Anita

This is just brilliant! To create a puzzle with eight tourist attractions appropriately located in the NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, SOUTHWEST and SOUTHEAST sections of the grid and have them be symmetrical is a masterpiece of construction. And then to have a Schrödinger revealer too…. totally awesome! Congratulations, Simeon. An outstanding puzzle. By the way, FOUR CORNERS is perfect.

Oh wow, what a trip! That's what I call a Sunday puzzle. You totally need to understand the theme in order to figure out the roundabout entries because of the “unchecked” squares, which of course are checked by the trick. I caught on with MICHELLE, MICHELOB and MICHELIN MAN. It was off to the races from there. Thanks, Michael and Oliver. That was so much fun! You get my vote for Sunday POY.

Very cool how the grade inflations are in descending order from D, C, B, to A and all phrases are of the same length. A+ to the constructors!

A most impressive quadruple stack. Nicely done, Erik! Favorite crossing … BOO CBS

I didn’t know about WORLD GIRAFFE DAY, but am tickled to learn that it is celebrated on the longest day (or night) of the year, depending on which hemisphere you live in (June 21st). How delightfully appropriate. A fun and creative puzzle! Thanks, Hannah.

Ah, Deb. teaching us right up to the last. Today I learned that —30 — (dash thirty dash) is used in journalism to indicate the end of a story or dispatch, and originates from telegraph codes. It is also a symbol of new beginnings, which this most surely is. Best wishes in your retirement. You will be missed.

My favorite Saturday puzzle in ages, made so by great clues and clever wordplay. I love the way NIGHTMARE and ELM ST are clued. Other favorites … [One who makes a living from fish] CARD SHARKS [Takes off-road?} RECALLS [What travellers typically have in America?] ONE L {Establishments where smoking is allowed] RIB JOINTS Well done, Fritz.

Wow, in addition to the incredible 22 women crosses, the constructor managed to include clues or entries for Caitlin Clark, Taylor Swift, Etta James, NORA Ephron, Geena Davis, THERESA May, Pamela Anderson, and even HER. Very impressive construction. I wish the clue for 95A had been [Look ma!] NO HANDS Brava, Kelly!

Wow, I thought this was a brilliant puzzle and that was before I realized the 26 letters constituted a pangram. That takes it to a whole other level of awesomeness! I really had to work at figuring out exactly where and how to double up letters, and that’s my favorite kind of challenge. So much fun! I wasn’t sure whether or not to enter slashes in the rebus squares, because both letters are required in one direction but either letter in the other direction. I decided not to enter slashes, which was accepted for the solve, but slashes were entered after the music played. I hope the puzzle doesn't get TROLLED, because I loved it. Thanks, Derrick. Excellent job! P.S. Fabulous clue for NONE OF “Your business start-up?”

Motto of an indigenous Iditarod team I’M INUIT TO WIN IT

Wow, what an impressive debut! Twelve themers and not a DUD in the bunch. I laughed out loud at EYED A HOE, MINI SODA and INDIE ANNA. VERGE iN YEAH was tricky, mostly because I didn’t know YAMA (I had NAMA for awhile). Just for the HALIBUT, I tried to think of another state themer. “Horror film stars Noah and his boat” ARKINSAW Congratulations, Ginny, on creating such a clever and fun puzzle. I enjoyed your constructor notes too.

Great theme! Here’s another FUN FACT … Did you know?! The oldest public park in the United States is in Boston COMMON KNOWLEDGE

Hear! Hear! This sublimely clever theme really made me smile. Nine theme entries and each one special in its own way. “Pooh, Pooh?” for THIS BEARS REPEATING is fabulous, and "11?" for ONE AFTER ANOTHER is just brilliant. This is the constructor’s fourth Sunday puzzle of 2024. Wow! Congratulations, John, very impressive.

An awesome grid that really stacked up. I truly felt a sense of accomplishment upon completion. “Adjunct faculty” for SIXTH SENSE is genius. IN SUM, a great puzzle.

Wow! Finding ten phrases, and then placing them in order from TEN down to ONE is quite a remarkable feat of construction. And in most cases the number spans across two words. This was great fun, and definitely a case where getting the theme early on was a big help with the solve. SIXTUS, TENT DRESS and EARTH REENTRY are so clever. Congratulations, Hoang-Kim. This was a blast!

Such a fun theme, the kind I I GO GAGA over. Well done Derrick! I love all the musical clues and entries…. TONY ORLANDO, BILL WITHERS, IRVING BERLIN, TOM WAITS, Gloria Estefan (HAVANA), Peter, Paul & Mary (TRIO). BASSO, BASS HORN and OBOES. The concert promoters hyped the festival in the NY river valley as a night that would _______ ROCK HUDSON

SO many stellar clues. My FAVES are… “They’re on their own time” ALASKANS “Reach for the cars?” HAIL A CAB “Line outside a box office” ONE PLEASE “It moves with traffic, in brief” ETA That wonderful quote from Admiral Nimitz for IWO JIMA And a whopping fifteen debut entries. Well done, Sam!

Fluid construction and a theme that holds water. I’m usually opposed to circles, but in this case I like how they visually represent the molecule. Nicely done, Simeon.

Congratulations on your debut, Joe. Clever idea and enjoyable solve, although I had the feeling it might get a frosty reception.

That was fun! I totally enjoyed figuring out the theme, pictorially speaking. I most like the ones where the spelling of the entry differs from the spelling of the illustration. RODE rather than road, NIT rather than knit, PY rather than pie. So clever. Cute clue for ITALIC. PROPS, Rich, for spelling REBUSES with the circles. Great construction!

Am I upset that we got a Thursday type puzzle on Wednesday? Not by a sshhoott Congratulations, Dan, on the long-awaited publication of this fun puzzle. It gave me a long-lasting smile.

I love the needlelike verticality of the theme and the fact that the clue for IDIOM is “A pain in the neck”. Congratulations, Jared, on a jab well done!

A classic Sunday puzzle. The wonderfully punny theme and sparkling wordplay made for an all-around fun solve. I laughed out loud at FRENCH ROAST. Brilliant! One of my favorite clues “Get off to a flying start?” for TAXI. . Well done, John! I thoroughly enjoyed deride.

What a fun theme! I’m always amazed by the clever ideas constructors come up with. Congratulations, Barbara. When an AXMAN performs does he wear rock bottoms?

Excellent misdirect right off the bat, as I imagine many solvers entered DENIM for 1A. Then a smile when it turned out to be the answer for 5D. Very cool how both phrases in each pair are of equal length. “It’s one thing after another” for LIST gave me a chuckle. Clever and fun!

I love a Sunday rebus and this one didn’t disappoint. A fun solve and a great revealer. I sometimes mix-up the A state abbreviations. My first thought was “Is Arkansas considered western??”, then realized AK is Alaska. Doh! Clever clue for NBA REF [Traveler’s check, in brief?]. Nice debut of the common phrases FEW AND FAR BETWEEN and I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE. MENTAL NOTE… I like puzzles by Aime Walker.

Excellent clue for SYNONYM. Of course I was initially fooled into putting an emphasis on the first syllable of ‘contracts’ instead of the second. A good misdirect. Great debut of MATRYOSHKA, and what a clever clue. I also like the playful mini-theme of TIKTOK DANCE, TWISTER MAT and PICKLEBALL. Luckily I already had BIGTOP, so didn’t fall into the egOCENTRIST trap. That was fun. Thanks, Spencer.

Masterful construction! I was spinning my wheels for a while until I got to the revealer. Discovering the BIO, SCI, PSY, LIT, MUS, and ART classes was a wonderful treat after a fun workout. The trickiest one for me was the spelling of the Chinese fruit. I needed QUINTILLION to get LITCHIS. Well done, Kareem.

Fun theme! Well done, Stella. [Who's the girl Sandra that was in Grey's Anatomy, precious?] OH, DEAR

Lots of fun, and a good Sunday BRAIN(TT)ER. Thanks, Tracy!

I love the cleverly cryptic clues, especially those for CUT OFF JEANS and TWO DOLLAR BILLS. It took me an embarrassingly long time to parse O PIONEERS. The second high school graduate in the last 3 days. Wow! Congratulations, Luke. Very impressive! #TINA and #MILLIE BOBBY HASH BROWNS

A perfect, no STRESS puzzle, with a clever theme that doesn’t get any tighter than this. The highlight for me is the wonderful debut of PERSNICKETY. What a great word! I like CAJOLES too. Congratulations on your debut, Suzanne. Well done!

How clever to use a “before and after” format to visually represent not only species at risk of disappearing, but also the success of work being done to protect them. And very timely for the puzzle to appear during Earth Month. Congratulations to the constructors for creating such a fine puzzle. And thank you, John Rippe, for the important work you do.

It’s interesting how differently solvers approach a puzzle. I couldn’t be more opposite from our guest columnist who writes “The first thing I do is scan the clues for the revealer.” I prefer to find the revealer close to the end, and hopefully have figured out the trick before getting there. Which was the case today As noted, we’ve had “dark” themes before, but I don’t tire of them. This one was very clever and I like how each separate part of the phrase is a stand alone word. Nicely done, Hanh.

A few drIVE-By thoughts … I like the adjacency of STRUT and SIDLE. Good clue pairing also [Move with swagger]/[Move with stealth]. Speaking of PAIRs, others include ARIAS/OPERA, ASPS/VIPER, HER/SHE and EXECUTIVE BRANCH/EVIL. Nice to remember ABE VIGODA. No weird vibe, just a smooth solve. Congratulations on your debut, Matthew.

A fun solve because I actually used the theme to solve some of the entries. ENAMOR, TOILET and SEA CRAB were all entered INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS. I’m happy that I took time after completion to study the circled letters and realized they spell INSIDE on the top half and the reverse on the bottom half. Awesome construction! ArNOLD before AHNOLD had me wondering whether rEAVIES is some slang term I was unfamiliar with. Love the clue for SPATULA (“What a flipping tool”!). Great puzzle!

I hoped the themers would be witty puns but quickly realized they were anagrams. Very impressive, but for me the solve was less DELIGHT and more ALRIGHT. Fabulous clue for LIBELLOUS [“Like a column starting a row, perhaps”}. The irony that the constructor is an attorney who fights corporate mergers is priceless!

[Basket, ____, Dodge, Foot] DROP THE BALL Quick solve, fun theme.

The center ICE is brilliant. Five great clues and the multiple Is (ayes), Cs (seize) and Es (ease). The perfect example of repeated answers in service of a theme. The cool graphic of seeing the ZAMBONI at work is the icing on the cake. Congratulations, John, on hitting for the cycle, and with such a solid theme. Well done!

I know very little about STAR TREK except what I’ve learned through osmosis. Nevertheless, I was able to solve the puzzle enjoyably and without difficulty. Maybe I was experiencing a mind meld with the constructor. I admire the construction and especially like the spaceship design of the shaded squares. Congratulations, Jeremy. You made quite a spocktacle of yourself.

Wow, I love the DOUBLE CROSSED theme and the break from crossword convention. When I came across the first set of repeating entries I thought for sure I had an error, but then I noticed the two IAGOs crossing OTHELLO and the lightbulb went on. Very impressive construction! It’s easy enough to come up with a second clue for SCAR and SET, but not so easy for JUDAS, BRUTUS and IAGO. Not a ton of wordplay, but I especially like [Where idols go head-to-head] for TOTEM and [Paired chips with dips] for RHYMED. Thanks, Gene Louise, that was fun!

Wow, what a clever theme! And very impressive that each of the four theme phrases and revealer is a debut. I love the inclusion of WHALE PODS and its positioning directly below ECHOLOCATION. Congratulations, Jonathan. Excellent debut! Congratulations, Jonathan. Excellent debut! I thought that beared repeating.

Wow, what a uniquely clever and fun puzzle! Hands down my favorite Thursday so far this year. I’m thrilled that the greatest TV series of all-time, M*A*S*H, finally appears as an entry with the title accurately represented. Well done! The Q crossing was tricky. Thankfully I pulled BARQ’S from the dark recesses of my brain, since I'm unfamiliar with Q*BERT. I can see where that could be troublesome for some solvers. Congratulations, Hanh. You are a *.

As a long-time fan of Broadway musicals I love the theme. NEPOTISM, SPLIT and AVERAGE JANES are especially clever and LULLABY and REFRAIN are great entries for a musical theme. Several nice supporting clues also... [Fiddler on the Roof matchmaker] YENTE, [Setting for Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”] OCEAN, [Classic theater name] PALACE, [Played a part ] ACTED and [Sign in a theater] EXIT. “Applause” for the constructor.

A fun word ladder and a perfect puzzle for Earth Day. Excellent debut of GLOBAL WARMING. It’s about time! A nice follow-up to last Sunday’s Endangered Species theme. Great job, David.

A delightful tribute to my favorite game show. But a missed opportunity to clue 60A as “Fleming who originally hosted this puzzle’s theme”.

Those spanner stacks are awesome! I got LUDOVICO EINAUDI totally on crosses and still thought it looked wrong. I wasn’t even sure where the first name ended and the last name began. I chuckled at “You and me both!” for PEOPLE. Congratulations, Alex, on a most impressive debut.

As a fan of Friends back in the day, the title was a giveaway for me. A fun solve, nevertheless. Several years ago I attended a pop-up event and have photos pivoting the couch up the stairs and drinking coffee in Central Perk. A fun time with *my* friends. It's hard to believe the show premiered thirty years ago. You know you’re getting old when “Friends With Benefits” means having someone who can drive at night.