A. Young

Kudos is an ancient Greek word meaning "glory" or "renown." It is neuter and singular, NOT plural. Ergo, "kudo" is a back-formation created from a misunderstanding of the ending as plural. Just saying...

Not my favorite puzzle. As several commenters point out, some of the clues/answers were a little off, and the 'trick" (simply that the answers started with a certain letter indicated in NATO code at the beginning of the clue) didn't seem clever enough for a typical Thursday.

Using ChatGPT for puzzle clues, as in the mini puzzle today, seems to me the beginning of a slippery slope (even if it is acknowledged in the clue itself).

PLUMB tuckered out, not PLUM.

As many commented, seemed fairly easy, like a Monday puzzle, although I still don't really understand the point of the shaded squares, other than a Z is like a rotated N...

My only problem was how to fill in the rebus squares correctly on line. Since the answers could be ei or ie, I thought it was sufficient to put in e/i. Not so!

Agree with other posters that it was a clever puzzle that required a good deal of work, but it was all lost on me. I've heard of super Mario but that's about it.

I don't know why. Just didn't ring my bell!

HOW do I find where the first square for the Diagramless starts??