Call Me Al

You had me at the Ohm's Law clue, my resistance was futile. I amped it up and powered through it. Brilliant piece of work, Marshal!

Olived it!!

I didn't come close to beating my Tuesday record time :-( I'm sadder Budweiser for having tried!

Always nice to have a puzzle you can sink your teeth into... Lots of fun!

Mauvelous! Siriously!!

I got by with a little help from my friend, Deb. Whew, that was a trek.

27A. If this doesn't bring a smile to your face... <a href="https://youtu.be/m_MaJDK3VNE?si=F4c3cnlQH4lDERAB" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/m_MaJDK3VNE?si=F4c3cnlQH4lDERAB</a> Meow!

Impressive debut! I was on my way to a PB when my usually standoffish calico cat Callie decided she wanted some pets and "make mud pies" on my tummy. How could I refuse? 19A. I always get flubbed up on him.

54A. Great clue! Someone we'll miss, but will live on in our hearts, minds and crosswords.

Lots of good misdirection, but IMO, the "?" use in the border clues is top dog. As Foghorn Leghorn might opine, "The question mark, I say, is normally used, I say, to indicate a pun. Not, I say, not today." Of course, that's just one rooster's point of view. Was he missing something?

Thanks for a fun puzzle! I finally got a chance to use my vast knowledge of two letter words in a crossword puzzle!

Fun puzzle! The theme quickly clicked for me. I think I had an edge. Not a PB, but one I'll remember! 15A. I read it as BLACKBOARD attachment, so filling in the crosses had me wondering.

As a electronics buff, you had me at 17A. Every time, I mean every time I fill in LOA for Mauna ____ clue. I guess I'm just NUTS about the place. Glad that Sam will see us through 2025!!

30D: Great seeing that one; a term I learned from my mother. Better than my Tuesday average. I feel better about 2024 now after tanking on yesterday's puzzle by overlooking my entry of PLOT instead of PLOY. It was so bad I had to clear the board and start over. Excelsior! I felt like such a meathead :-)

Yes, BRAVO on this puzzle! In clearing out shelves of our books to donate to local library fundraising group last week, I came across 1959 hardbound copy of "Elements of Style" complete with a slightly silverfish nibbled dust-jacket. No, that dear old friend(s) I'll keep.

I enjoyed the puzzle! Today's Strands is a challenge.

23A. I was just an itsy-bitsy off on this clue.

Misdirection to the max; it had me going around in circles! Such a puzzlement! Nice!

BOFFO puzzle!

Somewhat daunted by the tauntingly tautological theme! Fun fun!

I think this is the first time I've ever gotten the revealer before its "clues." The off-color mnemonic for resistor color code I learned back in the '70s I still recite today when building electronic projects. Congrats on assembling such an excellent puzzle!

I was going nowhere fast. Filled in Deb's "Tricky Clues" and had another go at it. Had the Aha! moment with one of the theme entries. A few more Googles and Whew it's done. A toughie for me.

24D. There I go again misreading the clue as bouncy HORSE instead of HOUSE. Eww, didn't want to go there... Enjoyed the puzzle; nice and straight-forward. Good way to start a Monday!

Today's puzzle was a good example of one where you read a clue and you think your answer fits, but you think it isn't right so you leave it blank and move on. Sure enough, after getting some crossings or looking stuff up. BAM, your original answer was correct. Nice one!

I've shied away from Thursdays, but Deb's column has me anxious to give today a try. Absolutely loved today's exec-speak intro!! My attempt at sports-talk banter: "The team that shows up ready to play, move the football down the field..." et cetera ad nauseam. (can you tell I'm not much of a fan?) OK, off I go into the breach, spending more time trying to post a witty comment than some spend solving these puzzles. Oh, the synergy of it!!!

Be still my heart...maybe a PB in the offing??? Quoting here from Firesign Theatre's "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye," a spoof on Old Time Radio: "CATHERWOOD: Yes, and at the last possible moment, he stopped on a dime! LT BRADSHAW: I see… CATHERWOOD: Unfortunately, the dime was in Mr. Rococo's pocket." <a href="https://youtu.be/RwG5c9IsgbA?si=dOuqtZhqV2J9_A7x" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/RwG5c9IsgbA?si=dOuqtZhqV2J9_A7x</a> Lots of quotable stuff; a classic!! This puzzle was right up my alley. Thanks, it was a delight, for sure! Hey Catherwood, how 'bout rolling up a couple of bombers and leaving them on the side table...

"We’re the Fugawi??" The "F-Troop" line you could get away quoting as a teenager. It was bound to happen, I flew off the handle and jumped to conclusions on this one. But that's another old 'dad joke.' Fun Monday!

I thought I was going to SAIL through this Wednesday's puzzle. Not today. But I'm all gaga over deciphering the Lady Gaga refrain without p-p-p-peeking. Very clever theme!

This was one of those puzzles where I filled in what first came to mind, added letters that seemed to fit the gaps, and like a stereogram it slowly came into focus. A very well constructed Wednesday!

Am I the only one who thought of Sha-Na-Na when trying to figure out 51A? Didn't get into the swing of things with this one; thought there'd be more of a twist lurking about.

I was behind the eight ball on a few answers. Penny dropped a,k.a. Light went on and the Aha moment was upon me. Perfect for a Wednesday! Great fun!

I'm part of a mountain biking chat group: MAMIL, middle aged men in 32A. I'm a bit past the MA part of the acronym, but you're as young as you feel! Enjoyed the puzzle! Keep cranking 'em out!

Didn't "C" it 'till I read Sam's column; thought it was more of a congenial form of address: Popsy, Dadsy, Flopsy, Mopsy, etc. Maybe I didn't cotton to the tale of it???

Happy Birthday to the 100 year old man, Mel Brooks!! The duplicated words in the 'theme' helped get me through some of their crossings. Creative twists to the clues.

"Flip the bird" will have me chuckling the rest of the day! (what an expression) Interesting twist! As always enjoyed Sam's column. !YAD SLOOF LIRPA YPPAH

18D. Geez. And you'd think after working at an affiliate 'college' station for 20 years I'd get it right away. Instead I had "tote bag," then the very unlikely "arm tote" after thinking 21A was Brown Betty. A tougher Tuesday for me. Oh heck, I got hexed.

I didn't get the theme based on 18A or the ending animation. Only after reading Sam's column did it click...Putt-Putt is more my era. Of course, that would have shanked the hole thing. I felt pretty goony not getting it earlier. I had a ball solving it!

34D. Medium for OLD home movies??? Now, I am feeling old. Fun, fast way to start the week!

A very enjoyable puzzle! 38A. was the 'gimmie' for me to hop over to the revealer at the puzzle's bottom. 26A. a great clue! First used as a phono pickup coaxial connector by you know who. Speaking of connectors, some that may find their way into tech oriented puzzles: XLR: microphones BNC: video and RF DSub: computer monitors UHF: CB & Ham radios

Good puzzle! One of the few days I didn't cheat. I try not to on most Mondays, but you get to a point sometimes...

I don't usually share YT videos when commenting on NYT puzzles...but when I do they're Leroy Anderson tunes. <a href="https://youtu.be/xhOZbmeA-t0?si=t3psJZbh0_uBPGg2" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/xhOZbmeA-t0?si=t3psJZbh0_uBPGg2</a> I thought I was a goner on this this one, but click-clank-clunk it all fell into place. Sailed through the rest of it like Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" <a href="https://youtu.be/E30TjigZXpE?si=ncFa6JxsIKzPiMQv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/E30TjigZXpE?si=ncFa6JxsIKzPiMQv</a> Perfect for this time of year!

Just remember we have 25D. to thank for inventing the "flo-thru" tea bag. That might come in handy in a puzzle on day. I got tripped up with soccer powerhouse. Cheers!

This puzzle was nothing to sneeze at. I must have missed the column: Crossword Rappers to Commit to Memory. 20A. From my Spanish 101 days, I jumped on VAMOS. How many of us can still recite the whole dialog? Repeatan: "Hola Isabel, como estas? Estoy bien gracias, y tu... ¡Feliz Lunes!

Quicker-than-usual...not a one-hit-wonder to be sure! A great way to sweep out the cobwebs from the oft-used-x- word closet. But hey, that's not a problem for this master-of-none solver!! You know texting multi-hyphenated words can be so time consuming, but it's so much fun to get to use them! Thanks for a fun start to the week!

In my youth, a shortwave listening hobby helped me learn about the locations of other countries. That interest led me to amateur radio and with it come the "DX-Petitions" to far away places with strange sounding names. Did all of that help me with today's puzzle? In a round about way it helped me spot the two letter state abbreviation motif.

Enjoyed the puzzle! Mel Blanc is my hero! Among his many voices is Barney Rubble. And I've been wondering lately did Barney have a job? Another piece of trivia about Mel is his getting injured in a car crash on "Dead Man's Curve" in LA. Which put him in a coma. During recovery in hospital he continued to record Barney's lines.

At first, I was annoyed at being faced with rebus thinking on Wednesday. Note: I usually avoid Thursday for this reason). Now, Wednesday's are called Hump Days and like the puzzle the week can be either an UP one or a DOWN one. I looked up Schrödinger’s Cat because I sort of don't know the basis of it. To cut to the chase, you don't know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box. And you just don't know how the week turned out 'till you get to the end. I hope your week ends on an UP and not a DOWN!

Loved the misdirection in the cluing! I LOL at 40D!!

I had a friend whose mother's maiden name was Scuba. At least that's the way I remember it. Because when asked, he'd recite the acronym. Not a REBUS nor Minesweeper guy, but I enjoyed working through the puzzle!