Frank

@Withnail I used to miss Mitch Hedberg. I still do, but I used to too.

@Eva H. Regardless of whether Planned Parenthood is a force for good (it is, deal with it), the crossword frequently features clues and answers referring to things that simply exist, without making a moral judgement about them. If it makes you that upset, maybe you should try the Fox News crossword.

@Randi it was a fairly tricky clue.

@ad absurdum there are two types of people: those who love pop tarts, and liars.

@Steve L if a rebus is defined as “anything that’s not a letter in a crossword square”, then I could see an argument for a Roman numeral counting a number and not a letter. At least, I imagine that’s the reasoning used in the article. But since they’re represented by Latin characters, I agree that it’s a pretty confusing way to present the puzzle.

@Rich in Atlanta thank you! I was wracking my brain trying to figure what sort of instrument a “sack” was!

@Steve it’s funny. Today was close to my record Saturday time, but I couldn’t finish yesterday without multiple lookups, which makes it the most difficult puzzle of at least the past few months for me. One of my favorite things about crosswords is how every individual’s unique life experiences makes each puzzle unique to them. Your gimme might be completely unknown to me, and that impacts the rest of the puzzle. I try not to get too hung up about whether this puzzle might have fit better on a Friday, but whether the experience was enjoyable. I found today’s to be a great puzzle by that measure.

@JayTee those however are not hard drives, which is a term specifically used for magnetic storage with moving parts. Thumb drives and the like are solid state storage, and are not referred to as hard drives.

@Heg for that clue, the answer would be SKI(D)S, not SKI(D). Verb forms from the clue match the answer.

@Rory I agree with you completely. Sure, it was a little easy for a Thursday, but this was a fantastically constructed and clued puzzle, and I absolutely loved it. “Pan in the butt” had me literally laugh out loud when I got it, and it might be my favorite clue of all time. Top 5 for sure!