Michael G

s^c^o^u^n^d^r^e^l SPIKED HEEL Fun puzzle!

I liked the theme, but those were some of the obtusest clues I've seen in ages.

I make this observation with bated breath, but 50A was a bit of a revealer as well, since most hits on pop charts feature a good hook.

I had to circle back more than once before my tenacity yielded any results. A round of applause for the Schlossbergs. What a fun, impressive puzzle!

A little bit challenging (some tricky clues!) but hey, I liked it! I got a kick out of "derriere rider" (figuratively, not literally) as well as the other theme answers. It was smooth sailing once I decided that O Canaka was probably not a well-known song.

I was a bit concerned when my first pass left the grid looking strikingly similar to when I started, but my blank stare soon faded. I'm new to NYT crosswords (not a total noob; ex WaPo subscriber), so I'm not sure if my time of 28:02 is respectable or not, although it seems pretty decent to me. One stumbling block was POLLIWOGS, for which I had GOLLIWOGS. Fans of CCR—I'm one—might recognize that word. It was the band's name before they became CCR, a useless piece of trivia that led me astray.

This might be the nitpickiest of nits ever picked, but it actually threw me: The name of the band (55D) is The Who, not the Who. The “The” is part of the band's name, which is a proper noun.

Am I the only one who confidently entered CINEPHILE for 50A on the first pass?

Strange coincidence that Evan Birnholz's WaPo Sunday puzzle had the same name (Split Seconds) with very similar clue structure, although the answers were handled somewhat differently. I managed to complete both, and am now reaching for some aspirin. (Not a complaint; both were challenging but clever.)

A fun puzzle, even for someone who's not particularly strong on flower names (or spellings). And always great to see a budding constructor hit the big time.

16D Someone you might yell at today?