Mr Ochie

Loved it, GNEISS one!

Cute Thursday spin around the ol' cranium.

Fun and engaging, enjoyed fully! (Deity of Choice) knows we need the distraction from the noise of the distraction covering the other distraction of the main distraction. Good luck all.

I also got stuck at SPARECHANGE for SMALLCHANGE for far too long. I blame waiting too long for coffee! Yup. That. 🤣 Perfect Friday fodder. Thanks!

Distraction and misdirection on this gem was epic. Thanks! Great job, kept me on my toes!

I join the ranks of those who were introduced today to Crash Blossom. Tip of the hat!

boom! the theme answers were great, and the crosses perfect. Friday level fun all the way! Thanks!

Got the trick but seriously, having to take OUT the rebus answers to get the music was not cool.

Thank QQ all around!

Great cluing and novel entries made this a fun romp Friday. Thank you!

Bravo, Andrew! The crosses were brilliant. More please!

of COURSE my first go round had EPEES. Eliminated on the downs, but well played, well played! And with the column pic kicker. Points to you, Ginny, Avery and Editorial staff!

Very nice fast fill! Surprise surprise bit of averaging down my Friyay time. 48A had me asking "where do YOU live" though, as security guards are normally un-armed in these here parts (west coast US). Better SOME not MANY. That's my nit for the day. Thanks for the fun!

Yikes! THAT's Friday level and all the way. 44A about sums it up - except more than OK in my book. Thanks for a real waker-upper this morning!

In my never ending quest to lower my daily averages this JUST squeaked in under, by jiggedy! Then coming here to find that Nick Offerman co-authored this gem, great, and the theme was apt and bonus. Just yesterday heard him interviewed on NPR's Bullseye by Jesse Thorn. Great listen and recommended. Thanks to the constructors!

Bravo! Surprised myself finishing under my average time, then wished I there was more puzzle. Thanks!

Misdirection, tricky crosses, what’s not to love? And somehow clocking in well below average - how’d that happen? Thanks for the fun!

I really enjoyed this and ended at the NE rebus, but despite being at that certain big box store just last night, it took a significant DOH moment before the fill! Thanks!

Much fun! A true Tuesday level puzzle with a kicker at the end. Many thanks!

Fun! Aha-ed at WreckitRalph/Tonkatsu cross and off to the races! Thanks!

Shaved 8 seconds off of my Tuesday best on this gem! Thanks for the fun!

Excellent challenge! The correct fills were tickling the back of my head the whole while, just took a half dozen laps around this gem to lay them down. Thanks for the skull sweat!

I was loving this from the get go! Decided to do it clock-wise from 1A, no breaks, just for giggles. Lots of great cluing to otherwise standard fills. Wednesday all the way. Thanks for the fun!

Loved the cluing on this – 3D, and 26A, for example! MEWS was also fun, and after the fill, brought to mind my 20's era fascination with British detective novels - that had to have triggered the dim memory encountering the term. No cats involved in cluing that one! Another Weintraub in the bag! Thank you!

Excellent! MMMore please. :)

Very nice! Scooted through all the across clues first before getting into the swing of things with the northeast fill. Good coffee sipping pleasure after that, tricky enough for a couple of face-palms, but no head-desks. Thanks so much!

Perfect Wednesday! Hit the average, great theme and cluing. Thanks!

Liked this one a lot! Hurt myself in the east by committing 32D to INIRAN early but the crosses gave me a dope slap and the winning song. There was a time I played the game everyday on my Newton and later a Palm Pilot - I gotta say I was NOT a pro, often bombing quite early. But quite addictive and I frankly can't remember at what point I stopped playing. (Maybe when PDAs were being replaced with smaller, faster mobile phones and Snake was the next obsession). Thanks for the memory! Great Job! Dunno about Puzzle of the year, but in the top ten, for sure.

My "why do these sound so familiar" thoughts about the theme answers were whiplashed after my palm-forehead application. Well done! Great debut, hoping you have many more successful submissions in the future!

Finished less than a minute more than my Thursday best - really felt like more of a Tuesday, with a cutesy theme. If I'd bested my best I'd have an asterisk on that time. Was lovely though! Sometimes a quick Thursday is just what a body needs.

Very fun one and a kick in the pants when I REALLY looked at the theme answers. Bravo!

On the first pass through this gem, I was skeptical on hitting my average - but once I hit the right "cluing to answer" wavelength, surprised myself with a 15:55, no lookups, straight to the song finish. 28A and 29D were my last fills and I truly want TNIA to show up more often! This was beautifully constructed and clued. Fave.

Spent way too much time (10 minutes) chasing possible rebus fill methods instead of correcting the tipo tapa TYPO in 79D. Overthinking as per usual! Thanks!

Excellent! My journey was pretty much the same as the columnist’s. STILLMOOING took me back to my steakhouse days. Thanks!

Well! Zipped around this quickly (for a Thursday) at an average Wednesday pace - the revealer (slant?) came early thanks to an early commitment to starting, and basically finishing, on the Downs. One thing about rebi, they can cut both ways. This one doesn't, unfortunately for the day rating, BUT was still a fun solve. Thank you, Wendy and Barbara!

That was fun! Loved the wordplay. Took a cup and a half of morning caffeine before the enlightenment, but I did come around! Thanks for the fun and a perfectly rated Wednesday here!

5D opened my eyes so I was ready for these almost right away! Lucky, lucky. Much fun herding these into the corral. True story, yes I encountered a dark horse this morning - close by our gate. The Virginia Foothills is Wild Horse territory. When the young stallions get kicked from the herd, they roam through our neighborhood, and this morning one was hanging out at the corner school bus stop with the 9th graders. I doubt that he made roll call. ;-)

Stretched myself well past my average, and loved it! My best dog ever was a toy poodle, Thunder, long story short he rescued me. Cheers to you, Thunder.

Congrats on the debut Nikhil, very nice! Looking forward to future publications!

Whew 😉 SW had me stumped, but a breakfast break cleared it up. Thanks!

Very nice! I was wayyy ahead of my average until... the southeast corner. Not being a tennis player meant blind guesses until I got the music. Came here to be schooled. Bravo! Now off to the Friday morning work buffet....

Caught this really quickly in the NW corner. For me, a quick solve for a Thursday (10 minutes flat). Thanks for help in getting the average down! Fun puzzle that got me thinking back to Seinfeld and Mythbusters episodes!

Had to pinch myself, beat my Friday best by a minute and a half. Nice grid but I'm not convinced the Friday rating is correct, I'm not that good.... Was nice to see POPUPSTORE though and the middle stack was great!

Very fun! This grid was perfect for a counter-clockwise, no breaks fill. On my personal scale of toughness this was an easier Friday, just a couple minutes over my best. Loved see DRUMSOLO and LIPFILLER. Thanks!

That was a proper Friday! The 9D / 24A cross put me in a pickle for awhile, and was the last of the fill. Overthought the Down and insisted to myself that the A was ISAIDSO, til the forehead slap moment. Was glad to get this one done, great construction. Now I'm REALLY afraid for the Saturday!

Hurray for 51A! That has to be a debut (haven't read through the column yet - but I'm betting so). Wonderful Friday challenge. Just mean enough, but no blood shed. Thanks!

Finished this faster than yesterday's, at least! I struggled on that one - just didn't click on the obvs. Like the last week's Connections. Ugh. I beg ignorance on all things Boba and Advanced Mathematics, so yes. I did have to finish there with some WAGs. Overall thumbs up! Thanks Adrianne!

OK, ya got me! I got the theme at 25A and zipped through after, but no song... DOH. Caught the initial mistake on checking the downs (HIGH[F]DIVE). Danggit! Mallory and Zhou, thanks for the fun!

Hah! That was very silly, and fun. Thanks Joseph!

Outstanding, thanks Rena!