Sara W

@Red Carpet 11A reminded me of my favorite: There are 10 kinds of people-- those who understand binary and those who don’t.

@Francis I think the clue writer is assuming all HALLs are long. The consensus so far among commenters seems to be that the clue is not a great fit for the word.

@Andrzej As an American I am too.

@john ezra This comment is the best part of this puzzle! Emus in the abysm

@Andrzej You can’t remember whether it’s OLAF/V because it could be either. You have to get it from the crossing. There’s a number of words with alternate spellings that pop up. You have to hope the crossings are kind :-) As other commenters have said, many of us who are monolingual are in awe of those who can do word puzzles in second languages, let alone in other cultures!

@Andrzej Agree about the willows - held me up too. In my neck of the woods we have the largest trees of all - redwoods and Douglas-firs. Weeping willows are merely large shrubs in comparison.

@Tom I got TO EBAY OR NOT TO EBAY from the theme.

@SP I’ve heard an obscure technical task referred to as a BLACK ART (singular); I have no idea what gamers call anything anymore, having stopped gaming in the ‘90s; but I’m with you on the stereo-INMONO mismatch, and I really don’t get how AMNESIA makes for a “never” mind. The mind was there and still is there, it’s just lacking some memory.

@MWC I call ‘em as I see ‘em

@Chris That now almost obsolete 20th century artifact, the WRIST watch.

@Bo How could it have been too difficult if you solved it in 30 minutes? If you were unable to solve it, I’d recommend you give yourself more time- take a break and come back fresh. Sundays used to take me an hour and that’s what I thought a Sunday should be like.

@Steve L I’m assuming Elmer Fudd said “I’m hunting wabbits” between 1937 and 1938. None of your other citations are relevant.

@Cat Lady Margaret That unnecessary S tripped me up and I held off entering BLINI because the answer had to be 6 letters. It’s especially nutty because the singular is blin. BLINIS is a plural of a plural. Like saying “I have two sets of glasseses.”

@Joan I held on to cOPs way too long. I’m familiar with POPO but never hear it used (I’m the wrong generation/milieu) so took a while to think of it.

@Megan Otto for a masculine object and otra for feminine. The better clues hint at which gender. Otherwise you have to check the cross.

@John Giant pylons carry electrical transmission wires.

@Mike There were 5 unchecked squares in the puzzle, the north square of each of the roundabouts. The 3 other squares in each roundabout had to work with 4, 3, or 2 answers.

@Steven M. That was one answer I put in right away, even though I was dubious about it. If the predator is at the top, then its prey is just one step below. If that’s the bottom, it’s a pretty short chain!

@Barry Ancona, Dave is talking about 47D, the American tv network TBS. The square as clued was a Natick for this American too, but UTES is common in crosswords and I at least have heard of TBS.

@Edith Maor Skirt is a kind of STEAK and SALAD is made of leaves.

@Bill Not to mention that Spock is half-human, so only half alien, if that even makes sense.

@SP I was also thinking it would be a Reagan reference. It would’ve been a new fun way to clue one of the various of his people who still show up in crosswords frequently.

@john ezra 8 out of 14 clues in the northwest were proper nouns or clued with them or both. It was so many just getting started I assumed some of them must be related to the theme. Like the theme itself is celebrity or something.

@SP I agree EON doesn’t make sense as clued.

@Jane Wheelaghan There’s a Connections column daily with comments you’re welcome to visit as well. I often find the answers to my questions like this there :-) Jeremy, thank you for spelling Oscar’s bologna correctly, which Connections failed to do! There’s a big controversy over it in the Connections column 🤣

@Ιασων I thought it had to do with four-star generals “review”ing the troops, but to me it was another example of a clue that didn’t have much to do with its answer.

@John N You are comment twins with RichardZ 🙂

@Andrzej ACAI berries grow on palms in swampy areas in Brazil. Workers in DINERs traditionally used various slang for the foods they offered. This site has probably way more info than you want, although it doesn’t include the frog sticks example: <a href="https://grokipedia.com/page/Diner_lingo" target="_blank">https://grokipedia.com/page/Diner_lingo</a>

@Tom The rebus today is that the initial letter or letters of the theme answers are interpreted as Roman numerals going across, but as alphabetical letters going down.

@SP To hurry along, or “rush”, a delivery you could INDUCE it. Rush can be a verb as well as a noun.

@Isabeau, At least “supervocalic” is still autological, like “common”, but not “quotidian”.

@SP I relate. I resisted CARPALS for that reason right up to the end - looked up several crosses to be sure.

@Deb I kept thinking, “What a nice Wednesday!” :-)

@dutchiris Can you open the Wordplay column in two tabs, so you can open comments from one tab and keep viewing the column in the other? Or select “open in new tab” when you open the comments?

@Jacqui J I had to update the games app to get the animation.

@Barry Ancona The “south” square of each roundabout had to work with 3 answers, and the east with 2. Only the north was unchecked.

@Barry Ancona I got 110A from the circled letters and 3 or 4 other crosses. The clue inside certainly did it there! All the others took most of the crosses.

@D M Mojo 8.02. New Friday best.