Mark Carlson

@RayinVa Why not? We're also expected to be up on a multitude of rap artists, sports figures, sports jargon, etc., none of which I happen to know. Learning unfamiliar stuff is fun, don't you think?

@acjones Clearly a matter of opinion. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was very clever.

@Brian Sinclair The point was to strip away the elegance and the depth. It was just meant to be silly and fun, and it succeeded well at that, in my opinion.

@Lynn Thank you. I still don't get it, though. I guess it's just me, but I would never say "I hope to do something" when I *plan* to do it, as "hope" suggests that there is some doubt that I will be able to.

@Kurt I thought that figuring out where the openings were was part of the fun!

@PuzzleDog It may not be nonsense, but I doubt that I am the only one who has never encountered that word, and I have lived a decently long time and am reasonably well-read.

@Andrew That messed me up, too. I tried to enlist Google to help me understand, and what I got were Reddit comments that said the likes of, "The NYT crosswords editors do not make mistakes!" and "Get over it!"—not helpful at all. But I swear that you and I are right about this!

@Edward I'm not sure if this is what you are asking, but just in case: etudes, while occasionally lyrical, are studies intended to help a musician learn a particular skill. So more often than not, they are anything but lyrical; in fact, the majority of the flute etudes I spent hours and hours learning are downright boring, musically speaking.

@Brett I think that Siva is an acceptable alternate spelling of Shiva. At least, according to Vijay Nath it is. But the missing 've annoyed me, too.

@festy Just looking it up, most sources say that "cab", as in the cab of a truck, comes from "cabriolet", not from "cabin". Thanks for the lesson!

@Nan C. I never saw a single one of those promotions, and I don't know the song, so those two words were among the last I got.

@Joseph At least, you had heard of it! I had not, alas.

@Margaret This is the first time I've ever come across it, too. I guess we are in the vast minority here.

@SP Yes, she said those things, too, but imagine what it was like for Mr. Marquez to read this mostly negative review. He is probably licking his wounds now, rather than enjoying the few positive words by Deb and all of the positive comments here. You have to have a shell for skin in order to slough off a bad review, even one purporting to be positive. I know from experience.

@Mean Old Lady Is your objection to the word "carve"? As far as I know, professional oboists always make their own reeds. I asked one once how many hours per week she spent on reed-making, and she said 20. I know she also practiced and performed a lot, which makes me wonder when she slept!

@Cal Gal As a retired prof, I have written countless letters of rec on behalf of students and colleagues.

@Adam Can you fill us in with the details for what you are alluding to, please?

@K I can 't explain the two runs, but the Italian clue is a word I've heard fairly often at American dinner tables. It's slang.

@LordBottletop and Joya, Thank you! I get what "rocked" means, as in "He rocked those sunglasses", but if I substitute "wore" in the same sentence, it doesn't really have the same meaning at all. "He wore those sunglasses!", or "I'm gonna wear my blue suede Pumas today". "Wore" hardly seems equivalent to "rocked" to me. That's what I'm not comprehending.

@Calhouri When I'm in the same boat, I check it against Rex Parker's completed puzzle.

@Laura Stratton Count me as one who solved it without any lookups.

@Wes "Mic" for "microphone". Why an atrocity?

@Pax Ahimsa Gethen It would have made more sense if it had been. I think that is Mike's point, and I agree with him.

@Caitlin B and B, ie, Bed and breakfast I was wondering as I filled that in whether B and Bs are now all booked through Airbnb, like everything else in the world seems to be.

@Chris from Utah I'm a musician and retired music theory teacher, and I have never once encountered the 5th note of the scale spelled SO, without L. I'm curious to know where it is spelled SO, other than occasionally—and in my opinion, incorrectly—in crossword puzzles.

@sunny617 Perhaps easier than normal for you, but not for all of us, I would wager.

@Ed I'd love to know what's wrong with it. Is it because it's not the official postal code? In the US, we have two-letter codes for each state, but there are often older abbreviations that are still used, like Cal, for California. In any case, what makes Alb either disapproved of or wrong?

@Neil Yep! This one drove me crazy and ended up adding at least 30 seconds to my score, if not more.

@Don H In my childhood, my family knew that Hydrox were far superior to Oreos. To this day, I rue that Nabisco's marketing department managed to obliterate Hydrox from the grocery shelves.

@Plastic Jones Yale College (now University) was named for Elihu Yale, the primary benefactor of the founding of the school, and consequently, Eli is a nickname for a Yale student, ie, a Yalie.