David S

I didn't like this puzzle. Theme was clever but the fill was remarkably bad - I am looking at things like KIL (just wrong), EOE (still not sure what that is), OTO and ANIL and SERE (all old crossword-ese, I'd rather see EPEE esp when the Olympics are on and I actually hear people say that word), GDS (also seems wrong - is this actually used?), NOMS (has anybody ever said "Oscar noms"?), EMEERS and DAL (both weird spellings, though I guess this and "dahl" are also used for what I think of as daal). Plus maybe another. One or two of those would be a fun challenge, but so many of them looks like the Times' editing staff was out on vacation this week. Also, minor grumbles, but who says that view is COASTAL and SOLAR is a type of farm? Finally (acknowledging this is my fault) the proper nouns -- the sewing machine pioneer, two actresses whose names I sort-of knew but wasn't sure about spelling, and an obscure cartoon character -- were all out of my trivia wheelhouses. At least there was a Stevie Wonder reference, but not much else for stuff I know.

Well made puzzle. With some nice misdirections - I had "stud" for poker game and "eight" for hot dog buns until those became untenable. Plus I initially decided "FLy SEASON" must be a thing.

No problems with the puzzle, and it was challenging and do-able, appropriate for a Friday. But It felt like a slog to me, few aha! moments. Maybe that reflected my mood - I had watched the Oakland A's last home game ever, and what a sad moment that was - a billionaire and a sports league shafting a blue-collar city and sports fans who deserve far better. One of the few highlights here was to learn about PEA; my guess had been soy.

Excellent weekend puzzle, IMHO. Maybe more like a Saturday than a Friday? FWIW. I got a small handful of words on my first pass, then it looked utterly impossible on my second pass, then turned out to be doable, one corner, then another, then a bit more, etc., with no need for Google or other cheats -- aside from asking kid a Spanish phrase, and that didn't help much - it wrongly gave me "tu ES" as "you are." It did take 3 sittings and walking away twice. The one about things that fall off the a shelf was the last answer to fall, and I didn't get how that answer fit the clue until I saw it filled in.

Really nice puzzle. As with this week's Friday and Saturday puzzles, it hit a good balance between challenging and doable -- on the one hand there was a time when I wasn't sure I would finish, and on the other there was no time when an obscure, unknown answer was rendered impossible by an equally obscure crossing. Everything was figure-out-able. The theme was also a good one. And none of the themed answers was a gimme (which is no fun), but several, once you get them, were a big help for their tricky crossings. Good work today on both the design and editing.

Echoing others, nice challenging Saturday puzzle. Some words I did not know and would never get (ADUBA, STIMTOY, ENTRACTES, also T.I.L. that a SPOONREST is a thing) but they had fair crossings. So I managed to finish on my own though at an early stage that looked unlikely. Finishing felt like an accomplishment.

I liked the puzzle itself. But I was mildly frustrated by not getting the music when I had the answers but all of the reversible answers in one possible order (the way that gives right answers across but not down) not the other order (the way that gives right answers down but not across). It's true that the acrosses are still words the latter way, but they are nonsensical as answers, eg, TARNATION. So I think the system should have recognized two right answers for each shaded pair or triplet. I spent five minutes flyspecking the puzzle, then tried reversing all the shaded boxes, then got the music. Grrr.

Well done puzzle - great theme and theme entries (When I first got the theme which was almost immediate, I was looking for theme words like crescent or half or waxing or waning or gibbous, but the puzzle's way was clever), nice Sunday mix of entries that are challenging and less so, and things from different bailiwicks of expertise so no preponderance of knowledge that's of in our out of one wheelhouse. My only gripe is that I was (and surely others were?) naticked by the cross between the European volcano name and the hair-lightening brand name, both fairly obscure names. Fortunately, the cross was obviously a vowel, so there were only six possibilities for trial and error, one of which produced the music. It's much better to end the solve on an "aha" moment than that way, but otherwise thanks for a great puzzle.

I thought great theme, some great clues, but today's puzzle design was poor, in that I got Naticked in 2 places: some crossings of SISI and KFED. I don't like needing Google as the only way to finish solving the puzzle. More thoughtful design could have fixed that.