Nathan

Wow, that was a bit of fun - but it took me an age! I’ve only been puzzling for a few weeks now so that was my first time ever encountering a rebus, nor did I even know what one was! I thought something must be afoot but also wondered if “YATALKINTOME” was a cute way of conveying DeNiro’s accent (not at all helped by me thinking it was an isAgon not an isOgon). I moved on for a while until I hit IMNOTAKIDANYMORE and knew I was being played (and wound up) like a CASSETTETAPE(s). A few I wasn’t a fan of mind you… cookies belong in a JAR, and I’d need more than a few of them (certainly not a little snack) if I wanted to NOSH, even with a few SUPS of milk on the side. But with that sort of meal I’d need to switch to a NOCAL diet if I wanted to be an athlete, or even an NBAREF. Curious to see how LOLCAT went down, especially so close to YADAYADA, UHNO and maybe even DANO for the non-movie-watchers. Anyway, time for this sleepy brit to RETIRE for the night, and even though I lost my streak I’ll do an ERICIDLE and look on the bright side of life!

This was a really nicely done gimmick when it all came together, but alas, it exposed far too many gaps in my knowledge to get a gold star. I also couldn’t seem to find any real harmony between the clues and answers, so everything felt somewhat disconnected and almost like they were from two different puzzles, though this may have just been me having an off day. JVS/JDATE/DORITOS was a tough one for non-Superbowl watching Englishman, and I did not expect that lone Rebus so assumed there must be some other Late Night Seth! Very nice execution and a fun concept though. Oh and for those who didn’t enjoy this and may be in need of a chuckle at my expense: I lost a great amount of time because I got thrown off after putting in FROGS… I thought the R_BB_T I had at the bottom had to be RIBBIT, and therefore I was looking at an AMPHIBIANFIGURE - oops!

Not bad at all once I found my footing! Seemed a tad daunting out of the gate, but once again some 30 odd years of American media exposure has left me with a somewhat valuable deposit of ASSETS for these puzzles. Definitely got caught on NOONIONS for a moment, the much more vampiric NOGARLIC was my go-to, but fortunately TRON got me back into the grid. I also experimented with the STOICS being important teachers to those in certain lines of work - I suppose in these ever rampant capitalist times I don’t often feel like I see businessmen and ETHICS in the same sentence… Happy to say I never said IQUIT. And I’m sure you are too, Chad. Great debut in the eyes of this relative NYT newbie.

All these wonderful icy puns were reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s incredibly poorly RATED turn as Mr Freeze in Batman Forever, which is one of my favourite bad movies of all time. Perhaps I’ll PERUSE my movie collection and make time to rewatch it for some nostalgia, though Tim Burton’s Bat makes for a much more festive bit of popcorn… my taste in movies has MATURED but I do still love to DIGIN to my old favourites (But now I’m dreaming of a world with Shatner as Batman and George TAKEI as Robin… oh my!). Fun puzzle today, shaved a little off my PB but I did have to look up MASA, which was totally new to me, and GRACENOTE was only solved by the crosses. Tripped myself up by seeing LL Cool J and defaulting to RNB before RAP, and the Eggplant had me thinking someone was being HORNY in their SEXTS, but otherwise this was a lovely solve to start the week… Now if anyone wants to fly me out to PARIS to see the COLDFRONT come in and cover the city in a lovey layer of DEWY snow, I’m ready to HOP onto the next flight!

Fun, and not too taxing! Shaved a few minutes off my average, would have been a few more were it not for my chubby fingered typos. My only real hurdle was STOLI, which is a brand I’d not come across. I thought it might have been grey GOOSE on my first passes, which made for a double dose of silliness with GOOF. But I suppose it was NOTATREAT for me to discover I’d gotten it wrong! I’ve also learned today that I’ve been misspelling something wrong for many years - I thought I’d cracked an excellent pun down the in the SW…what better way to distribute your loose tea than by way of a Royal DALTON Teapot? Turns out it’s a Royal Doulton, and now I feel like a Do(u)lt! - but that punny clue is now anyone’s to use should they so wish, I’m quite proud of it!

A Friday PB for me! Though based on the thinly-veiled grumbling that this was too easy, perhaps I shouldn’t be too proud… But, I’m still rather green to the NYT puzzles compared to many, so I’ll take my victory with pride all the same. This one definitely played well for the thirty-somethings out there I’m sure. Only real stumbling blocks for me today were GOFETCH (my dedication to GOGETEM had me questioning DARKACADEMIA even though I knew it had to be correct) and SEASHANTY which I could see fitting but simply couldn’t work out why that would be the answer! Also had a little smile when answering 18A with TIERS on my first pass, before finding its real home in 44A a few passes later. If only Thursday’s 69A was here too! I’m still learning that I need to not be so grounded with my answers, many times the puns pass me by because I’m looking for something more “serious” - I’m SODONE with being too realistic!

Quite a challenge for me today, although I was my own worst enemy more than once. Went from YURTS to TENTS to “How can I fit HUTS here?” and back to YURTS again via TENTS. Same with PLUG, FLOG and a moment of debating whether it was somehow a BLAG. Also though the spare things could be BITS or BOBS, but the actual answer bowled me over! Overall, lots of fun clues and “aha!” moments for me, but TNIA into ENNEAD was a touch Natick-y. Although, funnily enough, when I only had the T I took a punt on TINA for a moment, blissfully unaware of how close I was.

Good fun! No new PB but I lowered my average once again. My first pass was a grim state of affairs and I did have to dip into the column for a few pointers but all-in-all I enjoyed this a lot. I didn’t spot DONTPOKETHEBEAR for a while and briefly opted for DONTTAKETHEREAR, which, deep down, I knew wasn’t correct, but it’s a piece of sage advice that has been ITERATED to me over a lifetime of watching horror and action movies. If a HOSTILE threat has started to SKIM the numbers of your group, the LONERS at the back rarely get to raise the ALARM before they’re TORE away from the pack… “in the Friday Puzzle, No-one can hear you SCREAM”

I had fun with this, started off almost deceptively easy and I thought for a moment I was going to crush my average, but ADZ into MODERNIZE caught me out, and I’d got ALE in place of ADE (baffled that ALE had appeared twice, oops!). Pretty smooth sailing after that but alas, in my tired state, despite multiple passes I couldn’t spot that I’d mistyped RUBIX instead of RUBIK. Good debut offering!

Certainly not my finest (sub 1) hour. A few clues I wasn’t a fan of at all and an almost-Natick for me, but the fault still lies with me! I couldn’t seem to find my footing for a time and as per usual, back-and-forthed on more than a few answers. “I’m sure nobody calls it BRIECHEESE?” and a brief dalliance with CBD/THC/LSD left me on quite the comedown. I’m definitely learning some good habits after around a month or so of playing though, and every day is a school day for me, even if those lessons are just the acronyms of various American organisations! The classic cinema nerd in me was excited to be reminded of the ARGONAUTS, so that was my personal highlight, my only real disappointment was that I thought I’d found an excellent pun in the SE, because where better to work if you enjoy running drills than at BOOTCAMPS?

Lovely puzzle, lots of fun clues and some wonderful answers. Slowly revealing WORCESTERSHIRE was a highlight for me, and as a lover of all things trashy cinema, CULTCLASSIC may well be my perfect answer. These are the sort of puzzles I love the most, the little “aha!” moments and the crosses that inform the downs that sometimes make you feel a little smarter than you probably are. My only small hurdles were: - conflating Mike ROWE with Mike ROME (the curse of watching too much wrestling) - getting my animations mixed up and having COCO in place of LUCA - Needing to look up Degas paintings (lovely!) - ARZ instead of ATL (I knew it was a word bookended with an A but I couldn’t think of any)

Lots of fun words and some new ones for me today. Wonderful timing as I watched RICHARDHARRIS as Dumbledore after my dinner (promptly followed by a nap!). That first, and maybe even best, Harry Potter movie is wonderfully Christmassy without ever really being a Christmas Movie. Deb, thank you again for your columns, I’ve not been here too long but in my short stay you have been a most courteous host - and to everyone else, whatever or wherever you’re celebrating (or even if you’re not), I hope you all have/had a lovely day. Merry Christmas!