Pax Ahimsa Gethen

Speaking as an agender transmasculine person who was assigned female at birth, I am grateful for the inclusion of the 14A in this puzzle. The wording of both the clue and answer align with current best practices for describing sex and gender. I am very well aware that many other people are *not* fine with this use of language. Such people have many outlets to express their dissatisfaction. This comment section does not need to be one of them.

My Trans Agenda for the day - Check email - Do Wordle - Do Mini - Do Crossword - Note gratefully that top Reader Picks are take-downs of predictable anti-trans comments - Play Tetris

Though I wouldn't call this puzzle "fast-paced", it was a BREE after yesterday's slog.

As a trans solver, I appreciated 10D and the shout-out to it in the column. Timely as the Trans Day of Visibility is coming up on March 31!

The constructor getting this puzzle accepted when she was just a high school senior "felt like the timely culmination of a lifelong goal"?? *Cries in middle age* Seriously though, congrats, very good debut.

Re columnist Deb's "fear of not relaxing in the peace and quiet of my own home, or FONRITPAQOMOH" - I too have this. An alternative acronym for it is JOMO, or Joy Of Missing Out. :-)

I knew before I even finished solving this puzzle that there would be hundreds of comments. I've come to enjoy the challenge of rebuses, myself. Kudos to the constructors, and to Deb for trying to head off the expected questions and complaints at the very start of her column.

Re some of the comments on LESBIANBAR: I'm queer, nonbinary, live in an area with lots of lesbians, and have no problem with the cluing, FWIW. I recommend checking out this humorous performance of "I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar" by (straight cis male) singer/songwriter Jonathan Richman. I've seen him perform this song live numerous times: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjFU98mEem4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjFU98mEem4</a>

I'm a PITTSBURGH native, but for the last 30+ years I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Out here we have a Pittsburg, without the final H. So whenever I say where I'm from, I always qualify that I'm from the genuine, named-for-William Pitt PITTSBURGH Pennsylvania, not one of the impostor cities like the one out here. ;-)

It saddens me to see how many commenters say they'd never heard of AUDRE LORDE. I had thought her name was better-known. As she was a Black lesbian feminist, I fear that future generations will forget about her altogether if things continue the way they are going currently in the U.S.

Nice smooth solve for my 54th birthday :-) My no-lookups, no-hints streak is now up to 171; hope to make it to (at least) 365! I plan to try creating crosswords myself someday, but for now I'm just enjoying my daily solving habit.

Hey columnist Myq: I'm also vegan, am also a child of professional string musicians, and also grew up dreading violin lessons! Were we separated at birth?? :-)

To the folks complaining about not getting today's puzzle: - Expect most Thursday puzzles to have a "trick" to them - This puzzle literally tells you that it has a trick to it in clue 55A - The letters that are part of said trick are circled I do understand not liking rebuses and other such tricks in general, but for me, this puzzle wasn't particularly hard.

I was breezing along and heading for a Sunday PR until I hit a roadblock, not recalling the names of 73A and 81A (though I'd heard both before at some point). Eventually figured them out from the crosses. 86A brought to mind a story. Some years ago I needed a root canal, and the endodontist has a large selection of films that the patient could watch during the procedure. Wanting some lighthearted entertainment that I knew I would enjoy, I chose "Finding NEMO". I did not recall that this film included a scene of a patient undergoing a painful root canal! When it got to that scene I groaned, as the kind endo assured me that I would not be experiencing that kind of pain in his office (and he was right). In any case, once the procedure over I got a good laugh and story to tell out of the experience.

Today is my birthday, and learning that the BLACKBOARD is now "obsolescent" makes me feel every one of my 55 years. Regardless, happy to keep on crossword solving in my apparently advanced age!

I normally solve alone without any hints or look-ups, but if there's a clue I'm fairly sure my spouse knows the answer to and I don't, I sometimes ask him. As he is an avid skier and has frequently visited and skied with family members in Killington, I asked him for a four letter word describing 16A. He thought about it, then gave me an answer that didn't fit. He said there are seven mountains in Killington, and started to look them up. I said nevermind, and figured it out myself. This is why I solve alone. :-)

Very clever! And happy to see a large comment section where most of the comments are praise for once :-)

I (almost) always solve NYT puzzles in a desktop web browser (macOS Firefox), so I rarely have the problems others sometimes encounter on other platforms. But I do feel for those who have difficulties. FWIW, I think requiring a user to do something unintuitive like entering a blank rebus, even with instructions to do so, is a sign that you're likely to get a lot of complaints. I understand that coding special puzzles can be challenging, and even coding errors don't excuse rude comments. But it would be good if differences between how the different platforms accept answers be minimized as much as possible.

As soon as I figured out the trick to today's puzzle, I knew there would be complaints about it. To be honest, though I now generally enjoy challenging puzzles and rebuses, this particular trick was a bit of a stretch. The other thing I knew there would be complaints about is the prefix CIS (which is short for "cisgender"). As a trans person, I ask those of you who think this term is somehow offensive to reflect on how difficult it is to live authentically as a trans person in the US and many other countries right now.

Clever theme; I smiled when I figured it out. Not surprised that a lot of people hated it, unfortunately. I advise those who strongly prefer solving plain vanilla crosswords with no "gimmicks" to avoid Thursday puzzles.

Very clever and impressive! Grids like this are why I enjoy doing crosswords so much.

Excellent puzzle, and fun constructor notes to boot. Looking forward to more like this.

Somewhat surprised to see so many comments on this one. I found it challenging, but not unfairly so, especially for a Saturday. I had very few answers penciled-in after a first pass, but it gradually came together, without any hints or lookups (no shame to those who choose to use them).

40D brought to mind the jazz classic "Well You NEEDN'T" by the legendary Thelonious Monk: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-d32veDFOw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-d32veDFOw</a>

Difficult but satisfying. Great, great clues. Sad that I didn't get the music despite a successful solve, because I forgot to turn my speakers on this morning! GAH! Wishing Will well!

I enjoyed this theme, and recognized all of the paintings even though I haven't formally studied art history or appreciation. PAWL was a completely new-to-me word. Took me a long time to get ALBerta, and sorry to see that this particular abbreviation is disapproved by some of our neighbors to the north. (As a US-American who is pretty terrible at geography, I have no opinion on the matter.)

I see from the comments that I wasn't the only one who had a lot of difficulty seeing where my cursor was in this puzzle, due to the color contrast. (I solve on the web version.) Shame, as it was an otherwise clever and enjoyable theme.

I was familiar with all of these logical fallacies except for 65A. At first I thought this was the same as "correlation does not imply causation", but learned that is a slightly different fallacy: "cum hoc ergo propter hoc" ("with this, therefore because of this"). (Apologies if someone already mentioned this; there are already 265 comments on this column and I haven't read through them all.)

Obligatory SNL reference: Cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger No Coke, PEPSI <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJePACBoIo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJePACBoIo</a> (I actually visited the restaurant this sketch was based on, The Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, when I was attending Northwestern in the late 80s-early 90s.)

I've never heard of KALE as a synonym for money, and was sure that was what was holding up my solve music, but it turned out the errant squares were elsewhere in the puzzle. Cute theme, regardless.

I saw a production of HELLODOLLY in Pittsburgh back in the 80s; my father was playing cello in the orchestra. The male lead was Barry Williams, aka Greg from The Brady Bunch. His singing was a bit on the flat side to my ear. Regarding the dolls in this puzzle, I've owned all of them except for AMERICANGIRL. But my favorite memories are of the dolls my grandmother made; she was an excellent seamstress.

Very crunchy and satisfying, as befits a Saturday puzzle. I'll accept my NERDCRED, thanks.

I enjoyed this figuring this one out, but as soon as I finished it (later than usual in the day due to various irritations of life), I thought "Bet there are going to be a lot of complaints in the comments." From the 424 comment count alone I'm guessing I was right; not going to bother reading through them all :-)

I have come to enjoy rebuses in general, but I really wasn't crazy about the use of one - literally, *one* - in today's puzzle. I only solved it accidentally because the letter E on its own was accepted for square 37, while I was trying to figure out what letter might work there. And the "image" gimmick was not at all apparent to me until after solving and seeing the lines and "EYE" drawn in (on the web version). As regular readers might know, I've rarely posted negative thoughts on these puzzles in my 4+ years of solving, so hopefully my comment will be read as constructive criticism and not mere complaining.

Fast solve for me as I figured out the theme quickly. Pleased to see transcestor Marsha P. Johnson in the puzzle. Obligatory vegan note that pigs are very intelligent animals, on par with or possibly smarter than dogs. Actor James Cromwell became a vegan while filming his part as Farmer Hoggett in "BABE".

Thanks Deb for all your wonderful columns, and best wishes for your next adventure.

I enjoyed this puzzle; suitably crunchy for a Friday. Re solving times (as mentioned in the column): I prefer not to share mine because I feel a. they are not very informative without knowing about a person's background, both with crossword solving and life in general, and b. we're really competing only against ourselves here. I realize we're all (probably) adults here, but I would hate for a beginner or slower solver to get discouraged by seeing times much faster than they think they could accomplish. I do happily share when I've gotten a PR. I just don't share my specific times. Note the use of "I" language here; I'm not saying what anyone else should or shouldn't do.

I don' t usually discuss other NYT puzzles in comments on this column, but I understand it's OK to discuss the Midi here. That said, as a Black US-American with a history of hair issues, I have a real problem with 6A in today's Midi. How on Earth does the clue "Natural style once called a blowout" lead to "AFRO"? An AFRO is naturally curly or kinky hair, the exact opposite of a blowout! Am I misreading this somehow?

The photo of San Francisco's Tonga Room in today's column gives me the opportunity to tell two brief stories about that place (which have nothing to do with today's puzzle, so feel free to skip). 1. A co-worker invited me to go there with some other friends in 2008. I asked what were good cocktails to order; he said they were all bad. He mentioned there was a buffet, but said the food was even worse than the drinks. I asked him why he wanted to go to this place then. He said, "For the atmosphere!" 2. A year later, I read that the hotel the Tonga Room was in was kicking them out. A big rally formed to "Save the Tonga Room!" A friend said that he would be there, so I came and waited for him. At the bar by myself. For two hours. He never showed. Eventually he texted me that he read the place wasn't closing after all, so had decided not to come. That day in 2009 was the last time I had an alcoholic drink. (Piña colada, for the record.) Though I still like mocktails.

Some very clever wordplay in this puzzle! I too love being fooled by heteronyms; it always gives me a grin when I figure one out. (Well, almost always; sometimes it gives me a groan ;-) )

I performed LADY MARMALADE with a student band once upon a time. I'll spare you my version in favor of the amazing Patti LaBelle: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LWIP7SAjY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LWIP7SAjY</a> TUCKET was a brand-new to me word, and the last to be filled in. APEROL was also unfamiliar, though I'm pretty sure I've heard it before at some point; the crosses helped fill both in. And with this puzzle, my no-lookups, no-hints streak has reached 300! Hope I can make it to 365 and beyond...

I enjoyed this puzzle and had a smooth solve, but as soon as I read the note about numbers needing to be entered I anticipated a large amount of grumbling in the comments. I was not wrong in that. Oh well, to each their own.