Eric Ressner

OK, I got the theme and I got the theme words, but I entered the out-letters as rebuses, and was marked wrong. That's not fair.

I wuz robbed! I chose to enter the grade inflation crosses as rebuses, e.g. CD for the crossing at CIVIC and DROPTOPS, and I was dinged for it. That broke a 39-day streak, too. I'm going to be muttering to myself all day now.

Re: "61A. There are two phrases of equal length that both mean “Me, too” — “Ditto” and AS AM I. Somehow, I always put the wrong one in first." There's another: AS DO I, which is what I first entered. DITTO never entered my mind. And as to 4D, I insisted on reading my filled-in squares as FT ROOP and was prepared for an "oopsie" pop-up when I completed the puzzle. Only when the happy tune played did I realize I had mis-parsed it.

//Among the many ways a calendar can be divided, only the days of the week are a “septet.” // I disagree. There is also the septet I thought of at first: the seven months with fewer than 31 days. But "months without a 31st" wouldn't fit no matter how much I rebused.