CT

Pick a theme and stick with it. If it's letters in circles representing things, then E G G in the circles would most reasonably be eggs in a basket and match the rest of the puzzle. If it's rebuses, then do rebuses. But rebuses in circles? And only in one spot? C'mon man. What are we even doing here?

Nice debut. Although "cattle" barriers, in practice, would be barbed wire under any normal circumstance. Maybe "Bourbon orders" for CHAINLINKFENCES?

Imagine a food so great it could make even rebuses palatable to everyone. Loved the theme, the puzzle, and all the toppings. Chef hats off to the constructors.

THEREARENOWORDS, but one, for my feelings on this puzzle: CRAPPER. 😂 Hard, but not clever or fun. Obscure, but not interesting. Finally getting the gold star felt like a quadruple-overtime victory ...in the NIT.

"The Internet, ...EVERHEARDOFIT?" This was my favorite clue and answer, because it's an expression that is easy and obvious to use, but hard to eloquently define. I'm often trying to explain phrases like this to my friend who is trying to master English. "Facetious question after mentioning something well known," is such a clean, concise, and perfect description. Love it. Excellent Friday.

"A rebus Wednesday? That's CRAY CRAY!" - Anonymous Gen-Z Solver

Hats off to the constructor on this one. Clever theme. Nice puzzle. Well done!

Nice puzzle! ...If you don't have Adam Aaronson at the very top of your list of notable NYT constructors, then you simply don't know how to alphabetize. 😎

...Was scratching my head as to the full meaning of the theme clue until the very end, when the graphic revealed all. Fantastic! Great puzzle.

First, figure out the initial starred clue answer. Then replace the "all" with the name of the currency used in the indicated country, because "MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING" and "EVERYTHING" is a synonym for "all." ...Nope. Sorry, that theme idea should have been sent back to bounce in the constructor's head for another long time.

Imagine a polygraph needle scrolling down a word and spiking when it hits a lie. The spike represented by a single black box, on top of which rests a rebus square containing "lie." OK, sure. But if the grid is meant to evoke a polygraph tape, at least add a "needle" square or squares on the left side of the same line and don't clutter up the area with a bunch unrelated squares: ** lie * wordswordswords*wordswords As it is, the theme is asking the solver to both imagine too much (a single square and rebus doing a lot of heavy creative lifting) and ignore too much (all but the three special black grid squares are unrelated noise). Almost, but not quite.

I actually liked the puzzle clueing and answers. Nice debut. But the theme just did not work for me at all. It initially appears that the "lies" are hidden in various black boxes, perhaps evoking the idea that you want to conceal any untruths from the polygraph. This idea works cleanly for the three across answers that are split by the putative black boxes of deception. But then other answers both across and down fall a bit short of concealing the whole lie in the box, like STEEL[IE] and BEL[IE]. If that were the theme, it would be an obscure and weak one, but at least consistent. Instead, the theme is that "lies" are rebus "spikes" sitting in the middle of just two three-box spike sequences, but not the center one, and one atop a lone random square in the puzzle? Nope. Doesn't work. It's not supposed to be easy, but this one and the one two Thursdays ago appear as though the original theme became too difficult, so they smushed it around to complete the puzzle. The magic of a good theme is that it is interesting and consistent. That's why you get the big bucks for publishing one.

I envision the Don Draper meme where he's delivering a slogan idea: "Imagine we take a few random answers around the crossword puzzle edges and lop off a single letter from the back of the word, or the 'butt' as I like to call it. But not all the edge entries, just a few, and not all butts either, some fronts too. We'll call the theme 'BUTT OUT.'" ...[*cough*]