Alex

I'm a daily solver and generally have fun solving. I'm more of a word person than a visual person, so I've had to learn to look at the grid. Here, the grid, together with the puzzle title (Travel Bug) were helpful clues. I've also learned to like -- or at least note hate -- rebuses, so I caught on to that pretty early in my solve. Even so, the puzzle was frustrating until I got the "wormhole" revealer. All that said, though, I didn't enjoy this puzzle -- not because it was too hard or because I'm a "hater". (Can we please not call names?) This puzzIe was just not my jam. I prefer wordplay in the form of puns or riffs on famous quotations or themes related to history or pop culture. At least it was interesting to learn that Oprah gave eulogies for Toni Morrison and Rosa Parks -- I'll have to look those up. Also, love that Barb and Star made it into the NYT crossword!

Loved this puzzle. It reminded me of Lin Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Tony acceptance speech for In the Heights, in which Miranda rapped his thanks,including an homage to Sondheim: “Mr. Sondheim, look. I made a hat where there never was a hat. It’s a Latin hat at that.” :) Have a good day, all! (Deb, I hope you’re enjoying your next chapter!)

I don’t think I’ve ever watched an entire episode of Star Trek, but my pop culture bona fides got me through this very fun puzzle! And Jeremy Newton’s description of a world that “embraces compassion, cultural diversity and scientific curiosity” has me thinking that it might be about time for me to take a fantastic voyage on the Enterprise.

Fun puzzle, but "screw the haters"? Really? Was that necessary?

One day more . . . <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDPdLsFPkc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDPdLsFPkc</a>

@Caitlin Lovinger — I think the spearmen (10D) are in Aida.