Justin

Remembering the recently deceased Andre Braugher who played Captain HOLT. One of his many hilarious deliveries was a scene after he'd given up trying to be intellectual and had resorted to playing videos games, namely the NYT crossword app. "It plays a little song when you solve it as if you've just learned to potty" [victory jingle plays...which means he solved it mid-rant!] "Yes, yes, play me my dunce's tune!"

Sorry to double post but I neglected to give a shout out to Captain HOLT who, after he'd given up trying to be intellectual, had resorted to playing videos games, namely the NYT crossword app. "It plays a little song when you solve it as if you've just learned to potty". Victory jingle plays: "Yes, yes, play me my dunce's tune!" RIP Andre Braugher, you gave us many laughs!

Fun punny puzzle NE corner was stormy. SAGaT, SEEGaR, ARTSCapE (which should be a word, really), ARTS CafE and very limited knowledge of beauty products added 5:00 to my time. A needed distraction...now off to the streets. :(

Sometimes it's fun to predict what will be in the comments before coming here: 1. So cool! So fun! So hungry! (I'm included here) 2. Boooo! Rebus! 3. Mike from Munster pun (surely involving cheese...) 4. Pizza snobbery about double crust (my wife is from New Haven so I'm used to it)

Partly because I put in PETS instead of PATS for "caresses", until the end of solving I had EGO GAP for 48-down, which may be an even more common "separation in some relationships" than AGE GAPs lol. Impressive and fun. Stellar Thursday puzzle again.

I'd settle for taut abdominals.

Instead of BOO I typed in BAE. Had REI, not KOA. US MAP? No, I had GLOBE. And, yes, I tried to SHOOT my LOAD.

DIAERESES: the situation where you know the answer, you sort of know the word, but you have no clue how to spell it. Emotional turmoil or masochistic pleasure depending on which author you prefer...

I made out well with this one. After getting over the hump at 6-down, I could finally bang out some quick answers and lay down a fast time.

Superfun puzzle although I'm disappointed that a homophone of "scuttlebutt" couldn't be found. And I can tell I'll have a welcome earworm for the rest of Sunday. The only song to reach #1 on the R&B charts with three different singers: Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye and Roger Troutman.

Just gave myself a primer on Maria TALLCHIEF. What a woman and what a story...thanks NYT and Mr. Gordon! Interestingly, a passable translation of TAOISEACH could be "high chief".

The big question for the Mexican groundhog today: SIESTA o FIESTA? And what will the French groundhog see? Her chateaux? Does anyone know any other groundhog jokes? Because I keeping hearing the same ones over and over again.

Loved "Pictures where people are headscarfed". One of my favorite clues of all time made more fun because it took so long for me to get enough crosses to figure it out. CZARISTS (which also took a while because I had The Dude on my brain) tipped the scales. The clue (which I only saw in retrospect) that it was scarFed instead of scarVed is also a nice touch. This puzzle was certainly not a no-brainer! I can't resist: Why do zombies avoid clowns? They taste funny

What's scarier than a WEREWOLF? A right there wolf!

Fun fact: It is thought that MESOpotAMIA is home to the first roads and presumably the first POT HOLES. Fun one! Love the Thursday puzzles!

Another great Thursday puzzle! The only problem I had with it is there were no mentions of Bilbo, Gollum and the Ring.

I was surprised to get the victory jingle because I thought for sure I had two mistakes to clean up. So then I thought, "Well, I just learned two pieces of modern slang: YASSIFY and CAME RASHY". Especially funny (when I figured out my actual mistake) since my wife is a photographer.

Just a few of my favorite Harry Caray quotes: "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some booze and baseball!" "If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong." "You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." "HOLY COW"

Very clever and fun puzzle. You can't spell BLACK SABBATH without ABBA. I'll just leave this "Into the Void"/"Take a Chance on Me" mash-up here. It's as creepy as you might imagine: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN8AZY5dOJA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN8AZY5dOJA</a>

True story: Last night, I attended smallish wedding where everyone at the reception was able to pose together for a group photo. After the tough task of herding us all together and taking a couple shots, the photographer said the lighting was bad and we all needed to move to the right. After a couple more shots, she said now we all needed to slide to the left...to the left...to the left. Then the DJ broke into "The Cupid Shuffle" and, one by one, we got the photographer's the punch---- and started ----dancing with a laugh. This morning's puzzle was also superfun even if I'm nursing a bit of a headache.

Loved the theme! My brother and I used to chant "HOT MAGMA DEATH!!!"

AH YOU HAVE NO IDEA how little I know about the Spice Girls. I also feel sorry for Michael CERA, evidently being known for a small role in "Barbie" (as evidenced by two very recent puzzle clues) instead of starring in some other great movies (e.g., "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"). Still, very fun to hunt for those scavengers.

Fun crunchy puzzle! And I'm looking forward to trotting out the fun fact about INCAS and freeze drying at work (my company is in the food business).

Had a lot of fun with this! I figured out the main trick early. (LATE NIGHT did it for me), but only for the purpose of deciphering the the theme clues. I thought the switch might have to do with CIRCLE starting with "C". I got the revealer and then tackled the central area, with the revealer helping. But I didn't REALLY get the joke of the first trick until I saw the victory animation. Quite a roundabout journey. Also, I am old and I thought I was wordy, but this is the first I'd learned of what an ADNOUN is. The blind can now see!

I"m a veteran of Friday puzzles and heteronyms but I had to come here to get the "number" clue. I didn't know ARO (and I'm happy to have now learned it), but luckily I didn't know any other word starting with ETHE-, so I got the music. But I STILL didn't understand the clue. I was looking for the trick in the word Early (Civil War general? like a nobleman? in an otological fashion?). As a biochemist, I'm embarrassed but give props for being fooled in a perfectly LEGIT way.

This one came very close to breaking my 310 puzzle streak and at first it seemed it was going to be a fun breezy one (I got the rebus right off the bat). It thought my issue was somewhere in either TABOURET/ENSOR/BEHAR or VOILE/SINEBAR or maybe STAYMAN/ALY, but in the end it was SAMARRA/ALI (I had SUMARRA for some reason but I finally found the problem). Whew! I've never managed get a streak to go a year so I was in moral anguish about whether I should break one of my rules about getting help or just let the streak break and know that's why the streak actually means something. Luckily, I didn't have to choose (this time).

"It puzzles the Will" Signed, A word-crossed lover

Fun, clever puzzle! Not fond at all of the BETA clue. There are thousands of other ways to clue it that don't call attention to fearful manosphere BS.

Excuse me while I resuse some superlatives: Very very very cool puzzle!

I thought I, and the puzzlemakers, were so clever for answering BUNT (instead of the correct DENT) for 106A ("They can be tapped out"). It's all good, since there were a bunch of other clever ones in there, e.g., "You might take them out for a quick spin". Apropos to this puzzle, in 2019, Bowie's "Space Oddity" (which contains a countdown), had a 50th anniversary EP released for it with FOUR versions of the song.

QWASIMODO/HAWL UP added thirty seconds. Seemed perfectly fine when I typed them in. Time for some coffee. Fun puzzle!

"Focus for a pitching scout" happened to be the last clue I solved and so it resulted equal parts relief, groaning and chuckling. Very much enjoyed this one!

Great puzzle with juicy entries. But maybe my favorite part is that, if you turn it 45 degrees clockwise, you look into the face of a very worried poodle. Maybe her BAE slipped off his DOG LEASH and is in danger of getting a SNAKE BITE.

Very clever! This puzzle gets my vote!

Impressive and fun! Plus, I learned a new word (another reason to do crosswords): TEASEL. I'm going to be looking out for them!

Crunchy clever puzzle...just what I needed.