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!

Nice puzzle! It wasn’t too tricky, but had enough bite to make my Sunday morning enjoyable, and had a well executed theme.

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

I guess I’m the outlier: I really didn’t love this one. It felt like a masterful (and it is masterful!) construction at the expense of, rather than in service of a good solving experience. I ended up doing this quite rapidly without ever sorting out the theme: just plugged in answers to so-so clues and fit phrases to the italicized clues. Only when I was done did I see what it all meant. Looking back, I see an impressive feat, but I can’t say it was much fun getting there.

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!

As the old man who usually complains about how things are getting too easy for our youth, I wanted to thank you for kicking my butt this Saturday. Nice puzzle! I’m particularly fond of clues/answers like 27A: I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it, but a little reasoning yields a pretty good guess. (My first try used the wrong black-and-white animal.)

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.

Wow. Nice Saturday for Saturday! Loved the grid, but it really made for four almost separate puzzles, and the NW kicked my butt. Thanks for that!

My assumption is that the downward difficulty spiral goes hand-in-hand with the online puzzle and statistics: breaking streaks is bad for engagement. I find it pretty frustrating, but so is the radio silence from the editors. I’d love to know what they’re thinking. That said, except for the Tuesday-level clueing, I rather enjoyed today’s puzzle.

Thanks for the proper Saturday workout! I rather enjoyed the mix of wordplay and trivia.

Sometimes I make a Monday harder by forcing myself to fill it in as it comes, top-to-bottom and left-to-right down the page. Never did that with a Wednesday before.

Okay Wednesday.