William Cambridge

For solvers who have been been enjoying puzzles since before the software era, in my case 30+ years, the name Walden is magic. To paraphrase Will Shortz, if you see the name Byron Walden on a puzzle, doesn't it make you shudder? Hopefully Byron's devilish constructs and cluing will rub off on Harrison. It's probably impossible for today's solvers to grasp the enormous effort that went into constructing before the software era. Manny Nosowsky, a personal favorite of mine along with Byron Walden, said one puzzle took him 100 hours to complete. The thrill was always to be taken to the edge of hopelessness and somehow to be brought back to finish. If you want to study the magical properties of intuition, to experience yourself solving with a mysterious capacity that goes beyond the everyday brain, to come to solutions "out of the blue," crosswords are your obvious choice. Carry on, everyone!!!

I'm posting this comment before I have finished solving - and for good reason. In over 30 years of solving, I have grown accustomed to the cleverness that constructors have at their disposal, most notably in their selections of themes, but also in their word choices. It doesn't enhance the solving experience to feel that cleverness. What really thrills me is when a constructor completely BEWILDERS me. Byron Walden and Manny Nosowsky are, for me, the best examples of this. "Step up to the plate, son, now we will see your mettle." Thank you, Byron, for continuing to share your treasure.

Great back to back themes. Great love story. But the thing that really hit home was the amount of rejection it takes finally to succeed in the constructing world at the NYT level. Stories of perseverance always welcome!

My greatest pleasure in solving puzzles is the challenge to stretch my capacity to see patterns that are not obvious at first glance. Today's offering was a REAL stretch! The stretching I am referring to is the ability to bypass the logical mind and, with concentration, reach the level of the intuitive mind. I have found that the main ingredient in achieving this leap is patience - waiting for a pattern to emerge. Also, thanks from an admiring Canadian.

Byron, I've always wondered whether there would come upon the constructing world anyone as a worthy successor to the likes of you, Manny Nosowsky and others from the pre-software era. As chance would have it, I am today solving a work of Will Nediger, a Canadian constructor whose content has that special sparkle just like yours. It is the crossword from the Canadian publication Walrus dated Friday, August 8. Hilariously, he's got your math side covered with the clue, "Henri who generalized the Riemann integral." (Answer: Lesbegue.) French too! Uncanny. Anyway, thanks for all the thrills (ups AND downs!) over the years.