Isaac

Now that’s what I come here for on Saturday! Hard, but fun and fabulously constructed. Thank you!

I, for one, loved the puzzle. It took me over an hour, but tough is what I want out of a Saturday. I did not find the entries overly obscure, and found the clueing fun. Nice work!

I for one liked this. I found it clever, and enjoyed the Thursday challenge.

Thank you! That was fun! This felt like a Friday, as well as very well engineered: I had a tough start of it, but once I got going, it had a way of guiding me through. Lots of nice clues throughout. More, please!

Pretty breezy for a Wednesday, but a ver nice theme. And it’s always good to see a non-épée blade come up!

Now *that’s* a crunchy puzzle! Thank you!

That really tested my chops. Thanks for the wonderful Friday-worthy puzzle!

That’s one tight puzzle! XOXO!

I really enjoyed this one: A nice, hard Saturday puzzle, with a slew of amusing, twisted clues. (My favorites: “Turkey bacon?” and “Hill-adjacent field, in brief”.) Great puzzle!

I loved the construction and the game - a nice “aha!” Moment when I got how to complete the center. A fun, easy Sunday!

Two comments: First, I object to the “GO IPO” answer, but it seems for somewhat different reasons. I don’t know how Wall Street feels about the lingo, but it’s definitely a phrase I’ve heard in my Seattle / Silicon Valley cohort. But while companies may issue stock in an IPO, it’s the initial *public* offering, not when they’ve started issuing stock. By the time companies GO IPO, they’ve usually issued plenty of stock to founders, investors, and employees already. Second, I’ll join the kvetching about the declining difficulty of the puzzle. I’m content to breeze through easy Mondays and Tuesdays: they should be a toehold. But by the time we get to Thursday, I’m really eager for something to chew on. Instead here I am chewing the fat. If the editors are determined to simplify the puzzle, maybe they could continue the expansion trend and add a new “fiendish” puzzle with historical difficulties for curmudgeons like me.

Fun puzzle! But I did it almost three times as fast as my Friday average. While I’m sure there are those out there who are excited to get through a Friday puzzle (and to you: congratulations! that was me not all that long ago) many of us look forward to a challenge towards the end of the week. The past couple weeks have seemed way too easy, with today just the most extreme of the bunch.

I woke up this morning and almost decided to give up on Monday and Tuesday puzzles. Instead, I slipped into my routine: made my coffee, sat down with the puzzle... and had to think! Thanks for a crunchier-than-usual Tuesday!

Other than working the back catalog, is there anywhere one can find actual Friday-worthy puzzles these days? I’m happy to breeze through a Monday, but I really crave my late-week challenge.