essay

Too clever for its own good, resulting in a not fun puzzle. Major eye rolling throughout.

This was TOUGH!!!!

This was so tough!! What a thrill!!!!

YAY AN EASY THURSDAY THAT MADE ME CHUCKLE

Absolutely brutal!

Truly fabulous puzzle even if it includes my forever nemesis TEC!!!!!!!

By gum what a workout!!!!!!!!

Huge ego boost, felt impenetrable at first and then somehow I found myself nearly done — and then a PR!

A bit chewy for a Monday!! Really enjoyed this one.

I held on to ADAM for 52A for way too long even as I kept thinking "PLASTIC would he good for 37D" and "APCLASS is perfect for 39D!" When I finally let it go, the relief of seeing LAP was so, so sweet. Great puzzle!!

Really brilliant. Best puzzle in a while!

This was so, so, so, so good. Wow! A real stumper at first and then slowly it clicked into place. I'm awed by Evan's genius!!!! Wow! First fave of the year for sure.

Really enjoyed this one! Clever theme with entries that solve cleanly and lots of appropriately chewy Sunday fill. Yay!

This was great! Had my brows furrowed for the first 12 mins or so, trying frantically to understand a rebus that would fit BENICETO and OFFICEHOURS and SLICER. Such a fun theme and very very clever. Never heard of WEND before but now I do!

This was a lot of fun! Stumped me plenty, which led to a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing once I figured out how to read the clues. Looking forward to more puzzles from this constructor!

Kind of limp. I'll add my name to the list of those who found the whole theme unsatisfying. Finished and left feeling like, "what was the point?"

Bravo to the constructors. Very difficult and smartly done!!

Honestly kind of a grind for me!!!!

An absolute grind to the end!

Absolutely brutal. Fabulous puzzle!

Absolutely effin brutal. Finally the last letter of 1D, only to get the dreaded "not quite done!" dialog and having no clue how I'd be able to tell what was wrong or a typo. It was then I learned it's INTEMPO, not oN. Woof.

Bravo bravo bravo!!! Chewy but a lot of fun -- and entirely solvable without having to look anything up. What a delight treat. More, please!!!!!!

I couldn't even muster up the energy to be happy about finishing this one. Boo.

This was tough!!!!!!! I did like the theme but frankly the "measurements" aspect in the non-thematic clues felt really random and I kept wondering why they weren't more directly related to the ONCE answers. Way too much going on for a lizard brain like me!

This was so hard WOW!!!!

Very clever! A truly great puzzle. Bravo!!!

A real workout!!!!!

Rollicking, rip-roaring fun!!!!!

Ho-ly! That was a battle from the beginning to the end! Remarkable.

I love an zippy easy Monday, thank you Chase!!!!!!

Too clever for its own good. Hated 1D, 6D, 20A, 21D, 29D. 39D and 19D were just plain bad. Hope Mr. DiPietro's future attempts, should he continue being published here, go through more edits.

My only complaint is 13D -- can't imagine a scenario where a thief would call their score their SWAG????

A good workout for me! Really solid clueing and a satisfying solve.

Fine, I guess. Glad others seem to have enjoyed it. Welcome, Sean!

Great puzzle!!!! NW corner was a real toughie (for a while I only had CHARLIXCX JEST SCAb) and did have to look up SNAUSAGES but it all fell into place after that. Totally agree with Deb, this is a great Friday to dip your toe into!

Perhaps the only puzzle I enjoyed this week and I didn't even care much for the theme.

I honestly still don't really understand the point of the theme. Help?

A new Saturday PB!!!!! Yay!!!

Really great construction and a fun one to solve! Have no clue what the symbols are supposed to mean but otherwise very very solid.

I'm definitely a dummy because I've read the column and all the comments and I still don't really understand how to make sense of the theme clues/answers lol

Well done and very fun! I finished it a lot quicker than I expected to after the first go-around had me positively stumped. More!!'

Lovely puzzle but a bit underwhelmed by 123A.

What kind of Monday puzzles are some of you doing...?

Still waiting for the breezy flow from the column 😭😭😭 that was tough!!!!!

What a fun debut! Easy, breezy and delightful. Congrats!

Fine Monday, not particularly interesting or worth remembering.

Tough!! This one was great. A welcome improvement from yesterday's garbage.