GRS

I just came here to praise VI KINGSHIPS and LI ABILITIES, and found in the column that this is a debut puzzle. Very auspicious debut, and I hope to see more! Maybe we’ll also find out what those four dozen other superpowers are 😉

Nice puzzle! I may be in the minority but I enjoy rebuses, and in any event the difficulty level seemed appropriate for a Wednesday.

I liked the clues for the 10-letter across answers in NE and SW, among others. I initially thought KESHA was too general an answer for “TikTok creator” as I missed the subtle difference between that and “Tik Tok” that was mentioned in the column. I remembered the song then and thought that was a very clever clue. It also struck me that she spells her name KE$HA (or did at one time) which would have been an appropriate rebus for RATE HIKE$ 😀

TIL the term BEL ESPRIT (and thanks Sam for parsing it!) A nice find and a cute puzzle!

The Comments section always reads like a referendum on rebus puzzles when one appears. I am exercising my civic duty and voting in favor. I really liked this one and thought it was a clever mechanism, which took me a little while to figure out (initially I had YES/NO and corrected it). I am, however, annoyed with Wordle and Wordlebot today - who’s with me?

Wonderful to see a Hanukkah-themed puzzle today, and very well executed! Happy New Year all, and the very best wishes for 2025!

Great debut puzzle with a clever and well-executed theme! Deb - congratulations on your pending retirement - you will be sorely missed! Your friendly and gentle tone, and the genuine delight with the puzzles that you express in your columns, have always made them an enjoyable read.

Great Saturday puzzle! Very difficult for me (even though I got the horizontal crosser right away) but very fair. A lot of “oh, that kind of X/toy/SALT”. A challenging and pleasing grid as well with a limited number of connections. Unlike other commenters I wasn’t familiar with Lewis, but I am very appreciative of the work he and Barbara did on this puzzle.

Really fun theme and well executed! I latched on to the theme early so for me it was like an airline pilot avoiding turbulence, in Valleyspeak (flew by, like, the wind) and I enjoyed the entire solve.

Very nice puzzle and congrats to the class on their work! I totally missed that the down answers interrupted by potholes were types of roadways, so thanks Deb for pointing out that very clever aspect of the puzzle.

Very, very difficult but excellent puzzle imo. A lot of clever twists in the clues that had me saying ISEEITNOW once I got the answer. OVERPAR, AMPERSAND, and GESTALT were some of my favorites. I was determined to finish with no lookups but I had REDHATS instead of ELFHATS and finally needed ORESTEIA to set me straight (I vaguely remembered the name Orestes but that didn’t get me over the hump.) A long but ultimately satisfying solve.

Thank goodness for REGGIE JACKSON for getting this puzzle going for me. And the positioning of the answer kind of made him the straw that stirs this puzzle’s drink.

I found this VERY difficult, but fair. Ultimately a satisfying solve.

Very entertaining puzzle! I didn’t get the theme until I had nearly completed it, followed by a forehead slap. I just stopped by to say how much I liked “Stock quote?” for MOO.

I enjoyed the puzzle and theme! Other commenters have elaborated on that well. I rarely quibble about these things, but the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) is an exam for candidates for Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in liberal arts subjects. MBA candidates typically take the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test).

I thought it was the crosser of ATAHUALPA and 3D that did me in, but it was HUSTLE instead of HURTLE. HUSTLE didn’t seem right as it didn’t fit “uncontrollably”, but I couldn’t see the LARRYS in LARSYS. I thought the NW overall was a bit obscure even for a Saturday but I’ll just take the L and move on.

Shoutout for the Xs and Qs! Great stack answers horizontally and vertically. I was able to navigate around my initial entries of CLICKTRACK at 16A and ATHLEISURE and WILDEBEEST at 29D and 30D (no idea if the wildebeest is endangered). Very enjoyable!

When I saw the grid I immediately said “Whoa” - good to know this set a record for white spaces! Despite the intimidating look, I had just enough arcane knowledge to get me through. Great clues and a fun solve.

Cute puzzle! I only knew the connection between ! and “bang” from the wonderful (to me, anyway) term “interrobang” for ?! There was a good Explained (Netflix) episode about it for those interested.

I enjoyed this puzzle, much as I did the previous ones in the series. SE took me the longest to crack even with SUMO RING as an uncertain toehold, but loved the clues for BATON and SEANCE. I also appreciate that it brought me back to the poem again. I won’t profess to know its meaning but I find it beautiful and haunting.

This was a tough one! Congrats, Jackson - I’m very impressed this was the work of a high school senior! The clues were consistently high quality. SPIRAL STAIRCASE clicked in right away, but then I had to go around and around, chipping away as I went. I finally got ESTATE as the end of the long clue to help me finish the SE without looking up VASCO who I remembered from 8th grade Social Studies.

I thought this was a nice breezy puzzle with a fun theme for a recovery-type day for many folks. I liked the Diana Nyad clue as I have thought this as well but never seen it remarked upon. I had also thought that “check” and “atari” had to be announced by the player putting their opponent in that position, but Google tells me that isn’t the case. I guess that’s just something my dad did to help me when he was teaching me the game, but I never went on to play it regularly. I still have his board and stones though. He would have been 101 today (passed away over 14 years ago) and it was nice to have that little reminder of him in this puzzle.

Great debut, Sam, and congrats on your fifteenth anniversary as well! Tough puzzle but very straightforward in retrospect, which to me is indicative of a good puzzle. The northern block was last to fall for me even though I got Sherlock Holmes and its crosser right away (or so I thought). Even after correcting from DEERSLAYERS CAP to DEERSTALKER CAP (was I confusing Arthur Conan Doyle with James Fenimore Cooper? D’oh!) and getting WHATABOUTISM fairly soon after that, 1A took a minute even though I am a daily reader of the SPORTS PAGES. Most of the time I can’t see what’s right in front of me in the refrigerator either, so there’s that. Fun break on a Saturday morning!

Absolutely loved this puzzle. Coming up with the theme answers, crossers, and revealer was a remarkable achievement. I give it *****

Tough for a Sunday with Friday-level clues, but very enjoyable. I also do Quigley‘s Sunday Globe puzzles and found this one several levels tougher. Had to do one lookup as I had TERAROAD and ERIE Crown Theater, being unfamiliar with both. In retrospect maybe I could have guessed TARA given Maeve Binchey’s heritage but I’ll give myself a break on that one.

Four great long crossers and nice grid! Very enjoyable.

Great puzzle, and I was impressed by the ability to construct it with so few black squares. I particularly liked the cluing. “Rebel’s opposite” really set me up to look for a noun, and I was scratching my head thinking of a four letter word for patriot or loyalist, when the crossers led me to OBEY. Great misdirect - it worked even though I am generally on the lookout for ambiguities in verb tenses and verb/noun double meanings.

I was “happily confused” with this one for a while, and I thought the mechanism and revealer were quite clever. I especially liked how 24A became a city while 26A ceased being one. Some other tricky clues I liked were for ATM FEES (I was thinking of early withdrawal penalties), THAWS, and TOE TAPS, all of which fit well with the clues but didn’t immediately come to mind. A satisfying Thursday puzzle from my viewpoint.

I enjoyed this one. The long crossers were generally familiar phrases, cleverly clued. I particularly liked the clues/answers for LIL and KIDSTABLE. The tug-of-war metaphor resonated with me, although I think of solving a tough puzzle more like looking for handholds on a climbing rock. Unlike others, TROOP was a good toehold for me as all three of my daughters were Daisies - good times, and I hope the organization is doing well!

Great grid and puzzle. I had a hard time getting a toehold but HINDUGOD got me started in the SE and I pretty much went clockwise from there. And TIL that PANDA is UK slang for police car which was an “oh yeah” moment and I will definitely start using.

I enjoyed this puzzle! The theme became evident relatively quickly but I thought the execution was clever. I liked seeing dismantle, one iota, and Fanduel as less commonly used answers. There were a lot of 3-letter words in the grid, but the clues made them appropriately challenging. Somewhere Phil Rizzuto is smiling - too bad he couldn’t have been worked into the grid!

This was a tough one! I had to chip away at it for a while. But every time I got an answer I said “oh yeah…” except for squircle and doorkeeper (for doorman) which immediately made sense. To me, that puts it into the “tough but fair” category.

Very nice puzzle! The NE took me a little longer than it should have as I confidently entered NEW YORK for 11D (thinking state and city) even though I was pretty sure the Warhols were at MOMA (maybe they had been moved?) so a facepalm there. Also noticed that a reparsed 49A could serve as a slogan for the MeToo movement. I was surprised that the many Qs and Xs were unintentional - wonder what the record is?

Absolutely loved this. Phenomenally clever. Great cluing as well. A thoroughly enjoyable start to my Sunday!

Clever theme and fun puzzle. Congrats on your debut, Kit, and for your perseverance!

Fantastic puzzle! Finished well above my Friday average but enjoyed it every step of the way. Had ABYSS for DEEPS for quite a while, remembering the movie that was largely set in a bathysphere (anyone else?) Many answers where it took a while to fall into place and then I thought “Well, of course!” - which to me signifies great cluing. Fun longer answers as well.

Nice puzzle! I think I was on the same wavelength as the constructors as the long crossers came relatively quickly. As a slow eater, I’ve heard “Still working on that?” a LOT so I immediately understood the context. (I’m tempted to say I’m eating, not working.) I liked the near-symmetry of SCADS, SPANS, and SPATS as well.

Very punny! I had to solve the whole puzzle before I understood the theme, and got a nice chuckle out of it. Happy Fourth everyone!

I went around and around in this one - NE fell into place fairly quickly, but SW and NW took some chipping away. Got everything fillled in but I had BEASTS for 44D and knew that made 56A gobbledygook, but I just couldn’t parse URANIUM ORE and had to use the checker. Ah well. It was a clever and enjoyable puzzle for me nonetheless.

Sparkling long entries, no junky fill, clever clues - check, check, and check, along with a very eye-pleasing grid imo. It went quickly for me also as I felt like I was on the same wavelength. And TIL ENYA’s real name (not that I’ll be able to remember 😀).

As a decaf drinker who has been asked “Is Americano ok?” countless times in coffee shops and reluctantly said “Yes”, I heartily concur with the clue given for 13D. Fun puzzle overall!

Took me a while to parse this one out. Great puzzle!

Great debut puzzle! Very clever cluing made it quite difficult for me but everything was fair in retrospect. I had never heard the term LASHUP so had MASHUP for a while but once I got the SCHOO of 9D that fell into place, and getting rid of SPACE in 7D got the last section (NE) in place. Not surprising that a constructor named Kelvin got my temperature up today.

Great grid, great clues, great stacks, great long entries: great puzzle! I definitely LIKELIKED it!

Did anyone else say “won’t stop” to themselves after filling in 53A? Just me?