jp inframan

Ugh. These puzzles just keep getting worse: gimmicky & boring. Well, at least I'm getting a lot more reading done.

This is one of those gimmicky puzzles that's probably much more fun for the developer than for the user.

Wow, talk about totally unsatisfying. Didn't think it was possible but worst. puzzle. ever.

I dunno. This felt more like putting together Legos than solving a crossword. Oh well...

Worst puzzle yet. Definitely not worth the time.

Pathetic. Incorrect Oscar year/winner... Gaia/Gaea... Olive pizza topping... "Oh Behave"... I'll stop now. Lousy clues, poor choices. Sorry.

Awful puzzle. Only relieved it wasn't a tribute to the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

How sad that so many don't know what a bas-relief is but are well-informed about Oreos & Doritos & pop singers & rappers. AI-generated crosswords could be a real step forward, evolutionarily speaking.

Really the worst puzzle yet. I really don't want to have to come to the instructions/explanation page to learn how to navigate this super-gimmicky pseudo puzzle, thank you. I'm off to the Post or the Guardian in the future, tyvm.

Really liked this one. Clever & funny w/o a whole lot of obscure contemporary cultural references.

Tough one for me tonight but I learned a lot. I especially like "lifestyle creep", for its applicability to both one's behavior and certain public figures.

Aside from the worst rebuses I've yet encountered, one does not "own" a cat.

Sorry. but Red Delicious apples may lack some of the later more technologically taste-enhanced flavors of newer apples, but they could never be accused of being mealy. Now McKintoshes, OTOH....

Motor oil greases the wheels? Seriously? I hope not. Even slangily, it's a very lazy usage. Remind me never to buy your used car.

Possible the worst puzzle yet. Gimicky, boring, unchallenging.

Etta James was never considered a Jazz singer (except in NYT xwords). She was an R&B singer. And Adorbs? Gimme a break.

I don't read the crossword column before doingthe puzzle because I want to avoid the giveaways, so I had no clue about that the theme was. I still don't. I think more & more NYT puzzles are relying on arch obscurity or plain lame clues. I mean ARTTEST? TEASERRATE? Gimme a break.

A really good one. Lots of humor & subtlety. Very little gratuitous obscurity & blessedly no gimmicks or showing off trickery.

Some puzzles are difficult for good reasons. Others, like this one, are just filled with lazy, misleading inaccurate clues.

Sorry, gimmicky rebus not worth the time or effort. Especially since the ad banner across the top still eats up too much screen RE. I did send a msg to the puzzle people but never heard back & still have to scroll back & forth. I am outa here.

CUKE in a spa? pretty stretchy, IYAM.

Brilliant, but not a puzzle to be tackled at the end of a long day when you aren't firing on all synapses. Especially on a laptop that decides to go down on its own when you told it to go across.

I've been having trouble the last few days viewing the whole puzzle on my laptop due to a NYT banner advertising some family subscription at the top that won't go away, forcing me to scroll back & forth, up & down to do the puzzle. Very annoying. Please help.

I've probably asked this before, but would it be possible to post a prominent *Rebus Ahead* sign somewhere in the heading (not the body which contains clue answers I don't wish to see)? I don't like rebuses and prefer not to spend *any* time on gimmicky rebus puzzles, time better spent reading (for me, anyway). TIA.

Sac Fly, short for sacrifice fly, no other clue? Seriously?

I don't get it, even after reading the comments. Riffle shuffle? Seriously? Why bother. If anything this techy tacky trend confirms my theory that a bigger threat to humanity than AI is humanity taking on the trappings of AI. Eventually no one will be able to tell the difference.

Ah nuts, another silly, gimmicky rebus. Time to open my Kindle reader. Thank you NYT for the push.

It figures yesterday's puzzle was tgtbt. Now comes one gimmickier than ever. Oh well, back to reading, Alice Munro aamof,

Ugh, another gimmicky rebus "puzzle". Good, I'll be able to finally finish Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk book tonight.

Good one for the gimmick lovers. Luckily I caught the direction pretty quick & bailed.

Really awful: POT as a rebus (maybe POTREZEBIE for old-time Mad aficionados). But perhaps an apt intro to the age of MAGA.

Ruined a good evening. More like building blocks for a 3-yr old than a crossword.

Wonderful puzzle. Lots of humor & no reliance on pop-culture references.

Here's an odd one: every so often one of my clues appears in French. I figure it's looking for the French translation but when I get stumped & look at another clue, it's in French, too. The whole puzzle is suddenly in French, but only the clues. The answers are still in English. When I refresh the screen, the questions return to English. What's odd is that French is my second language so at first it all looks kind of normal. What am I doing to trigger this?

Once you catch onto the gimmick it does make sense, but once you get it, it's not much of a challenge any more. Oh well, the occasional rebus is OK, I guess.

Weaved, not wove? Who knew? Not me.

Another gimmicky rebus-pocked puzzle. Ugh, such laziness. Such lack of imagination.

Puzzles like this one make me look forward to AI taking over. Or maybe it already has.

See: Fr. = Mer? Non. Sea: Fr.= Mer. See: Fr. = Voire.

Good fun! Lots of old-fashioned memory scouring. Thanks for this one.

Oh goodie, a rebus. Now I can skip the puzzle & go back to my Alice Munro book. Many thanks for the break.

Love this one. Fun & imaginative! Love the pic of the Dervishes, too.