Luna Max

Genuinely baffled by all the hate for today's puzzle - this is definitely going in my puzzles of the year list. Proper Thursday fare, and superbly executed. Thank you Ella!!!!

No surprise, finally we get a properly hard Saturday puzzle and the moaners are out in force. For the most part I found this absolutely fair game. The only thing that got me hung up was KEG/KIVA. Being British, I've never heard of a keg stand, and I'd never heard of Kiva loans either. I have heard of Viva loans though, and a veg stand sounds like a thing? Don't think I'd have ever figured that out if it weren't for the comments, but I've learnt something new about drinking culture, so no complaints!

What an amazing debut! One of my favorite puzzles for a long time; hopefully everyone else had as much fun with that as I did.

53 minutes, no lookups. Normally that would be a day to forget, but for this puzzle, I'm actually feeling quite proud of myself! Glad not every Saturday is like that, but it's nice to get a workout once in a while.

We're being spoilt this week -- yesterday and today's puzzle are two of my favorites of the year so far!

Like many, my first reaction to this puzzle was that it was too easy for a Saturday. But taking a moment to reflect, it's a beautiful grid with some great fill and no ugly glue. That's no mean feat, and I raise my hat to the constructors.

I was just wondering who would be mean enough to clue MSG like that, then I noticed the constructor and it all made sense!

I think I'm done with the Sunday puzzle now. It seems to have become nothing more than a contest to see who can come up with the most extravagant gimmick, usually at the expense of the solving experience. Shame.

I know we're only a week into 2026, but if that puzzle's not in my top ten for the year come the end of December, I'll be very surprised.