Nitpicker

Today I learned that I never knew how to spell AFICIONADO.

This is the kind of achievement that makes me proud to be a human.

26 of 27 possible Scrabble tiles used. I would have been very impressed if there had also been a blank.

Circling letters to spell out a word that appears in the puzzle doesn’t make a theme.

This puzzle has given me a whole new perspective on art.

I’d have been really impressed if he’d worked “Toy Story” into it.

Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! If it weren’t for MACBETH and his title, I’m not sure I could have started this one, let alone finished.

I’d confess that I spent a few minutes trying to decipher WRITE FOURTH ABOUT, but that would make me look foolish.

I think the constructor and I live in parallel universes.

I loved that “what might be smelt” was not ORE, but was an anagram of it. Mwah!

Well, I liked it. Very tough, but fair.

I just love ISPEPSIOK. Simultaneously strange and familiar.

I feel like I need a cigarette.

Mind blown.

Can I say I hope we have FEARLESS LEADERS this time next week?

I love a puzzle that takes me from despair to hope to triumph.

I imagine Sir Thomas Sean Connery would have appreciated that this tribute was published the week of his 95th birthday which fell on Monday.

Lost in the supermarket searching for SARQ’s root beer,

Count me among those who found this tricky. Some of the clues (“Gala throwaway” and “on ice longer than normal, say”) seemed end-of-week level terms of misdirection.

Appreciated, but not enjoyed.

Spent a lot of time searching for my mistake which turned out to be the wrong vowel at the intersection of BONA and AREPA. One of these days I’m going to learn Spanish to save myself some puzzle aggravation.

I would have been very impressed if she had managed to include “Toy Story”

POTMASTER could be a thing. Couldn’t it?

The Dad Joke of Thursday puzzles.

What a week for self-improvement through crossword-solving. Yesterday, I gained a whole new perspective on art, and today my senses were expanded. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Quite an accomplishment. I started out in despair, having opted for with ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW, but then I saw the clearing in the jungle and got through to the other side.

No fun to have the bonus clues filled in by the app. I don’t want to be a spectator. I want to solve.

I imagine some people who do not speak Mandarin and have not payed close attention to Ms. Blanchett might be very frustrated today.

I wasn’t told there would be math.

Big day for Captain Phillips.

The “after” trick: [WHOOSH!]

I would have really enjoyed this puzzle if I didn’t think the “Veep” character’s name was Serena.

I’m not really up on music theory, so the clue to 22A was a baffling introduction to a tricky theme. Getting the theme ultimately solved the clue, but I would have enjoyed the theme more if the first example hadn’t been doubly puzzling.

Very cute. Reminded me of my early attempts at the crossword when I was a college freshman in the late 1970s. I thought I was so bold using a pen instead of a pencil, but I required a bottle of Wite-Out. I was not very successful after Wednesday. I didn’t know about Rebuses. I wonder if they were as common then as they are now. Any puzzle historians?

Anyone else balk at ACUNIT?

I wonder if Brian Eno and Laila Ali have ever met.

I couldn’t get a foothold, so I looked up 25A. First time in years I’ve had to “go outside.” Fortunately, it was enough. But I don’t feel triumphant.

The clues for the pigs were too directly tied to their, well . . . pigginess. I’d prefer to discover the porcine connections as a revelation.

Tough one, but fair, except for the Natick at LEO Rosten and SANRIO.

Very impressive middle span.

I started with BOY GETS GIRL. How was your day?

For me, the reward of “chips and salsa” didn’t quite justify the confusion caused by having two different symbols for a dip. I must also register my disapproval of the suggestion that finding flaws in a puzzle is somehow beneath the dignity of people who enjoy solving puzzles. I think obsessing over details is in our nature.

Some of the theme answers are actual examples of shows that were inherently GENRE BENDING. For example a comedic documentary or a comforting murder mystery. Unfortunately, these were my first fills and I was looking for that level of cleverness to continue. DARK FANTASY seemed to fit the bill until I realized many fantasies are so dark that it’s not much of a bending at all. COMING OF AGE and PERIOD PIECE disappointed. It was still a clever puzzle, but it did not live up to its early promise for me.

I really enjoyed that one even though SPAWN POINT and its crosses gave me some trouble.

Toni Morrison is surely a worthy subject for a themed crossword puzzle, but a Tuesday Times puzzle does not generally require in-depth knowledge of the works of a single author. If this puzzle reflects a new direction, I look forward to exploring other individual artists in such depth. The New York Times is full of surprises these days.