Luna Max
Los Angeles
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.
@DQ You may not have had any fun, personally I enjoyed it very much and I'm sure many others did too. It makes me sad that this is the top-rated comment. Those of us who relish a really tough puzzle don't come here every week and complain when yet another Saturday succumbs in less than 20 minutes. Please let us have our fun today; I'm sure normal service will resume again next week!
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!
@MattS It took me an age to find that too.
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.
@Charles Haha, my first thought was pig swill, but of course that didn't fit either.
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.
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