Joe

Too many meh fillers. Vet? Het? Catdom? Finished it, but when coupled with theme, I didn’t enjoy this one.

Not a fan. I enjoy a tough puzzle, but this was neither a fair test nor a fun challenge. Far too much obscure trivia. Ruined some of the otherwise clever clueing.

Yup, piling on! Stop having puzzles that don’t work in app, or come up with different work around (shaded boxes, maybe?) With the volume of submissions, hard to see the need for this.

Good puzzle overall. But I was led astray by ORALS which are NOT a “hurdle for aspiring MD’s”—that would be MCATS! My MCAT scores were part of the requirements for getting into medical school, and thus my MD degree. My oral boards were only many years later after graduation, as part of my board certification process.

Too many obscure words and/or clues took away from the novelty of the construct

Generally fun solve of a well constructed puzzle. But, I would take the comment from the Tricky Clues section on Reem/Rosamund a bit further, and apply it not to this puzzle alone. The increasing trend of the use of obscure first names of various people garnered from searches rather than reasonable knowledge, just to complete a clever pattern, has replaced the old junk filler words that we now scorn in constructing. Bring back the adit, I say!

Overall decent for Saturday, but too many obscure or niche entries.

My smooth ride was briefly interrupted today when the chain fell off my derailleur as I was confidently SHIFTING GEARS, but I was only TEMPORARILY OUT OF ORDER.

What a fun solve for a fan of the original series. And such a clever integration of so many themed entries. Bravo!

Flew through the top, then came to a screeching halt with two confident own-goals in the lowest tier: INXS (also from Down Under) and SSN (also memorized). Cost some time to unwind those, but enjoyed the solve.

Atted and edgelord had me looking for the adit…

Must be no Shrek fans out there, including Sam Corbin—that answer in upper left can’t be coincidence with “you and what army”.

Thought I was off to a good start with Aramaic, where it’s at and booty call, but then got bogged down with the obscure names/references and clues like ‘jejune’. No lookups but slow…

Unfortunately my version of the app automatically solved the locks and displayed the bonus answer on entering the last letter. Oh well…

Not a common Thursday experience for me, but the gimmick clicked right away with tush. As such was a fun solve, but I have been there with those who trudged.

After Friday, another solid challenge. Made it through with crossers and guesses, but some of the trivia was excessive.

A lot of folks wearing their cranky pants today! But I do agree that the level of trivia was high. Made it through but struggled longest in the Northwest corner.

Like some, found the theme well made, but far too much obscure fill.

Like some others, I was a Split Enz fan, and theme was clever. Sneery and sonatina, although actual words, not so much.

Touché, David Kwong. Great puzzle, but the end of my 930 day streak

Too much obscure trivia spoiled an otherwise good debut effort