Bill

I was led astray by END: at 36A, I was chasing down BAG END, wondering if it was a Tolkien theme

I'm rather pleased with myself. I was able to solve a (Thursday) rebus with no assistance.

Once upon a summertime Just a dream from yesterday A boy and his magic golden flute Heard a boat from off the bay "Come and play with me, Jimmy Come and play with me And I will take you on a trip Far across the sea"

I say this as an IT guy of 40 years, and a computer nerd since 1980, but I found this one to be a little heavy on the tech jargon

I got the warm fuzzies at 56A, one of my top favorite movies, and 99D, one of my favorite series of books

My mother told me playing video games will get me nowhere, but I had the last laugh with 12D

I hope I'm not the only one who now has a certain Meatloaf song playing in my head

I dunno. I finished it in reasonable time and without assistance, but it's not one of my favorites

I enjoyed that one

That was fun (so much better than a rebus, which I don't like)

I found it challenging, but I was able to finish with no assistance

I found it challenging but not frustratingly so. Taking a break always helps reset my brain, and I typically needed assistance with sports figures, but that's the usual for me

Today I learned the formal name for a chef's hat

69D/88A stalled me. Before we had EMOJIs, we had EMOTIs, which were ASCII character faces :) Without knowing 88A, TERI or JERI can fit that crossing

A typo on 65A stalled me for longer than I want to admit. Ironic, given the clue

When I spotted the pattern, I thought it was related to US presidents: Abe (Lincoln), Sam (Adams) and Ted (Roosevelt)

Not my favorite. I had a typo behind one of the figures which took me quite a long time to chase down...

That was fun

That was . . . interesting. But it did give me my 200th streak

35A was my stumbling block. I had ACRID but things weren't working

I found it relatively easy but very fun, especially the reveal at the end

That was fun

An unfortunate event broke my previous streak so this is now my 100th. 39A was almost a breaker for me, but I guessed it in the end. Personally, I think reality TV is a cancer but that's for a different forum

I got hung up on 34D. CHEAPMEAL (aka McDonalds, altho lately not) fit, which made left 50A as PAEBO? A new word for paleo diet? Anyways, I liked the split clues / answers

That was nice. The only assist I needed was 22A/2D, neither of which are in my personal lexicon

And here my mother told me playing games would never get me anywhere. As soon as I saw the grid art, I was 57D. Did need some assist, especially with the names from modern TV shows

This was a perfect example of taking a break when you feel stumped. When I came back, I was hit with 31D, and 36A made me take the 17A

That was fun

I enjoyed it. And TIL 16A and 48D, which haven't I heard before

I got 6D easy enough, which meant 35A _MUST_ be RADIO, right?! It held me up until it was the last word, and only by peeking. KEEPITPG made me panic when all I had TPG