Søren Thustrup

SKOAL as a Nordic toast? I mean... Danish - SKÅL Swedish - SKÅL Norwegian - SKÅL Icelandic - SKÁL Finnish - KIPPIS I know why it was SKOAL - and it's a good way to ensure that it's pronounced right - but I guess I have to be a little Scandi-snobbish about it. Cheers!

Very clever puzzle. When I realized the ⬛ was omnidirectional, I got the smile on my face that Deb was talking about.

I SAW instead of Vidi? I guess it’s still Caesar’s boast, but man, did it throw me!

Another member of the international contingent here. I think that with the exception of baseball and American football (oh God, so much sports), there's no telling what the internationals know. But I could certainly do with fewer QBS, team abbreviations and all that. I suppose it's an easy gimme for the core audience, though, and I respect that. And all that aside, I thoroughly enjoy my daily solve.

That was one of the least enjoyable crosswords I've seen for a long time: ANGI? ANAG? LANAI? RAID? And that was just the SE corner. Is TACH really a thing? And UPC? And AARON JUDGE crossed with ROGER. I mean, c'mon. If I hadn't seen ANGI in the column, I wouldn't have made it

Why the definitive L'ORANGE when you clue "un cognac"? That seems to go against some rules (conventions? Norms?).

Difficult, but doable. This was a great puzzle, with some really cool cluing (cooling?)

What a great remembrance, Deb. So sorry for your loss.

Oof, that was a hard one at first. Great feeling when it cracked. I, too, was an English teacher, and whenever my students complained about inconsistencies, I'd tell them that that was just one more way English messed with them (I used another phrasing, but NYT has standards, apparently)

Not complaining at all, as I was delighted to run through this puzzle. I thought this was how it felt to be on the same wavelength as the creator. It felt great. Turns out it was just an "easy Friday". Great fun, though.

The ALPO/CLYDE crossing was impossible for non-U.S. solvers. Or very hard, at least. The Ecuador/brand crossing was also impossible for me. Other than that, great puzzle!

While technically correct, I wouldn't say a PORTER and a LAGER were alternatives to each other. I know there are dark lagers, but most of the stuff is light and milder than a porter which was anecdotally designed to be a meal in a bottle and even party of the recovery for new mothers

Brilliant puzzle. After two or three instances I got it before the revealer, making me feel oh so clever. Great start to the week.

Nice and gentle solve. Had to look up a few things, but good. And the revealer was funny!

Great puzzle! I wonder at the difference between smooth and easy. I had to look up the source of Brahmaputra, I simply didn’t know IMPUTE or JIA, so I looked up the latter and got the former from crosses. Wordplay gave me PLETHORA, and then I was home free. Fewer lookups than usual for me at least and a very good time for a Saturday.

YELL TO NEATEN UNMET I don't know, maybe it's because English isn't my first language, but aren't they a bit crosswordese? Never come across either in the wild, and I have lived in the UK and worked professionally with the language over 35 years.