97Bravo

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

Completed it, after a bit of a struggle, but I'm stuck getting it "completed." PHI, I/O, O/I are not being accepted on my computer. Any suggestions?