Michael B.

I predict (or hope, really) that I will not be the only person who parses 36D incorrectly, comes to the comment section wondering what what on earth is happening, and then has a good laugh at themselves when they realize their error. 😂

Re: 82 down, the notion of an ALPHAMALE being the leader of a pack is inaccurate. (Which I'm sure toxic right-wing influencers would be disappointed to learn, if they bothered to read.) Wolf packs are highly social and decisions and responsibilities are shared at least by the top breeding pair. The Alpha FEMALE is often the one who makes decisions about when the pack should move and where they should go. Bloody battles for supremacy are very rare among wolves in the wild. There's a Yellowstone park ranger named Rick McIntyre who has written some absolutely riveting books on the subject, for anyone interested. The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog <a href="https://g.co/kgs/azudrJp" target="_blank">https://g.co/kgs/azudrJp</a>

Fun puzzle...ALOP doesn't even get a mention in the column?!

RAGBAG?!

Challenging for a Tuesday! Fun theme that took some thinking, and it reminds me of my fifth grade teacher, who had a very memorable way of ensuring that we would never call our socks "holy" when they started to fall apart. BOLT down? As someone who, ahem, eats at a pace that some would consider uncivilized, I am certainly familiar with WOLFING, SCARFING, or GULPING down your food. Never heard of BOLTING it though. (Please don't reply with a link showing its common usage, I already Googled it.) BLEH also tripped me up for a minute or two.

Wooooowwwwwww, was this a great puzzle 💣💣💣

Yarrrgggghhh, had it all solved except for 1D. I was stuck on MICS and just could not figure out how to fix the cross at SNCLOSE. I got lazy and took a revealer instead of brute-forcing it, and then felt shame. Funny how one's mind (at least mine) can get stuck on something so clearly wrong when the right and not-so-harf answer is staring at you.

🎶🎵 A MINERRRRRRRR 🎵🎶

"...know who's the ILLest ever, like the greatest story told..." Out loud gasp at the tribute to MF DOOM, wowowow. RIP to a master. Just remember ALLCAPS when you spell the man name! ❤️

Fun puzzle. Was breezing along at a Monday pace, then could not for the life me get 43D. Even when I brute-forced it, I said SEERED?! Like what you do to a steak?

JACK DIDDLY SQUAT is indeed a wonderful seed entry, kudos to the constructor. As with SEERED the other day, although I got it on the cross I have no earthly idea how to parse ALOP to mean off kilter. I'm just going to start using it in everyday conversation, rhyming with "a pop", until someone stops me and says, "wait, what?". At which point I will just pretend that I didn't hear them. 🤷🏻

Man that theme is great. 😂

I had never heard of an iomoth, so I needed a reveal on the top left. I should have been able to get it with crosses, but just couldn't for the life of me figure out what a tired expression was, even when I had -LICHE. I kept trying to think of a facial expression. Even *after* the reveal, I was like, "what's a CLICHE?!" (pronounced like YEESH). My brain was definitely BEFOGGED for a moment there. 😂😂😂

Fun theme, but it did feel like it took some forced clues to make it work. I was initially going to come here and grouse (ha) about HONEYEATER, as I thought it was being used as an adjective, but I see from other comments that it is the proper name for a bird! Good to know. The clue that tipped me off to the theme was POPEYES. I spent a few years in New Orleans, and retain quite an affection for the brand. The service at each location was always punishingly slow, making you wonder why you continued to bother, and then you'd eat and remember why. 😂

Very creative theme!

Really fun puzzle, love the use of slang with SPOSE and SHEBANG. Also very much liked the clues where the first impulse was wrong and I had to go back and reassess - e.g. DUET/DYAD, SENSING/SENSATE. I had very little filled in on my first pass, thought for sure I would need a few revealers, but eventually chipped away at it. Not sure I would have been able to finish on my own without the Lions gimme - all that wasted time on the couch on THANKSGIVING DAY did pay off I guess! 😂

What an absolutely joyful and incredible puzzle. Despite the help of the revealer, I found it to be much trickier than a usual Tuesday (LAST HOPE, BALT, SELFFIVE, et al), and my time reflects that. But it was so much fun!

Pretty extraordinary, really challenging. As is is often the case, I'm somewhat in awe at the vision and creativity it takes to design something like this. Once I figured out the theme, about 15 minutes in, the rest eventually fell. When all the squares were filled in, something was still amiss. These days I'm too lazy to flyspeck, so when I hit "check puzzle" I realized I was stuck on one incorrect way to interpret "resolve". I don't know what I thought "SYMAN" was for the cross going down, but I eventually realized my error.

I've found recently that I have more gold stars for Thursday-Saturday than I do Sunday-Wednesday. I use the easier puzzles for speed runs. When I finish the puzzle and there's something wrong, I don't have the patience to flyspeck, so I hit "check puzzle", correct, and move on. Whereas with the harder puzzles I really try to suss it out. With today's I had 3-4 clues filled in on first pass, really thought I wouldn't be able to finish without help, but gradually sussed it out. A perfect degree of difficulty for me, though some of those proper nouns were tough. Is the founder of a biotech company that I'd wager almost none of us have heard of a clue we should have in our brains?

Great theme, and pretty challenging! Def don't expect to have to draw on what little Latin I know on a Monday! Really liked the SUI GENERIS clue, such a great phrase.

Had DRWHO in for a very long time as the alien before I exterminated it and got the right answer!

Whew! Great theme, really tough for me though. I gave in after about 35 minutes and took some revelers. Even after completing, I still don't get some of the themed clues. 😄 Anyone else have AMFM in at 1A for a long time, sure it was right, and then feeling very old for realizing that most people these days (especially those using digital clocks) have very little use for AM radio, if they even know what it is?

Oh noooo, dreadful corporate lingo makes its way into the Times in the form of 17A! The constructors make up for it with 5D, which I am taking as a tribute to a certain highly anticipated album that is dropping today. Happy CLIPSE day, everyone.

Phewwweeee. That was tough. 20ish minutes more than or roughly double my Saturday average. Had to put it down last night and sleep on it, which I usually don't have to do. Almost a streak breaker. I had CNOTE in at 1D for a long time, and stared at an almost blank NE for 30 minutes before it started to fall. I agree that some of the fill didn't match the clues very well, like AMINUTS or STERN for a hard test. But they were gettable with crosses. For some reason I had SKOSH in for the fluid clue for a long time, and that held me up. I had never heard of an ANIL. Learn something new every day.

As an alumnus of 15D (and thus represented by the greatest logo in collegiate sports <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/G5ZZjJKPhXA6P7kTA" target="_blank">https://images.app.goo.gl/G5ZZjJKPhXA6P7kTA</a>), I am embarrassed that I needed a revealer on one of the crosses before I got the answer. That whole far NE corner was completely blank when I had the rest of the puzzle filled in. Just couldn't see it. Fun theme with some challenging fill.

Very fun theme, even if, as others have groused, not very challenging. I comment solely to thank Caitlin for the cover image. (Took me a sec to see that it related to the GOT in the ballpark clue!) I have never, nor will I ever in the future, love a sports franchise as much as I do the Kansas City Royals. So imagine my glee at seeing them honored this way. The Boys Are Playing Some Ball!* *(not really so far this year, but hope springs eternal)

Fun and timely theme for sure, but it took some crunchy/unpleasant fill to get there. AFFRAY hasn't been in the puzzle since 2002, NO WISE 3-4 times in the last 25 years. If you had the former in your reasonable recallable memory, you are a better wordsmith than I for sure. To be fair on NOWISE, it was pretty gettable on crosses (even after I said "huh?" after filling it in). I was jammed up for a few minutes by having CEN in for center for a while.

Moving along...