Mike R

Finally, a theme for us dyslectics.

17a might be clued as “Bygone symbol of national dignity” or “Former symbol of bygone national dignity”.

Xi’s language… I was looking in east Asia, not eastern Europe . What a great misdirect!

These days it’s a big ask to REMAIN CALM if you FACE REALITY.

What’s fresh about this puzzle? Well, Ladies and GERMS, we have: SIDEWALKS running PHD level cluing for STP A humongus Roman numeral MIXINS / MKAY An ARTSY FARTSY FAUX NAÏF PIT STAINS And top it all off with the FBOMB… Yowzah!

So someone who isn’t all that bad would be a SO SO SO-AND-SO?

In my experience, those MENTAL NOTEs aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

My recollection is that we see spoonerisms in the entries, so finding them in the clues was a nice twist. Loved the 4! clue, as factorials were one of my favorite math topics. A bit of pizzazz in every one!

Loved the quote from ANIMAL FARM. But LETS FACE IT, if George Orwell had one the chance, I’m sure he’d change 1984 to 2025.

Unseen letters outside the grid?! Yep, they can do that. Fifty some years of solving the NYT crossword puzzles lets me take this type of theme twist in stride, but I empathize with those seeing it for the first time. Anything goes, especially on Thursdays.

So, the Rebuses are in the clues today, I’m OK with that. But final go-round being the GUN LAP? That’s usually the BELL LAP in my (long) lifetime. But maybe once upon a time. Yes, I know it’s in the dictionary.

My favorite price NINES are the .9 cents per gallon of gas, which has remained unchanged at least since I started buying gas in the mid 1960s. Ubiquitous, impervious to price hikes or cuts and inevitable as death and taxes, If gas were free, it would still cost .9¢ per gallon.

I can’t figure out why they don’t call it Kayak Polo… CANOE?

A puzzle so hard it requires ROCKET SCIENCE and BRAIN SURGERY to solve? As always, it pays to START OUT SMALL.

I never know how to reply to a question with my mouth full. At least now, I know how to spell it.

My FREE ADVICE: eschew the susHI DONUT and go with the MOCHI DONUT.

As a youngster I would often hear that “the preceding show was PRERECORDED”. I wondered how they do that… record the show before it even happened? It took me a while to conclude that they simply recorded the show and played it back later. That word is very misleading, IMO.

The SPITBALLing I did in grammar school produced exactly zero bright ideas.

This was a real treet!

Nothing TEPID about today’s puzzle. Five clever theme answers supported by some outstanding wordplay: Do a spit take? Starter starter? Certain blue note?? Rebecca and Adam, give us SOMM more!

I saw my doc the other day about a sensitive matter. He had me sign an NDA and now I feel great!

How paradoxical to have NO spinning in a NO SPIN theme. Just shows how hard it is to get a straight answer these days.

Thank you for your service, Deb. True champions know when their goals have been achieved and leave on their own terms. You have been a champion of the crossword entertainment genre, emerging solvers and civil discourse within the solver community. Wordplay has been a rare comfortable corner of the internet and we appreciate your diligence in nurturing its evolution. You leave it in good hands. Hopefully you continue your work here as a more than occasional member of the commentariat.

Is it too late to get a new SSN? Mine has been a real beast.

Lewis and Barbara deliver with all that Lewis claims to value in his frequent posts in this forum. A superb challenge in every way.

I was pondering the clue for 8D and suddenly… I saw ESAU!

The best thing about this puzzle is that it introduced me to LUDOVICO EINAUDI, who's music is the perfect antidote for the news of the day.

Fun puzzle. 29 down added a little zip to my streak😋

I’m definitely more of a YOWZAH than a SHEESH today. Original theme, with bonus points for finding ALOHA in mahalo.

zANE GREY was my Ride or Die. Just couldn’t let go.

My concern for the 1% was that this would be one of the one percent of puzzles I couldn’t solve. I was right to be so concerned.

The use of “number” in late week puzzles should always set off alarm bells when it doesn’t seem to work in its usual sense. Another classic clue is “Number of people”, for which the answer is DENTIST.

What kind of hat Hath an ARHAT if An ARHAT hath a hat?

One of two typically used when rowing… I was thinking either oar, but it was LAT to be.

Nice Saturday challenge. I finished it in record time, GIVE OR TAKE thirty minutes 🙂!

Nice clean puzzle, with just a dab of glop in the NEcorner.

All those Ks provided quite a Krunch today. Well done, Mr Matt.

Is it a words-only puzzle? Not today. All in all a fun puzzle But I think allowing numerals in the rebuses would be a bit more elegant.

Fortunately, solving this puzzle did not require parsing AYOEDEBIRI.

Two things can be true at the same time. And one thing can be true too. I’ll rely on Occam’s Razor more often than Schroeder’s Paradox for getting through my day. And crossword puzzles.

AHA MOMENT? Now that’s a meta-entry today.

[AL][PA][CA] was my entree to this tasty treat. Wooly liked the pizzazz of this shear delight.