Joseph

The IRENE/CDS/NOTE/ROD/DYNE cluster was pretty sticky but the rest I quite enjoyed

Enjoyed the theme at first but soured by the end with some dicey cluing and phrases in the theme entries. GOODYCOPY was particularly unsatisfying.

Don't tell me how to look at my sundae

This puzzle was wretched and PTUI is the single most forced entry I've ever encountered. And that's not even the clue I gave up on. So many nouns and naticks, just a slog

In the spirit of most April fools, underwhelming

I can't believe I could so strongly dislike a puzzle that brought up Pharaoh. What an absolute slog

Just enough names, nouns, and specific knowledge to spoil some otherwise fun clues. SRO crossing NAIRAS was my eventual downfall. And even as a marine biologist I've never ever heard of a GAM. Bit of a shrug on this one

Well would you look at that, an excellent puzzle. Great balance of gimmes and thinkers, really needed some of those after a pretty blank first pass. More like this please!

Forced cluing in service of an ugly fill. This one did very little for me.

Theme was clever but didn't like the phonetic tricks needed to make some work. Hard enough with North American proper nouns, an even higher barrier to need the accent to make the solves make sense. A few too many trivia on top. Not the worst, not the best.

TREY, SHAG, CUBER were the standout bummers but me and this puzzle just weren't on the same page. Also, NERD ALERT isn't really sarcastic.. just kinda rude

Wonderful puzzle, very nicely done. Favorite fill in recent memory and the theme was excellent! Five stars

Fun solve although I didn't get the theme until it was over. Love a bit of sperm whale trivia!

Didn't love KALE for moolah, bit of a stretch. But otherwise quite fun. And Go Dodgers

Weak theme, mostly inoffensive cluing but just never really got on the puzzle's wavelength. Onwards!

Weak theme with some sketchy cluing. QUEST was probably my least favorite, centerpiece was an odd descriptor. Onwards

Set a PR with this one. I'm sure some will complain it was easy but think I was just on the same wavelength as the creator. So I enjoyed it!

Simply awful. I can hardly remember a puzzle where I was on such an opposite wavelength to the author. Too many clunkers to list, every other clue was too clever by half or completely contrived. Onwards

MITES crossing TISLIN is unacceptable when MOTES would have also fit the clue. Rotten cherry on top of an exceedingly average puzzle.

Too cute by half. This one needed more time in the oven from the theme to the cluing

Interesting to see some differing opinions, but this was my smoothest Friday in a while. Enjoyed it!

Pretty breezy and mostly fun, but KAYO and DUNZO are gross. Also MINOR TEAM makes sense in context but isn't really a phrase. Bit forced overall

Enjoyed this one, decent crunch but flowed well and no obvious clunkers for clues. More of these please!

So many proper nouns... Mostly fair but the end was a slog. Also take issue with the FORCE CHOKE clue, the force isn't strictly telekinetic and the choke isn't always used for intimidation. Easy enough in context but bit of a stretch

Theme was begrudgingly fun, even coming from someone who is pretty grinchy about Christmas being everywhere all the time. Just means I can pass my annoyance onto the unreal number of proper nouns and naticks.

Pretty breezy for a Friday. Mostly enjoyed the fill, OENOPHILIA crossed with GINSLING was gross though

I'm perhaps being over sensitive, but I found the two fire themed clues/answers (for SINGED and FAINT), especially next to INRUINS in somewhat poor taste today. Sending thoughts to any solvers in LA

A few dicey clues, but mostly redeemed by a fun theme and enough low hanging fruit to guess the proper nouns I didn't know.

Pretty mellow theme for a Thursday, middling fill. Mostly inoffensive but AMSCRAY especially earned an eye roll

Crunchy but satisfying, with mostly guessable crosses. Almost snagged on scarfing vs. SNARFING crossed with ARNIE but got there in the end.

Meh. Think there was more juice to squeeze from the theme, didn't end up needing one half of the theme clues most of the time so kind of felt like a bit of wasted potential. Some iffy cluing in there too and I'm not even talking about AHNOLD, which I originally bumped on but think is ultimately fair game. Also - nobody says sea crab. Simply not a phrase

Great fill, got lucky on the long crosses. Very flowy, maybe soft for a Friday but I'll take it! Enjoyed this one

What an absolute slog. Can hardly remember a puzzle with so many obscura. Simply not a good time

Some really forced clueing on this one, especially the "punny" entries (AMNESIACS, OPEN MARRIAGES). Not a huge fan

Tough but fair! Second in as many days. Take notes constructors and editors, more like these

Really weak theme for a Thursday, more of a Wednesday IMO. Bit of an unsatisfying fill

Avengers Endgame cluing was terrible, I'm a big MCU fan and even I barely followed the logic. Needed some nod to the specific saga. Don't understand WONT either. Otherwise fine?

Not for me, paper thin theme and some iffy clues. Was a miracle that GUN LAP was the right guess, would have given up if not to avoid running the alphabet on all the proper noun/trivia crosses

Pretty weak theme for a Thursday. SAMOA was pretty contrived, and I feel compelled to point out is pronounced very differently in a native accent. Surely other clues were possible here, and it's not the first time the NYT has been pretty lazy in cluing related to Pacific island nations

Maybe a touch soft for a Friday, but still a rare puzzle these days not overstuffed with proper nouns and obscura. The misleading clues were playful rather than infuriating. More of this please, really enjoyable!

Really should have accepted the rebus in the fill. The final fill looks ugly either way though. I'm not an anti-rebus/gimmick solver but I do think we've lost something when nonsense words end up in the final grid

BRIER crossed with MADEIRA was gross, along with a decent number of other nouns/names/obscura (many crossing!). Theme was just fun enough to even out to a solid average

Cool theme but undercooked. So many puzzles recently where the solve leads to some clues reading nonsensically. Makes them ugly and unsatisfying. Rest of the fill was pretty breezy for a Thursday

XES OUT just looks gross and is never satisfying and should be banned from crosswordese. Not the worst Thursday by any stretch but also not the best

Tough but mostly fair. The fun of BABY SHOWER and FAKE PLANTS made up for some of the grind

Best theme execution in while, screamed through most of the fill but hit a mental block in the northeast corner. Gritted through to steal the gold star! Nicely done

Second puzzle in a row where the clues were either easy or just kind of off. Lots of ? style clues where the solution isn't a good misdirect, just an odd turn of phrase. Wasn't the worst, but didn't find a lot to love here either

I think it shows that most of the time went into the theme, those entries were great but some rough edges elsewhere. Still, worse ways to fill a Sunday!

It's spelled Māori, with the macron. And the moko (face tattoos) don't necessarily indicate "rank". Reducing a cultural touchstone to "facetats" feels off, especially coming from a US institution where face tattoos have a completely different association, often negative. Also this puzzle was truly terrible. But I'm more fired up about the first thing