Steve

@Grumpy. I agree. I enjoy a challenging puzzle, but for those of us who know nothing about Super Mario, this was undoable because so many of the crossings were also natick.

@Millie I try not to use the Wordplay column because it gives too much information when all I want is a hint. If I reach an impasse, I will: 1) put down the puzzle and come back to it later; very often, as was the case yesterday, that is all that is needed to move forward; 2) if, after coming back to it, I am still at n I pass

@Millie 2) if after coming back to it, I am still at an impasse, I will hit “check puzzle” as I did today to discover that the long fish was a pike and not a hake; 3) if this still leaves me at an impasse, I will resort to google, but I love puzzles such as today’s, where google isn’t much help because the challenge is in the word play and not in arcane trivia

@Kelli I found this puzzle to be elegantly themed… quite constrained, but weaving in the theme in such a variety of ways.

@Bruce That’s also happened to me.