obscure, but I finished the puzzle via the crossing entries,...didn't get "the win" though, as I had a misspelling and a couple of wrong entries. Learned some words for a future puzzle, no doubt.

Very tough one for me. Second guessed a number of my answers after completing most of the Down entries along top. Had never heard of Sacagawea. A few others I was not familiar with then led to several look-ups. Good puzzle, learned a few things today.

Hats off to this youngster. Clever, and tough, puzzle! Needed help to complete this via a few lookups (and a couple of peeks at the notes). When things started falling in place I had a number of "Of course!" head-slap moments.

Quick, fun puzzle. Didn't like VERYSAME as an answer, however, but maybe I've never run into that response/comment.

Not a rebus fan per se, (not a hater either, as some object to such criticism). Also, my computer keeps jumping when selecting and entering letters therein, when I can actually deduce where the rebus appears. Will try an alternate browser. That being said, this puzzle to me was a tough chore and I need some help, even after noting in the intro where rebus locations were. I do give credit to the constructor, as "building" this must have been quite a task.

Took me a while, with the help of several look-ups, but finally got it done. Solved it pretty much from the bottom to top. The Northwest section had me flummoxed until things started to fall in place. Had a few typos in there which did not help my cause - hitting the keys a bit too fast. Good puzzle.

Good Sunday puzzle. Fun and challenging at the same time. Was perplexed for a few seconds when finished, as I could not get what the heck "Atoz" had to do with something "Complete." Then came the head-slap moment, "Oh, 'A To Z'!" Loved the graphics at the end. Poor Wiley.

Not a great fan of Rebus entries, but I have to give credit to the constructor. Took me a long time to complete, between the Rebus entries and a few misspelled words (plus, the screen kept jumping with each Rebus selection and entry). I was flummoxed by the placement and content of the entries. As well as making entries like ELENA instead of SONIA!

Gary and Doug, without fail, play havoc with my thought process. For some reason, I have a great deal of difficulty with either of their puzzle clues. But to team them up on me? Not fair! :) Heck of a challenging puzzle for me, needed some help to finish, but it was a workout.

Good Monday puzzle. Zipped through in 20 minutes (which is good for me), but had 2 errors. Got tripped up by "FLIERS" (had "FLYERS") crossing with NILLA, (even though I knew NILLA was right). Also had MENTO instead of LENTO, due to knowing some Caribbean folks some time ago. Fun puzzle.

Not a fan of this one today. A challenge is one thing, but some of the answers were "degrading" of my efforts (if you'll pardon the pun).

Two days in a row of quick solves, amazing. But held up by the seemingly ever present typo as the "congrats" screen didn't pop up right away. Had typed TRMVOR instead of TREVOR!

Not a fan of this one. Wasted way too much time trying to figure out why my “fInished” puzzle was not accepted as “finished.” Went over the completed grid twice, then went through the answer key, twice. Constructor “stretched” a bit with this one.

Pretty good puzzle. Hung myself up by entering DROPLET instead of DRIBLET. Thought of EASYTIGER, but that went against another entry I had of SKIPAPAGE, not SKIPABEAT. Which left a number of uncompleted squares. As we say up here in MA, then the light finally dawned on Marblehead.

Have to give myself a "fail" on this one. After two passes only half the puzzle was filled in. Had to look up more than a few entries, but some of those turned out to be wrong. That, plus second guessing other entries (that would have been correct), put me in position of having to read the Intro, line by line, as words started to fall into place. But too many unknowns in the cluing to come out with a win.

Good Saturday puzzle, even if it took a while to do it. Got myself "crossed up" by having SPACESHIP & YUGI on the East edge, which left LEP for an obvious entry. Had a struggle with the Southeast section even though SECRETSANTA & JEANRENOIR fell early. But it was fun!

Might have been my quickest Monday. No lookups, just one typo. Nice way to start the week.

Very clever, puzzle, Kevin. Fun to solve, although I boxed myself in by misspelling "symmetry," (which I jumped to fill in first), and was convinced that ALE was the proper tap for 1A. My crosses got NIECE, but I had a brain cramp trying to justify it,...until lI had the inevitable head-slap moment!

Challenging, well constructed puzzle, with some clever cluing. Especially liked the ETHER clue, good one! Got a lot fills after several passes, but sidetracked myself with entries like STATEPARK not SKATEPARK, GIRLS not GEESE, et al.

Tough one for me. Filled in about half the puzzle, looking for the "usual" rebus, but was scratching the old noggin as some answers fit in without it. Did a grid check at one point, surprisingly having only a few wrong letters, but a lot of missing words. Some look-ups and a number of guesses got most filled i,n but I knew something was wrong. Realized the red/green thing finally, but the words made no sense. Had to start reading the intro, line by line, which only had me shaking my head.

Wow, one of my fastest times, 10 min. Fun Monday puzzle.

Very good puzzle, fun, challenging and also had a few chuckles,...at my own expense. The NW & NE sections were the last to fall thanks to assumptions of mine and a complete brain cramp on 20A (DUTY). Had the Y and "knew" the answer, but could not get my gray matter to recall it until other letters fell. Had CASE and SACK at first for 10A, which led to 11, 12 & 13D not making sense. Did not get SHAM until the answer for 13D was allowed to penetrate the brain fog.

Well, a decent Thursday for me, 19mins. Even navigated the normally frustrating Rebus in fairly short order. Good puzzle.

Challenging, but interesting puzzle. Had to solve portions of the long entries by the crosses, then the proverbial light bulb clicked on, as the reason for Roman numerals in the center presented itself. Well done. Re Sam's Comment: Right on, Sam. Couldn't agree more. If someone's day is ruined (for whatever reason) by a crossword puzzle, they need to step back and take stock of things. Remember Thumper's famous line from "Bambi."

Good workout. Couple of entries tied me up for a while, DRAW instead of HINT and LAPS in lieu of LANE. The NASAL clue was clever. Did not know MOCHIDONUT. Had to look up a few in this one. Well constructed puzzle.

Nice, leisurely solve today, enjoyable puzzle. Didn't get the BALL/CHAIN connection until I read the explanation. Slow on the draw this morning.

Did not grab onto the "theme" of this at all. Was convinced it was a traditional rebus so the entries were not meshing. Resorted to a number of look ups mostly to no avail. A nit pick: Not a fan of app and internet lingo for crosswords. Have to chalk this one up as a loss.

Challenging puzzle. One nit-pick: I have always seen the long hyphen expressed as "em dash," not "en dash."

So sad to hear of Daniel's passing. A person that young should not have left this world. Condolences to his family and friends.

Nit Pick: Probably been pointed out, but 52D should be "Yankee," not plural.

Challenging for me. Was looking for the usual Thursday rebus (never assume!), based on the Intro paragraph, so got hung up at times. Once I stumbled on some entries, via the crossings, it made things a bit more logical. Still had to resort to some look ups for obscure (to me) cluing. But a very well constructed puzzle.

Took me a while to do it, but a very good puzzle. Needed several look ups and was not familiar with some entries. Had to search a bit after completion as the "congrats" did not appear. Found that one Rebus was a typo, entered IED instead of IDE.

Nice way to start the week. A fairly quick, fun puzzle, and no look-ups today! Did not know OLLAS, but the crosses confirmed it.

That was a challenge, but enjoyed working my my through it. Took a while, as I had entries like ATOMICCAFE, SOTHATISIT, WESEEEYETOEYE (and others) to steer me off course. Had not heard of QUIETQUITING or FETLOCKS and my Army experience had me insisting it was some version of LTl (first lieutenant) and not the Naval CDR. Well constructed.

Started off with LEAST instead of SCANT for 1A which would lead to a long, slow slog with other entries not fitting or making sense. Coupled with the "PUH" in 14A not coming to me, it meant for a tough outing. Also thrown off by HIREE, which I took for a military reference ("recruit") and used PLEBE. Challenging, but eventually filled it in with the help of some look ups.

Labored for a while on this one. The first pass through of the clues did not yield much. A few look-ups brought some help and crosses started to bear fruit. Several "aha" moments followed fairly quickly form that point on. Good way to start the weekend.