David Ramos

I needed my mom’s help with this one. We’ve done every crossword in December! I know it’s nothing compared to some solvers here, and it took us over an hour, but we had fun doing it. What’s better than quality time with loved ones during the holidays?

So glad I found my crossword hobby this year, and this new quirky community. Merry Christmas to all.

Love doing crosswords with my mom again, glad she’s doing better. No way I knew about Phil OCHS, but there’s no way she’s heard of YEETED either. We looked it up on UrbanDictionary, and I don’t think it helped.

Amazing puzzle! Loved the theme. Was expecting a rebus or some other shenanigans, but was blown away by the revealer. Thanks for the challenge!

Normally my mom helps me with the crosswords, but she has been indisposed with the flu; hospitalized, as so many others are right now. But as I was stuck on a [Dance step also known as a backslide], I asked her nurse and they knew the answer without missing a beat. I can’t do these without you just yet. You’re getting better, but you’re not over the hump quite yet. Hang in there for me. Happy New Year, stay safe everyone.

Today I learned that ACIDWASHED and DISTRESSED have the same number of letters.

Excuse my Italian, I thought it was SCUSi!

Fun, but too easy for a Thursday. Was over too soon.

I’ve watched a lot of cooking videos from Italia Squisita, so ‘sapidita’ was somewhat familiar to me. It was still the last clue I filled in though. Very fun puzzle and a decent challenge for a Friday.

I finished every crossword in December only to be humbled by this monster of a Sunday. No Idea who Red the firefighter is/was, and I clearly need to up my bandage game. Grrrr…

This one had me staring at my screen for a solid half an hour before the theme finally clicked. Cute gimmick. Glad I’m free from academia, that’s for sure.

The crosses of OENOPHILIA with GPSWATCH and PLOPART broke my 32 day streak. So mad. Nice puzzle though. Still have more mundane things to memorize before I become a crossword master.

I can’t believe I got this one. I stared blankly for about 30 minutes before I started piecing together the clues. Very tough!

Hope I don’t start a row, but I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. My mom and I didn’t understand the themed entries until we read the column. I would say it had an unpleasant bouquet, but a smooth finish.

I guess I don’t play enough Monopoly, this one had me stumped. I tried basically every letter for 56A, and I screamed when I got it! Very tough puzzle for me, but a fun rebus nonetheless.

54D has me stumped. Carry on? Carry what?

Alas, I can’t seem to make it past a 30-day streak, or thereabouts. And here I was thinking I’m good at crosswords or something. Lower section is brutal. Hats off to those of you who thought it was smooth sailing.

This one took my mom and me just shy of four hours to finish. No hints or googling, just staring blankly into the void that were the empty squares. Pretty proud tbh

That’s all well and good, but the answer to 65a [Words after “ding, ding, ding”] only has one word. Could have used a better clue imo.

Reminds me of an old joke: What did the Dalai Lama say to the hit dog vendor?

My mom and I rather liked this theme, and we both enjoy a nice Scrabble game. The [Mark’s successor] clue was fun, but some other clue/answer combos were a bit frustrating.

Was so distracted by the diminutive possessive and the leafy green, I didn’t notice that ADnS didn’t rhyme with “pads.”

A fun way to pass the time while snowed in. Stay safe everyone.

Yesterday took me maybe 3x as long as today. Are rebuses allowed on Wednesday?

TIL that ANORAK does not have its own Wikipedia article.

Very fun and engaging! Reminds me of the DARKHORSE Thursday puzzle from a few months ago.

I tried memorizing the Greek alphabet a little while ago because I thought it would help with something like this. Turns out it wasn’t as useful for this one as I had hoped. Oh well, maybe I’ll try the NATO alphabet next. What random things have you memorized for the sake of crosswords?

Glad my mom knew what BITUMEN was cause I sure didn’t!

I needed too many hints. Need to keep trying. Still new.

I really struggled with this one, to be sure. I had to ask my mom for help on the Joseph Conrad novel. I would expect 24A to be a clue in a puzzle by actor Will Smith, but not Nick Offerman. I have a small gripe, which is that part of the answer in 49D appears as a word in another clue. I found this a bit out of character for a NYT cross. Usually each key word is used only once. I hope this was just an oversight.

What the heck is a NERT?