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First time I think I ever picked up that it was a rebus AND solved it without peeking at the column first.
I enjoy all the different clues used to add Oreo into puzzles.
Man, SEZ with 2/3 of its letters crossing with proper nouns really padded my time :( Had no idea what the names of 41 and 42 down were. I only remember Henson for Sesame Street. Though I figured the Z for Oz after looking up Lalanne. Originally had Say as my answer.
"Before we get started, today’s puzzle is not a rebus. You’re welcome." Ha! This is exactly the sentence I'm looking for when I briefly skim the column on Thursdays. Now onto the puzzle!
Fun puzzle. Not as challenging as Thursdays sometimes are, but every day without a rebus is a good day for me.
Three fun and doable puzzles to start my work days this week. Thursday is gonna be a doozy isn't it?
What a fun puzzle. My aha moment came with the FULL answer. Any day I can get through a Thursday puzzle in one sitting is a good day.
When I first started getting into crossword puzzles I learned early on that Thursdays are the frustrating day. So when I discovered this column with the theme explanations, I've incorporated checking it out before jumping into Thursdays. Mainly to see if there are any rebuses, and sometimes to find out the rebus answers. No shame on my part cause I personally don't find the challenge of sussing out rebuses fun. So, going into this puzzle knowing what's in store, I had fun and really enjoyed it. Only looking at one rebus answer was enough to figure out the rest. Though I admit I thought 48A was a typo for a while and kept trying to figure out which crossing down was a misdirect and what the right answer should be. Till I finally googled the spelling I saw it was not in fact a typo.
It's been so long since I used a bulletin board or thumb tacks that 52 across stumped me for a good while lol.
Read the first half of the column and was preparing for a tough time. Got a glimpse of the first tricky clues answer LAW while scrolling down to get to the comments to skim the general opinion before jumping in myself, where I picked up SWING STATE. With just these two assists I breezed through this one so quickly I surprised myself! IRATE was tricky since I didn't expect the cross answer to be spelt RARIN, though the "informally" was the key hint. But overall I guess I got lucky when I glimpsed the answer for the two exact clues that might've stumped me. My crossword brain is really coming along!
All the times I've witnessed the "it's not chai tea cause chai means tea and you don't say tea tea" correction in various social media spaces came in handy today. I'm not familiar with Thai iced tea, but I was willing to accept Chai was incorrect a lot earlier than I otherwise would have.
My intelligence level is nowhere near high enough for this puzzle. Sheesh.
The theme dawned on me when trying to work out what 9D could be based on the crosses I had filled in. Went back to 1A to see if I was right and then it was mostly smooth sailing. Had to do a "pick every letter till I get the solved music" on 32A though. Never heard of Pibb Ultra and pep pills are vaguely familiar but not a term I've heard in a very, very long time. Also can't believe it took as long as it did for me to get tacos for the chipotle menu. Always go burrito or bowls so I forgot tacos were even an option!
This might be the first rebus I stumbled into discovering without my standard Thursday skim of the column in search of the word rebus. It was the ATLANTA and SANTA entries that revealed it. Still not a fan of rebuses but I accept them as part of the Thursday fare. And it is fun when you figure it out on your own.
@JMan Binge Mondays, sprinkled in with some Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Sundays for when you want a challenge, before bothering to attack Thursdays. Thursdays, in my opinion, do not get you excited about picking crosswords up as a hobby if you don't already do them. Building that "crossword brain" is needed first.
Scored a personal best! I love when puzzles are a breeze cause it makes me feel smart lol, but at the same time I hate when my mind is locked in during the commute and then all of a sudden I have unexpected free time for the rest of the train ride. Sometimes I jump right into another one from the archive, but it takes a bit to reset the brain from the last puzzle.
It's because of his feud with Rocco, isn't it?
This felt like a Monday runner up the editors loved too much to not publish this week lol. I'll take every easy puzzle they throw our way, cause I know a convoluted rebus you'd never figure out without the daily column's explanation is waiting just around the corner.
@DPaul Eves are days spent in anticipation of the following day. Christmas Eve, if you do presents Christmas Day, you're wrapping and the kids are going to bed early looking forward to tomorrow. NYE we're all celebrating the end because tomorrow is a new beginning (on the calendar at least).
@Brendan Gayle is the name of her longtime best friend. I guess not as well known today, but back in the Oprah show days Gayle was mentioned in pop news as Oprah's bestie quite often. And by Gayle I mean Gayle King.
I enjoyed this more than I would've any rebus. Y in god's name was the first theme answer I got so I had fun trying to figure out the rest of them. Had to do some letter plugging to find the right one at the end, but there were a handful of 'ohh that's it!' answers that came to me each time I took a break and came back, which is always fun.
@E G do a bunch of Monday's from the archive. It's the easiest day, so less stressful, and you'll develop that crossword brain where you know to the go-to answers like AGAR/AGRA, ENO, and OREO, just to name a few. And you learn patterns to sniff out misdirects. Proper nouns and obscure clues are always gonna be a challenge unless your knowledge happens to overlap with that day's creator, but overall it does get easier once you get the hang of it. Rebus' suck though. I stand by my process of doing a word search on the column before I jump into all Thursdays, to figure out if there is one that day or not. I do these puzzles to relax and a rebus puzzle that I don't know is a rebus puzzle does not aid in that effort! So I check first now.
This might be the first rebus that I didn't hate on principle! Had to take a quick peak at the column to see the theme (aka scan the text for the dreaded rebus word), but after catching the y = x switcheroo it was a fun solve.
@kittenhoarder Until I read your comment, I automatically assumed TOAT was just another one of those crossword words I never come across in daily life but will need to file away as a future answer.
@Ettagale That's why my first fill in was all stars for that clue. Quickly realized it was wrong, but the real program was where my brain went first. As the other person said, it was probably an intentional misdirect.
@Striker OPI and ESSIE are good ones to file away. My brain keeps auto deleting it, until the next time it pops up in a puzzle and I vow THIS time I will remember instead of leaning on cross fills. But of course I don't.
@Vaer I suspect Keith has used it before because I only watch the Mets, and I knew the answer from hearing it during games. Could've been Gary who said it, but since Keith was famous for coming in on bunt attempts I would bet it was him.
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