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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

I do not like it, SAM I AM! In fact, I hated it, like many, even after trying it. First, this is a puzzle from one of the most prolific and (Xword) famous constructors. So, "with great reputation comes great expectation," as Uncle Ben (Spidey's uncle, not the rice guy) might say. If this was my debut puzzle, maybe it wouldn't have 500+ comments at this point. But you come into a D.J.K. puzzle with high expectations. Next, The theme was not only a groaner, but it was one of those where knowing it didn't really help you solve any of the clues. At best, it helped you understand why, after the fact, POMPOMS could be a second letter addendum. Those are rarely good. Finally, including three world capitals, a wine region, and two operas in the clues? What is this, a bad episode of "Jeopardy!"? No thank u, next.

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

Superb Saturday puzzle. So many well-crafted clues. The BABAR one, coincidentally matching "death" as a weighty subject, was tops for me. Nice job!

Loved this sharp-dressed theme! Migrating the ZZs of the special entries to the TOP of the answer? Perfect.👌

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.

...Oh, wow! It's the constructor's girlfriend's birthday today. How significant! I also thought something else was occurring today. Something about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, dissolving political bands, tyranny and despotism, unalienable rights endowed by our Creator (not the State, sorry commies), consent of the governed, etc., etc. ...I must have my dates mixed up.

Solid Friday puzzle, with a nice little BRAINFREEZE factoid on top. What more could you want? Nice job!

So, Art Fry, sharp, spry, and in his 90s, came to our office last year to speak about his life and career, and graciously stayed around afterwards for nearly two hours signing POSTITNOTES for everyone. Silver invented a super-sticky glue with the useful property that it comprised tiny beads. But Fry had the original idea for the sticky note and was looking for an adhesive that could make it work. He discovered that he could make a mildly sticky glue by dispersing Silver's super-sticky beads relatively far apart from each other. Although Silver's glue was ultimately used, the Post-It Note is Fry's invention by all accounts, as correctly noted, if not in the "Newspaper of Record," at least in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." Fun fact: Art Fry said he was actually consulted for the movie and came up with the jargon-filled description (inaccurate, but full of nice technical buzz words) used in the scene where Michele is pressed by skeptical classmates for specifics on how she "co-invented" Post-Its.

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.

"Yo, Adrian, I did it!" - Me, phone raised in triumph, to the empty living room after finishing this puzzle. Nice debut! Crisp and clean Friday. Congrats to the new constructor.

Enjoyed this one. Crisp and clean, good wordplay, and no slop.

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*]

If a "100% Fresh" XWordInfo rating includes AMENDMENT I, then rate me 100% unimpressed.😎

Didn't care for the FAE/FIT or OXFAM entries. But loved seeing QBERT and MARIO hanging out in the same puzzle, even though it took me waaay too long to figure out that "Super man?" clue. All too