Nancy

Lewis is OK!!!! Here's his email to me that he's asked me to share with you: "Hi Nancy, No damage, but for two days, no power, NO WATER!, no internet, no phone. Saturday night the power came back on, but all the other things are off. (I found a wifi place a good distance from home.) Anyway, I'll let you know when news happens and I'm able to report it. We're basically doing okay. The killer is being without water, and it sounds like we'll be without it for at least two weeks. Anyway, would you be so kind as to let both blogs know that I am okay and anxious to return, and I will when we get wifi once again; don't know how long that will be; it is rightfully lower on the priority list of needs in the area."

The theme and grid were Greek to me, But I am not to blame. I do not know this game at all. I do not know this game. But lo! The "Aha Moment" -- Wow! "Aha, Aha!!!" I cry. The rebus "HOLE" gets changed to "MOLE"!!!! And I can't tell you why. I feel so smart! I stand apart! I drifted blithely o'er That blasted game I cannot name, But didn't hurt my score! I saw the hitch; I made the switch From HOLE to MOLE in time. The theme's obscure, and yet I'm sure This puzzle was sublime!

Genius! Brilliant! I doubt that there will be a puzzle this year that I like better than this one. Crunchy and clever and dense and exceedingly timely. Thank you, David and NYT editors for not taking away the challenge by telling us where the many, many rebus squares go. Figuring that out is what makes the puzzle so hard. I saw the trick at PATRIOTS/PRIORI/PAULA (very helpful to have known PAULA.) But my work had only just begun. The hardest rebus for me was the double one at JOHN HANCOCK. Is this brilliant or what? Embedding not one but two states in a Founding Father! Embedding not one but two states in the heroes of the American Revolution! And then... Embedding NY in the bygone COLONY. Getting NJ into the BENJAMIN and clueing it with ten HAMILTONS. Everything belongs and is relevant to our 250th. An incredible job of construction and an immensely entertaining and absorbing solving experience. This will almost certainly be my choice for POY. David Kahn, btw, has been around forever. Like fine wine, he just gets better with age.

Now this is what I call a puzzle!!  Devilishly conceived, brilliantly executed, and really dense, it created an almost unbearable feeling of curiosity in me before I caught on.  When I did catch on -- and only because of the two apt, clever, and in-the-language revealers -- my Aha Moment was huge.  The fact that the Acrosses and Downs are doing two different things and also doing them differently was an added delight.  And then the fact that the X-added answers and the O-subtracted answers are real words of their own -- what an achievement!!!    Kudos to Kareem for this.  It's going into my running list for Puzzle of the Year and could end up my top choice.  Keep 'em coming please, Kareem!

What have you done to Robert Frost? His words are jumbled -- tempest-tossed! They make no sense; they leave us lost! What have you done to Robert Frost? He doesn't need improving, Joe! "Stopping by Woods" has grace and flow, So why you've done this, I don't know -- He doesn't need improving, Joe! He can't protest because he's dead. So I'm complaining in his stead. The words he wrote, the words he bled Are not your words to take and shred. So stick to what you know the best: The "SMOOVE"s and "U"s and all the rest. And make your silly nonsense cease, And let poor Robert rest in peace!

How good is this?!  The missing letters work in both the Acrosses and Downs; they spell out DARK ENERGY in order; and, taken away, they leave real words in both the Acrosses and Downs! There's even a dastardly trap set for us on top -- and I fell right into it.  Having figured out the theme, more or less, at DEATH STAR, I was simply looking for a real word that, with a letter added, would be the answer to the clue.  The answer was obviously NAPE and so, with great confidence, I wrote in NAP.   But (brilliant trap really!) the answer is APE.  Because it's not the last letter that gets removed as in DEATH STAR, but the letter that's in the black square and the one that's needed to spell out DARK ENERGY.  And once I had that, I knew the revealer would be DARK ENERGY.  Which was a big help with THING/SWAN SONG and UNREADY/DENY. Are there a lot of three-letter answers needed to make the theme work.  Yes, and who cares?  This is very clever, very well-executed, and great fun to work out.  It's going into my running list for POY nominations. Kudos, Damon!

I was so sure that the answer to "Where locks are set" would be SALON.  But I couldn't make it work with LORETTA, of which I was even more certain.  The only other Young in old Hollywood was Robert, and he was too short. For a while I couldn't find anything to confirm LORETTA.  But once I thought of PONIES, which gave me an LP, which gave me SCALP instead of SALON for 1D, I was off to the races, so to speak. I needed five out of five letters to get OWIES for "targets of some kisses".  Boy, was that a tough clue!  But a completely fair one.  In fact, the whole puzzle seemed comprised of clues that were both tough and very fair.  A constant game of wits with the constructor.  What fun!  And almost no "who knows and who cares?" trivia that I needed to concern myself with.  Oh, yes, there was SNORLAX, but I can forgive him or her or it because there was only one of him or her or it in the grid. My kind of puzzle.  I had to put on my thinking cap throughout, but I didn't suffer at all.  A most enjoyable and engrossing themeless.

I cannot solve this grid with ease. The shaded "RERE"s do not please! So how should I decipher these? Oh, now I see: a pair of "RE"s!!

OMG, they're ALL spelled wrong!!!!! What a dummy I am! I was so flummoxed by BICFOOT, couldn't replace that C with a G no matter how hard I tried, so I came here to see what Rex had said about it. Was there perhaps an alternate spelling of BIGFOOT? Yes, I had noticed NESSEE, not NESSIE -- and was going to complain that they'd chosen a "less familiar and less accepted" spelling. It never occurred to me that NESSEE wasn't a spelling at all. KRAKIN and YEDI sort of sailed right over my head. Did I pick up on the deliberateness of the misspellings when I saw the word "pseudoscientist" along with "sightings" in quotation marks in the revealer clue? Ah, but that would have taken something resembling actual intelligence and Today I Am An Idiot. This puzzle has it all: Enormous originality, terrific humor, and for me, a much-too-long-delayed "Aha Moment" that blew me away. An irresistible candidate for Puzzle-of-the-Year.

First -- a note to all of you who skip Sundays -- don't! Then a note to Sam Brady -- Yes, it IS more fun solving in this direction. A big thank you for keeping the happiness of your solvers in mind. This was such fun! Once I had DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS, I tried to think up other "in-the-language" phrases that would fit the bill. I came up with exactly none -- though I didn't give much time to the thought. I did think of ENDLESS something-or-other, but Sam chose NEVER ENDING instead, and it's better. It was fun to also guess what the missing letter(s) would be. Sometimes there was only one possibility, like with the DOCTORS and the knight and the dialog -- but would it be SAGA or SAGE? FRANK or FRANC? CRAVES, GRAVES or BRAVES? My favorite was NOT COMPLETELY HONEST, which I got off NOT CO--------ELY. It was Sam's intention to make this fun for us and I feel he really succeeded. Thanks, Sam, for a delightful Sunday morning.

"The main challenge in making this concept work was finding JOHNS who fit comfortably into the grid and would be familiar to a vast majority of solvers. Getting a good “aha!” moment with this theme requires the solver to think they know the answer right away from the clue, only to realize that the length of the full name is one letter off. If the John in question is too obscure, that won’t happen." --Constructor JOHN I can't begin to tell you, J-CL, how much I applaud the thinking process you describe above in constructing your puzzle. Not only because I think your decision to use well-known JOHNs was spot-on, but even more because you were so obviously thinking about what the solving experience would be like for the SOLVER. It's the most generous and unselfish motivation a puzzle constructor can have -- and I wish there could be a Constructors' Rule written in stone: THOU SHALT GIVETH THE SOLVER THE BIGGEST AND BEST "AHA MOMENT" THAT THOU POSSIBLY CANST.

I always enjoy Barbara Lin's late-week puzzles for the same reason I enjoy Robyn's.  There's no arcane trivia to wrestle with -- just a fresh, new way of looking at well-known in-the-language words and phrases.  The grids look effortless (although I'm sure they're not) -- with grid-spanners like PRESIDENTIAL RUN, PLEADS IGNORANCE, I KNOW THE FEELING and BIRDS OF PARADISE (what a lovely, curiosity-provoking clue for that entry!) smoothly incorporated. You can expect clever and original cluing too: I especially liked the clues for PRESIDENTIAL RUN; E-FILES; IMPULSE BUY and ETAS.  (ETAS, which has been seen in like maybe 100,000 previous puzzles, is a reminder that even the most familiar entry can be clued in a way that's really different and really imaginative. A word to solvers about IM PEI.  If it's a 5-letter architect, it's always IM PEI.  No matter what the building is or where it is, it's always IM PEI.  You're welcome. A really elegant Friday themeless.  Today, I didn't miss Robyn Weintraub at at all.

A STAR IS B OR N. Wow!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again. Every time you think no one can come up with a completely original puzzle idea, someone does. Right away I saw all the missing "B"s and "N"s in the clues. I parsed them all perfectly. But why those missing letters? Would the thrice-made movie have the word "missing" in it? Or "vanished"? Or "disappears"? And what could possibly tie together an N and a B? Had my life depended on it, I could not have come up with the answer. So A STAR IS BORN comes in and I'm told to parse. And I parse away. Parse, parse, parse. As tar is born? What the--? And that's not six words. Aha!!!! I see it!!!! A big grin comes over my face. This is so clever and so completely surprising. It gives me a real kick on a rainy miserable morning. Into the running list I'm keeping for Puzzle of the Year. it goes.

Lewis is OK!!!! Here's his email to me that he's asked me to share with you: "Hi Nancy, No damage, but for two days, no power, NO WATER!, no internet, no phone. Saturday night the power came back on, but all the other things are off. (I found a wifi place a good distance from home.) Anyway, I'll let you know when news happens and I'm able to report it. We're basically doing okay. The killer is being without water, and it sounds like we'll be without it for at least two weeks. Anyway, would you be so kind as to let both blogs know that I am okay and anxious to return, and I will when we get wifi once again; don't know how long that will be; it is rightfully lower on the priority list of needs in the area."

I think my DNF today might amuse you.  (I didn't know it was a DNF until I checked the blog). After cheating on DANNY and after very belatedly changing GO BONKERS to GO BANANAS, the SE that was giving me such a headache finally seemed solved.  (It was a headache because two names I didn't know, RIAN and DANNY, were right next to each other and BONKERS made my grid an ungettable mess).  But, Aha!, finally I had it!!! The film director was gIAN and the "buck-a-shuck" establishment was a GAY BAR.  A place where attractive young bucks shuck their clothes, right? And this gave me BOY SAW.  Admittedly I've never heard of a BOY SAW, but then I've never heard of a BOW SAW either.  Why a BOY SAW?  I tried to imagine those young bucks in the GAY BAR with their clothes shucked. Or as Gilda Radner would have said: "Never mind."

If I were writing POETRIES [sic] about this puzzle -- and I can't resist because, after all I'm a poetriesist -- I would begin with an ODE: Why is this awful? Let me count the ways... 1) POETRIES 2) Annoying tiny little circles -- which I hate to see on any day of the week, but when it's on my favorite puzzle day, Thursday, my heart sinks at first glimpse. 3) Having to figure out what the tiny little circles are doing when it's not remotely apparent to me and I plain don't care. 4) Building an entire puzzle around MR POTATO HEAD who I gather, for reasons known to someone but not to me, is now no longer a MR. What a shame. 5) The rapper who names himself after...an assault rifle. And would you believe he's yet again another LI'L? 6) ARCANE pop trivia names 7) Ugly partials: ZIN, IST, EPI, PCP, HOO Hoo boy, was this ever bad!

I'm sort of betting that, Rex notwithstanding, no one is going to diss this puzzle. Not even the people who normally hate word ladder puzzles, of which I am one. But not today. It's a word ladder with a message, richly enhanced by the density of the other theme-related answers. And while I don't think for a moment that a mere crossword puzzle can do anything practical to end our reliance on FOSSIL FUEL, enhance GREEN POWER or solve the existential crisis of GLOBAL WARMING, it's still a worthwhile subject to build a puzzle around and this is an impressive piece of work. Usually a word ladder is just a word ladder and doesn't need to include any other theme elements. This does so much more. So let's give this elegant grid the kudos it deserves.

Maybe the most enjoyable Tuesday puzzle I've ever done. The themers are all so imaginative and so funny. It takes a certain kind of wacky wit to come up with these and I can picture Howard chortling with delight as answers like BLOOD TYPO, SAME HERO, and LEMON LIMO came flooding into his brain. They are all quite delicious and they're all clued in an exceptionally playful way. But Howard also TOOK PAINS with the non-themer clues. He seems to have been having fun there as well, as he clued MOI and BARBELLS and COLBERT and GO LONG. Sometimes a constructor's personality shines through and makes you feel that this is someone you'd enjoy having lunch with. This is one of those times. A delightful puzzle.

JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR:  This puzzle HASAN identity problem. It did not AMUSE me.  Have I once asked the NYT to GO EASY ON ME?  I HOPI never again see a Friday about which I can truly say: IT'S A SNAP.  I think that on Fridays we're entitled to AFFAIR challenge.  Not to the equivalent of doing one's ABCS in kindergarten.  I would rather have a puzzle that occasionally makes me feel I'M LOST than one that PITIES me.   NAE NAE, I protest.  NAE NAE,   I want my Fridays back.

Sometimes you have to bail to save your sanity. But you won't know, until you check the answers, whether you made the right decision or not. Will you discover that with just a little more grit, just a little more stubbornness, just a little more determination, you could have solved the darned thing? Well, in this case, a resounding no, and my sanity is thanking me. I'm too shell-shocked from wrestling with this to expend the energy it would take to list my wrong answers and the answers that were completely unknown to me. Suffice it to say that I successfully filled in the NW corner and the SW corner and nothing else. I did have WEDDING RINGS running down the center-right of the grid...but it was wrong. A struggle that I abandoned because it really wasn't fun for me at all. I applaud those of you who solved it with no cheats -- I'd say that's a really impressive accomplishment.

Repeat after me: When the answer to the clue makes no sense at all, the trick is in the clue. I was looking for the trick in the clue from the ONSET -- and though nearly maddened with curiosity, I took my own sweet time getting to the revealer. I had filled in SOME NERVE, TOILET BRUSH and SPARKLED and I wanted to figure out the trick for myself. I couldn't. And yet it's really such a simple one. Simple, but not obvious. I loved this and it will go in the running list I'm keeping for Puzzle of the Year. A brief note. Maybe a couple of years ago, I hit upon the idea for an ALL FOR ONE theme. In my case, the trick was in the answers and not in the clues. I came up with some ideas for themers and was crestfallen to learn that the theme had already been done. But it's another puzzle entirely when those words are swapped in the clues. This is so much better an idea. I love this variety of puzzle!

Curiosity is my favorite emotion to be gotten from a crossword puzzle. Challenge is great, but challenge can sometimes be painful. Curiosity is always delicious. I was immensely curious when I read the theme clues. What on earth did the country have to do with its clue? But my curiosity didn't last very long. I had MONEY at the top; I saw that STAND TRIAL was coming in; and I saw that STAND TALL was the right answer to the STAND TRIAL clue. Aha! That means that the phrase is MONEY IS ALL. It's not -- it's MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING, which I've actually never heard said or seen written -- but it doesn't matter. The trick is the same, and the right words in the phrase will come in soon enough. What a beautifully conceived and executed puzzle! Sheer perfection. Well, except for the SW corner with its grp, director's name, song title, and Harry Potter clue. I thought I'd crash and burn there -- until I came up with COWL which somehow bailed me out. CAMERON (he was "Titanic", right?) came in and I realized NERD was the answer to "Square one" -- a clue that fools me every time. Loved this puzzle! I'm writing it down as a POY possibility.

What an inspired and original idea! What a huge "Aha Moment it gave me when I got to the revealer! Without the revealer, I wonder if anyone would get the theme? Certainly I wouldn't have. But then the scales fell from my eyes and everything fell into place. I never cease to be amazed at the inventive ideas constructors manage to come up with. As I've said before, every time I think there's no new idea under the sun, someone proves me wrong. This idea -- so simple, so smooth, so seemingly effortless -- seems absolutely genius to me. I love this puzzle, Freddie!

For a puzzle that's essentially themeless, this has one of the great themes of all time: ROCKET SCIENCE crossing BRAIN SURGERY -- both clued as "What it's not, in a saying." Normally I'm not wild about super-vague clues, but this one works splendidly here. And the cluing is delicious: SHYNESS; ASCENT; CUBISM; TUMBLE; TSA. Delicious answers too: BS METER; CARNALLY; HAIL MARY. And I see only one name: WAYANS. And only one stupid car -- at least that's what I think it is: KIA RIO. Wow! Why can't everyone do that. My only nit: MEH as the answer to "whatevs". I would never say "whatevs" for MEH. But then I would never say "whatevs" for anything. A lovely puzzle that I found highly enjoyable.

Just great, Lewis!! What a wonderful themeless puzzle on every level!!! I always know with a Lewis puzzle that the cluing will be devious, challenging, and highly original. There were a lot of initial puzzlements leading to "Aha"s here: most notably WEEDS, which gave me fits when I'd wanted spouses or pets for the bed hogs. But also DROOLS, BRR, NOBLY, and the trickiest clue for TATS I've yet seen. The grid is gorgeous too. Lots of interesting long answers, smoothly assembled with almost no glue. Very few names. No crosswordese except for TATS -- and when you clue it that beautifully, who cares? If I've singled out Lewis, Barbara, it's only because I've known him for a long time, even collaborated with him, but I think he's got himself a dandy collaborator in you and that you two should create more puzzles together in the future. A terrific, just-about-flawless Saturday that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Hey, ya gotta give me clues once in a while.  And also, I know nothing at all about web design features. Should I even attempt this puzzle or throw it against the wall?  Well, let's see what happens if I start in the middle and work my way down.  Will I be rewarded with one of the biggest Aha Moments of all time or will I be wracked by bafflement and frustration? Aha!!!!!  It turns out to be one of the biggest Aha Moments of all time! First I got INFINITE SCROLL.  I know what a SCROLL is -- even if I don't know what an INFINITE one is.  It sounds to me like the answers at the bottom will continue on at the top.  Wouldn't it be great if it were something as simple as that? It IS great!!!  My hunch is confirmed when I see that ODDSMAKER will work and that SEMICOLON will work.  All is explained and all is clear!  And isn't it lucky that I didn't write in PALS where MACS goes.  (I couldn't confirm it, so I didn't write it in.) A brilliant and truly worthy Thursday!!!  I loved it!!!  I'm predicting that the blog will be divided between those who absolutely loved this puzzle and those who absolutely loathed it.  And there is never a right answer in these cases, is there?  We all have our own unique experiences in solving a puzzle and we are all entitled to our own unique opinions -- yes? And yet in this particular case, I'd argue that those of us who hung on for dear life and ended up loving it are right.

When I saw the PEACH atop the PEKOE atop the ASSAM, it looked for all the world like the three teas were being served in the same cup. As a coffee drinker, I have no idea whether PEKOE would mix well with ASSAM, but I was pretty sure that the PEACH would be an outlier. "I would never drink that concoction," I said to myself. So that when NOT came in at 51A, I immediately thought: "OMG, the answer is NOT MY CUP OF TEA!!!" And I laughed out loud. What a delightful, original, and funny puzzle! I absolutely loved it! The grid is no slouch either -- filled as it is with grownup non-Tuesdayish words like ALIENATE and WINNOWED and AMBIANCE. And there are almost no names. Here's an optimal choice for a puzzle I would give to a newbie solver whom I cared for and respected. (You should know that my newbie solver might be new to crosswords, but she's no dummy.) I think that she'd solve it without too much trouble, but that it would hold her interest throughout, and that it would give her a nice chuckle at the end. It would make her want to come back for more puzzles in the future, which is the whole idea. This is a superior early week puzzle -- and I wish there could be more like it.

They were all meals and they were all paintings.  I knew that this was going to be one of those early week puzzles I enjoy the most: both halves of the answer would be relevant to the revealer.  And I was consumed by curiosity as to what the revealer would be. I set the puzzle down on the floor where there was no chance I'd see the revealer clue ahead of time.  I toyed with both halves of a possible answer:  PAINTING, OIL, CANVAS, ART, or PICTURE had to be paired with MEAL, FOOD or DINING.  I thought and thought.  And the only thing I could come up with was (wait for it!)... THE ART OF THE MEAL Nope.  That's not it.  And while I don't think you have to be STARVING to enjoy a supper or luncheon or buffet, I do think that the theme of this puzzle is absolutely ADORBS.  It created the kind of curiosity in me that I always hope for -- and I really, really enjoyed it for that reason.

Aha! Euphemisms!!!! That's what "SPIN" in the title means! Cute wordplay on the double meaning of SPIN -- and I should have seen it sooner. Question: Why was this the most enjoyable puzzle I've ever done -- or probably ever will do -- based on a car theme? Answer: Because I didn't need to know one single thing about cars to solve it. That's my kind of car puzzle! Poor car. Such awful things happening to it. But there weren't any passengers mentioned, so the accident didn't seem too grisly. I was a little perplexed by the leaky roof leading to BUCKET SEATS. But then I thought: they must be real buckets to catch the water. Yes? I think that everyone will need crosses to get the theme answers. Nothing is obvious or telegraphed. The surrounding fill was hard enough to hold my attention and make me work. Best of all, the mood of the puzzle is lighthearted and playful and there are almost no names or pop culture. A fun Sunday.

I mentioned to Lewis last month that since, unlike him, I tend not to remember puzzles once I've done them -- and certainly not for an entire year -- that I planned to keep a running list of puzzles that I considered candidates for Puzzle of the Year 2024. "It won't be long," I said. "I'll only write down puzzles I think are extraordinary." Today I made my first entry to the list. The cleverness of the concept and the brilliant way it's executed is equaled only by how smart the puzzle made ME feel. I got the trick at DIMMED/DIED/TOMMY/TOY -- I was still struggling at the DRIPPED/DRIED/RIPPLE/RILE section and I immediately said out loud to no one in particular: "Aha! It's DOUBLE OR NOTHING!" And so it was. The way the meaning changes between having FLINGS and having FEELINGS; between being CUED and being CUSSED is nothing short of genius. This must have been really hard to construct, I'd imagine, but it was a joy to solve. !'ll nominate it for POY when the time comes -- now that I know I'll remember.

(This comment may only make sense to someone who solved on paper.) In my entire history of doing the NYTXW, I can't remember ever having a more profound reversal from highly negative feelings to highly positive feelings mid-solve. Oh, was I ever hating this puzzle! Look -- you already know that I can't stand the squooshed squares one gets in a 16x15 puzzle -- squares that leave me no room to write in my own letter. You also know that I'm put off by annoying tiny little circles that look confusingly like "O"s when I want to write in my own letter. So I'm saying to myself today: "Don't those stupid NYT puzzle editors know that these bleepin' blue squares are MUCH TOO DARK to allow me to see the letter I'm writing in? I mean really! And then I hit the "TRIP" of TRIPLE LETTER SCORE and the scales fall from my eyes. So THAT's why that shade of blue looked so familiar! Aha!!! Scrabble!!! And, yes, it would have been a weaker puzzle if the blue had not been that precise shade. I went from hating this puzzle to absolutely loving it. Great "Aha!" moment. Cleverly chosen themers. Nice and crunchy before getting the trick and enjoyably whooshy thereafter. You're forgiven NYT. Your choice of blue was necessary and correct. No, I still couldn't see the letters I wrote in, but...I coped. It was all in a good cause.

There's hard and then there's ridiculous. There are also limits to how much suffering I'm willing to do on any given morning. So that after -- and I'm not sure exactly how -- finishing the 3/4 of the puzzle that wasn't the NW, I came back to the NW and said "No more! Please! Can't do this! Don't wanna." I gave up and came here to learn that I wouldn't have been able to finish the NW in a million trillion years. I thought this was a confusing mess for the solver. I'll be interested to know how many of y'all finished it. And I have this sneaking suspicion that if Ella Dershowitz hadn't constructed the puzzle but rather come to it as an innocent and unsuspecting solver, she might not have finished it herself.

Son of a gun -- I think ALL of the ACs are dead center in both the Acrosses and the Downs. At least in all the ones I took the trouble to check, they were. What an amazing construction coup that makes this -- though my solve wouldn't have been any different if the ACs hadn't been in the center. A very appropriate puzzle for the weather most of the country is going through right now. I'm Exhibit A for staying home in AC: I had an important post-cataract operation check-up appt scheduled at Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital yesterday when the air quality was very bad, the humidity was off the charts and the temps were over 100. It was a NYC record. I cancelled it the day before. I didn't give them a choice and they didn't give me a hard time. But I couldn't get another appt for two weeks -- condemning me to two MORE weeks of eyedrops before (hopefully) then being tapered off (two more weeks after that?) I've now been on these drops and others since April 22. But emergency situations call for drastic action. My philosophy: The best vision in the world won't do me any good if I'm dead of heat stroke. What's happening to the climate now is shudder-making. I just hope Iran doesn't decide to take down our power grid. I thought this was a pretty easy rebus as rebuses go -- made immediately obvious by MAGN[AC]ARTA. But there was some challenge in the surrounding fill. I enjoyed it and appreciated the timeliness.

OMG -- The theme answers are SO good!!!! When you have a change-a-familiar-phrase-into-a-wacky-one type Sunday theme, there are only two tests that matter. 1) Are the wacky answers funny, clever and even inspired rather than being forced and TEPID and 2) Are they accurately and fairly clued so that the solver has a sporting chance of getting them with just a few crosses. This passes both tests with flying colors. I got most of the themers with very few if any crosses: EXCHANGE WEDDING VOWELS; PACK YOUR BAGEL AND GO; WHAT'S PASTEL IS PAST and YOUR DELAYS ARE NUMBERED. I had NOEL, but needed crosses for the rest; I knew it was PEELER something-or-other; and I couldn't get the truly magnificent DON'T GET MAD, GET ELEVEN without lots of crosses. I laughed out loud over every single one of them. They are all so funny and so original and so well-chosen. The constructor is a retired editor. Of course she is! We retired editors have a deep love of wordplay and the colorful things you can do with language. Congratulations on a wonderfully entertaining and beautifully conceived puzzle, Caryn!

Well, I'm taking a chance here, having not read any of the crossword blogs including Rex, nor any of the comments on any of the blogs, but I'm prepared to take every nickel I have in the bank and bet that... NOBODY guessed this theme, much less the revealer. Not Rex, Jeff, Deb, Sam, or Rachel. Not either of the Patricks, nor Erik, nor my collaborator Will nor David S. The theme is so...subtle! After seeing the revealer, I still didn't get the connection. I thought and I thought some more. And then, finally... AHA!!! But even if this had been a themeless -- which is what I solved it as -- it would have been terrific. No junk at all -- I'm looking for a name and I'm darned if I see one. And such a smooth grid! A splendid Tuesday -- with the ace well hidden up the sleeve. Nice one, Christina!

A heads-up to let you know that tomorrow (Thursday), Will Nediger and I will have two different puzzles in two different publications that are not the NYT. One is in the WSJ and one is in the LAT. Both are accessible online to anyone and I hope you will want to do them. I'm pleased with both and recommend them. Today Will did something quite different with a different collaborator. Tiny little circles do not a "Nancy puzzle" make. I can promise you that neither of our puzzles tomorrow will have tiny little circles. Will knows of my complete lack of interest in how tiny little circles can be manipulated within a grid by constructors -- and he is always kind enough to humor me when we collaborate. Of course Will can construct ANY type of puzzle with any type of collaborator. He's a true Renaissance constructor.

Above my pay grade. I bailed -- and came here to find out what the bleep was going on. This falls into the category of "be careful what you wish for". The reason I so often complain about randomly placed tiny little circles is that they usually demand nothing at all from the solver. You ignore them, fill the puzzle in just as though they weren't there, and later find out what intricacies are in the grid that had nothing to do with your solve. This was just the opposite: TOO MUCH for the solver to have to figure out in order to solve -- no two of the theme answers anything like one another. Some were rebuses, some were olios, some were word pictures -- need I go on? Maybe if the clues hadn't been so ridiculously vague. But they really weren't any help to me at all. I like puzzles that make me feel smart, but this one made me feel dumb. I won't say that it isn't clever, though.

I loved this.  There were many things I loved about it, but the best thing was the curiosity that "Address no longer than 18 minutes" engendered in me.  What could that possibly be?  I just HAD to know!  When TED TALK came in, I practically shouted out: "Of course!!!!"  I love when that happens. But many entertaining clues and answers.  I especially liked WHEN IN ROME, TWOS for the slam-dunks (which I thought was going to be EASY), TAX EXILE and TO DIE FOR. Was RONDA the only unknown name?  KOFI was a gimme for me.  But I must say there were some unknown non-name answers:  I didn't know MANIOC and I didn't know ANTICOMEDY as clued.  Come to think of it, I don't know ANTICOMEDY in any sense of the word. A good mixture of swooshiness and resistance.  I found it very entertaining and involving.

I'm sure everyone has either already said it or is going to say it in the very near future. This puzzle was extremely easy for a Saturday and was certainly much easier than yesterday's puzzle. But I have to admit that I enjoyed it more than yesterday's puzzle -- meaning I may have gone not SOFT HEARTED but soft headed in my old age. Could I have liked it so much because I am SLEEP DEPRIVED this morning, having awakened at 4:45 a.m. and been unable to get back to sleep? An easy puzzle doesn't have to be boring -- and the interesting fill made this reasonably engrossing for me. I enjoyed such phrases as ROYAL PAIN, SAVE PAR, LOSES LUSTER, HOLE IN THE WALL and RETINA SCANNER and such words as HYDROPONICS and NONLINEAR. I really liked the clues for SOFT HEARTED, OVEN, TASTE and LOTTOS. And though I am not normally a grid-design-noticer, I could not fail to notice the handsome grid. So for me, this puzzle was as enjoyable as it was easy. It also played enormously fair, I thought.

A star is born!!!! For a high school senior to come up with this sophisticated, clever, imaginative, varied and thoroughly grown-up puzzle is astounding to me. Every themer clue was a delightful little puzzle in itself -- and it was great fun to figure out every single one of them. And the grid is so wonderfully free of the kinds of things we're told that today's high-schoolers are so completely into. There's almost no pop culture at all, few proper names, nothing having anything to do with screens or textspeak or anything of that ilk. If I see a hint of the constructor's special interest, it might be in solving the problems of climate change -- to which I say Bravo! I think you're going to be one of the great constructors, Luke, and I'm putting this superb Sunday into my running list for Puzzle of the Year. Hope you have a great time at Princeton.

Yay! Robyn is back! Sparkling clues as usual -- and I had quite a bit of trouble in places. GOT UP before SAT UP for "stopped lying." PLUS before PERK for "Bonus". Have no idea what BABY GROOT is nor what/where the STAX is that Elvis was at. I'm ashamed of myself for my TEXT BOX DNF. First I wanted TEXT BAR, but ORTHO demanded an O. Then I wanted TEXT BOT, but TRAYS doesn't fit the clue "Looks below the surface." A big "Hmmm?" for the latter. How about GRAYS???!!!! The look below the surface of your dyed hair is GRAY, right? Of course that left me with TEXT BOG, which isn't a Thing. But it might have been -- you never know. Don't ask. But I'm very glad that Robyn has reappeared. Come back often, Robyn, please.

I got as far as BAD APPLES and immediately thought of my own puzzle of 3/10/21.  Would the revealer be the same? When I got to 21A, I realized that the revealer would not be the same.  So what would the revealer be? One by one, the possibility of having a revealer with BAD, SPOILED or ROTTEN in it was eliminated. So was FUNKY -- though that one never crossed my mind. Had all the synonyms been eliminated?  What about turning everything the other way around?  I thought of possibilities like PAST ITS PRIME; NO DARN GOOD; TRASHY FARE. OFF COURSE is a cute revealer that I never thought of -- made much more interesting by turning BRATS into hot dog food.  Also, there was a Friday-worthy clue for PAPER CUT.  I liked this amusing Tuesday puzzle a lot.

Gosh. LIB DEM is a centrist in British politics? In the U.S of A, you're considered a pinko Commie Marxist revolutionary. But LIB DEM was actually one of the easier entries for me in the SE where I had most of my trouble. My age means that long before any liquor store had ever thought to post a sign that said WE CARD, I was way, way over legal drinking age. What I don't know about the WNBA would fill a basketball arena -- and it didn't help that I had RATS instead of NUTS where the N of FINALS should have gone. Also the only unit of radioactivity I could think of was RAD. CURIE would have helped me see the wonderfully clued BICEPS -- but I had B??EPS and all I could think of was BLEEPS. Whenever there are some capitalized words like RIO and SORRENTO, I always wonder if it's a car? I only know one 3-letter car, KIA, and the A went with THRASHES. "Aha, PEEKABOO!" I said of the toddler's game. I got ENT from the very clever "stuffy client" clue without even looking at the grid and knowing the length of the answer. This made me feel smart on a day when I was somewhat less than brilliant. Conclusion: this was a lively and interesting puzzle that made deft use of a multi-faceted word you wouldn't necessarily think of to build a puzzle around. And I think it works beautifully here. Nice job, Sam.

Oh joy, Oh happiness -- a crunchy, cryptic-like challenge on a Monday! My cup runneth over. I saw the trick immediately when I couldn't make the letters FAEL go away. Since I was stuck with them, I therefore had to explain them, so I immediately saw LEAF upside down. I then immediately thought of TURN OVER A NEW LEAF and all was clear. OLIVER NORTH was hilarious. For those of you who are too young to know or remember, this answer may have been perplexing to you -- but all the crosses are easy and fair. We probably got this treat because it's April Fool's Day as well as Monday. Would that all Mondays could be April 1st. I know some of you will complain that this is too hard and too tricky for a Monday, but to me, this is what fun is all about. Loved it!

It may be a MYTH -- but for this puzzle I really didn't need more than 10% of my brain to solve it. A really, really easy Monday as far as the clues were concerned. OTOH, the cute theme was unguessable. I saw the colors, but didn't see any connection between WHALE, BALL and WINE. Homonyms!! Very, very nice. Never thought of that. HUE AND CRY is a terrific revealer!

Not only was it a huge "Aha Moment" for me when I finally saw what was going on -- it was also a huge relief. I had been SO completely in the dark for what seemed like forever. If I had only gone to the revealer immediately, I probably wouldn't have "suffered" so much, but my "mens rea" left a great deal to be desired this morning. I love you, President MONROE!!! You were my salvation. That "E" in PICKETed absolutely had to be an "O"! PICKETed couldn't be PICKETed. I got to you, President MONROE, a few nanoseconds before I got to TRADE NAMES. At which point the scales fell from my eyes and all became clear. Aha! DON/TED!!! And then back to ANN/RAY!!! ALI/LEA!!! And finally TIM/HAL!!! I had the final "E" in what had come in as HALE (19A) and I couldn't come up with the "marathoner's focus." RACE? TAPE? CORE (as in a runner's sixpack abs)? But RAC, TAP and COR are not names. INTIMATION belatedly gave me TIM. Aha -- TIME!!! One of the hardest Thursday puzzles I've ever done. Solving it makes me feel very smart. If you solved it, you're very smart too. I didn't find it much fun at all until I cottoned on to the trick -- and then I found it enormous fun!

Long, long before I was anywhere near the revealer clue or had looked at the length of the answer, I fairly yelled out "POST-IT NOTES!!" At that point I had only BREAK IT DOWN and KEEP IT REAL filled in. So I am feeling quite pleased with myself and perhaps a little SMUG. A very nice play on words and very nicely chosen themers. All theme answers are very much in the language and all are well-clued. I kept wanting PUT IT gentLY at 40A, but GE is not a note. I needed crosses to get MILDLY. Just couldn't think of it. Nice clues for OWLET and SPANK. ROUGE is so yesterday; these days it's BLUSH. (I'm old enough to have used ROUGE back in the day, but then I'm old enough to have used a rotary phone too.) A cute theme and no junk. Liked it! (A note to whoever wrote the sub-headline in the column: PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!!!! Don't completely give away the theme with the word "musical". While I never come to any of the xword blogs before solving the puzzle, I imagine there are some people who do. The word "musical" gives away the whole shebang and there's no way to UNSEE it. And even if most solvers won't mind, it's definitely not fair to the constructor. I'd be having a fit if it were done to me, TO PUT IT MILDLY.)

Oh, this is so good! The Spoonerisms are so smooth, so completely in the language, that they never caused me to question them. I didn't see the trick until I got to the revealer; I kept looking for some sort of letter change. But I did repeat my very own Mantra [TM] to myself: "When the answer doesn't agree with the clue, the trick is in the clue." But I was looking for letter changes, not sound changes. Oh how I struggled with trying to turn "Recently dated" into GOOD ENOUGH. Recently daRed? Recently daZed? Recently Mated? Nothing was working. It was delicious going back to see how good the Spoonerisms were -- once I had the revealer. This will go into my running list for Puzzle of the Year. Brilliantly done.

Loved it!  Thought that all the theme answers -- all so different -- represented "it's hard to say" perfectly.  A really, really good and original theme executed beautifully.  And it's so playful.  I love playful! I also found it quite crunchy for a Tuesday.  First of all, I've never heard the term A HOT MINUTE.  I only know what a "New York minute" is.  And then, I've never seen "antonym" used as a modifier.  "Antonymously"???  I had to read it three times to make sure it wasn't "anonymously".  And then I had to think: "Now what's the antonym of "quite some time"? A unique, un-Tuesdayish clue for BUYS.  A curveball to have EWW as an answer where you'd expect TMI to go -- and I fell into the trap.  In short, a bit of difficulty and a lot of playfulness made for a really enjoyable Tuesday.