97Bravo

Great Sunday puzzle. Took me a while, assisted by some look ups, but a fun one nonetheless. Got hung up on the lower third for a decent amount of time. Had a few crossing errors and one fill made me laugh. When 56D was filled in I thought, what's a SKIT RIP? The gray matter took about ten seconds to make it SKI TRIP for the conscious mind!

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.

So many words I did not know in today's puzzle. Apiasamoa, apu, ossetia and a few clues that left me scratching my head upon seeing the answers. Had friends that caddied for years, but never heard the term "loopers." Tough one for yours truly.

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 tough time with this one. A lot of look ups and a number of things I did not know. Very creative, even though I was shaking my head a number of times as tried to figure out what the heck the right entry could be. Can't imagine putting this one together as a constructor! Well done.

Took me quite a while, even though I had about 3/4 filled in after pretty a slow start. I just couldn't grasp what the "trick" was as the first letter of a bunch of clues (the "-" & "see title") did not lend themselves to a rational solve. Then I hit on the VICTORIACROSS entry and OSLO and it started to fall into place. I chuckled at the construction, very well done. (That AARON clue was slick!)

Okay, I have to give a rare thumbs down. Although it was clever, (upon seeing the final result) I had to rely on a number of look-ups to even approach getting entries to make sense. The missing letter feature caused me to plug in quite a few wrong words. Some of the cluing was more than a little vague as well. Congrats and a tip o' the cap to anyone who completed it without assistance.

Ugh. I failed this one with resounding thud. Had about a third or more filled in, several of which were wrong. Did not know YIPS and would have used THROES if enough spaces available. For "Greets" I had NOD, had HIRE instead of LADE, and so on. Can't criticize the author, this was one tough puzzle and very well (very cleverly) clued.

Filled in the themes answers pretty quickly,...mainly because I think it describes a car I bought many years ago! Fun Sunday puzzle.

A salute to Kathryn on constructing a fantastic grid! Took me quite a while, but it was both entertaining and challenging. Early on I had FORMULAONE instead of SPRINTCARS, which led to several other erroneous entries. Had to abandon the temptation to concentrate on the shorter entries, which were tougher than normal in many cases. Very unique puzzle.

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.

Wow. Very tough one for yours truly. After one pass through all the clues there were only a handful filled in. Amazingly, all but one turned out to be right. I had to resort to looking up a number of clues and then had to resort to reading the intro line by line. Got three clues, then the puzzle started to fill in. As someone else mentioned, there were a bunch of "Aha!" moments and more a couple of dope slaps to the old noggin. Not a "win" for sure, but it was a good Friday puzzle. Congrats to all who completed it.

Well, Mr. Mathiason got me in good on this one. If it were a test in a school I'd have a red F at the top. Very well constructed, with sharp cluing. Was missing a few letters of each long answer, but my (wrong) crosses were not helping. Had DEA for 36A, not FAA; was convinced 29D was SELLDATES, not SNIFFTEST; was sure 7A was SWAYED, not SEGUED, etc.. All that, of course, kept me off the course and in the rough. In a Friday state of mind, I guess.

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.)

Took a long, long time to complete this, albeit with a lot of help searching for things. There were a number of fills that went beyond my sphere of knowledge. I was able to get most of the long answers through the crossings, which generated false hope for a win. Can't claim the win for today, but it was a good challenge.

Well, my official time for today was 4hrs 45min,...because I neglected to hit pause while I had to run out for a couple errands. But probably deserved it because my initial fill-in for 69D was BIT, thinking "a small amount," or the creator was being sneaky and inferring you "bit your thumb's nail." Imagine my chagrin when HEADLESSHORSEMAN became apparent from crosses and I saw the correction for BIO. The brain was in overdrive while overthinking that one.

Tough Friday puzzle, taking forty-two minutes, aided by a number of look ups. Wasn't sure of several entries (a lot of names), but the crossings suggested they were correct.

How did I blow this? Let me count the ways,...Wow, I made one goof after another. Figured there was a Rebus, but put it ALLE after OF, then proceded to spell ALLEGIANCE wrong! Coupled with DRUMSET (instead of DRUMKIT), whch led to reaching for the answer to 11D as OOOS; a lot of "EIEIOs" my tired brain suggested. Did not know SHAD, TUTTI or SUET (hope the gray matter can file those away!) and I don't know what the ATS for 26A is. But I did get ACIDTRIPS/MAGNETICTRIPE correct. Go figure. After all that, I do have to give props to the constructor upon reading Wordplay.

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.

Took a long time, but well worth it in the end. Interesting puzzle. Didn't get the "Congrats" upon finishing, due to a few typos my eyes missed. Like others, I had to rely on a number of down entries to decipher the theme and get the across entries. Good challenge.

Got through the puzzle after a slow start and finished with a minimum of look ups, but didn't get the "win". Had a couple of entries that fit, but were incorrect, DIBSONTHECHORES (instead of DISSONANTCHORES) being the one causing a few crossings to be wrong. The connections on the theme answers was too nuanced for me.

Even though I was able to get nearly all of the longer entries, It still had to struggle to finish this one. A couple of entries did not seem to make sense to me, even though they turned out to be correct, until I read the summary. Took a while, tough Saturday, as it should be.

Well, a rare Saturday solve in decent time. Thought some of my entries were wrong because so many were falling into place a bit "too quickly." Good puzzle.

Very tough one for me. Never heard of MOIL, GORP or AMAZEBALLS. I don't know what ADOUT refers to from the clue and thought COT was a bit of a stretch, but I grasp that one. Also talked myself out of a few entries that I thought were "too obvious" and thus contributed to my demise. Overall, a very challenging puzzle with some pretty clever cluing.

Even though it took an hour, I was pleasantly surprised to get the Gold Star when entering my final letters. Took a roundabout route and filled in from North East section, going clockwise and finished with the center piece. Good puzzle.

I can never get on the same wavelength as Zhang, no matter how hard I try. An hour, with multiple look ups. Muddled my way to a number of answers but still had jumbled remains at 58 & 60 A and 35 D. Head slap moment with OCCAMSRAZOR when that finally crept out the subconscious. One of these days, maybe, I hope...

Tough one, but it is a Saturday after all. Wasn't keen on TVACTORS and HOLLA for entries and have never heard of ORAGEL. Messed up the entire NE section anyway with my entry of ENTRANCE instead of ENTREATY, thinking the clue Appeal was for an Attraction. Talked myself out of entering PORES (Oil Wells) for a long time - will go with the gut feel next time!

Time consuming Sunday solve. Oddly, I got all but one of the famous names, but had no idea how they were arrived at, after initially thinking the first solve was an anagram. A few odd clues tied me up, but managed to plod through eventually. Looking forward to a Monday puzzle after the past two days of taxing the grey matter!

Even though I finished under my average time (but twice as long as my best!) this was a tough puzzle. Had to resort to a number of lookups and was held up by a stubborn denial that a few entries I was "sure" of were not correct. Good challenge for the gray matter.

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.

Pretty good puzzle. Learned something new: Have lived on COASTAL New England all my life, but have never heard of CRAB LOUIE.

Very cleverly done. Liked the style of the clues. Was concerned at first glance, seeing all those "-" clues and thought this would be a DNF. Managed to get almost all the across fills using the down entries. A lot of fun.