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Nice little bonus rebus! Just wish there had been a STARBURST animation as a reward for solving this puzzle (I know, I know, solving is its own reward ;)

Perfect Friday puzzle exemplar. At first pass: “I got [almost] nothin’” Then some fills were half right. Really enjoyed figuring it out with no lookups or help. Didn’t know why ETHER and ARO were correct until completed & checked Deb’s explanations. Nice grid shape too! Great debut!

Enjoyed the rebus element. But I tried to make the Oscar-winner GIANT 😂 eventually solved GIGI with the crosses.

Fast solve for me. Cute clues but I look for more of a challenge on Thursdays. I’m also in the “what, no rebus?? But it’s Thursday!” camp

Nice one! Really pleased that I stuck with it and had no lookups!!! Every word counted. Just kept at it and got everything! Puzzled by DARNERS until I was done & read Wordplay - Eek!

They Might Be Giants used to have a phone number that anyone could call (from their landline ofc :) to hear a prerecorded song! Dial-A-Song

Fave was PONZI SCHEMES: Viable vs vile, v clever! Also, that KITE and WEAVER were both birds, nice AVIAN misdirection! Slower than usual solve for me but nicely tricky Thursday

I’m glad I kept going - Solved with no lookups or hints - SLUE was last piece to fall in place, had no idea that was a word!

Fun Friday! I had to leave it for a while to get unstuck, but then got everything with no help or lookups! Q about the nightcap clue: Is there an ingredient in WHITERUSSIANS that would keep you up more than any other alcoholic drink? ESPRESSO MARTINI didn’t fit 😉

Nice one! Especially for a debut. Why was I thinking OKRA instead of old favorite ORCA?? 😂 All solved in the end!

Just right for a Friday! Took me 45 minutes tho 😂 so I’m def not boasting about my solve time, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Happy to see EDA LeShan clued for a wonderful book that is sadly out of print. Nice Wednesday puzzle!

SO SWEET to have a constructor serenade us! I had ANTES instead of TENTS for quite a while 😉

Fun and easy - I was flummoxed by the Fri puzzle so this one was a welcome change

Great Thursday! This took me a long time to complete but it was so enjoyable to gradually figure it out! Fun rebus. That OR NOTHING worked too was impressive (it crossed my mind with CUED CUSSED but I didn’t notice TOY etc right away Really liked VERB BELIE SNOOKER LISSOME

I found this smooth as silk, v fun!

V nice Tuesday! Lost a few seconds wondering what a SEALIE might be, then it all clicked into place with GOALIE ha ha - I can never remember Latin or Spanish conjugations that crop up in the puzzles, also confidently thought it was DIS

I’ve been missing our old friend OBOE, hope it turns up soon 🧐

I was on the same wavelength as the constructors for the most part, but then thought MICS and IMAC might be wrong & wasted a lot of time. Had PACT instead of CAMP. Didn’t get TYPEO except thru fills, even though I had the Y and the O (D’oh!) Good Wednesday

Easy, got the right turns pretty quickly, but had no idea what Hundred Wood was. Had to get KANGA on the crossings. I’ve somehow never read Winnie & friends stories - go figure!

Easy breezy, and I always like seeing OBOE Reminds me of Peter & The Wolf

Solved with no lookups or help - v satisfying - except I didn’t get the theme (didn’t need it to solve) until Deb explained. I prefer a rebus on Thursdays but this was fun

This seemed like a good Friday: I slowly got everything except CANT / NOCHE and guessed ROC. I wondered if 38A was going to be DIACRITIC or something like that! (Yes, I know that’s different :) Never heard of KNEX. Fridays aren’t supposed to be easy!

Really enjoyed this - Loved the imaginative rebus entries

I was mostly on the same wavelength as the constructor, but was stumped by ICEbeer and FOAMpad, and just plain forgot FIFE. Good puzzle!

Nice constructor notes! Good Wednesday puzzle. I was slowed down a bit b/c I had BERATE instead of HECTOR. Both words that are v evocative and kinda sound like what they are?

V much a Friday puzzle! Probably shouldn’t have taken me as long as it did, but worth it. Was RED- a helpful clue or a misdirection? Both? ;) Glad to see a Jane EYRE quotation.

Smooth, enjoyable Tuesday! Some moments of uncertainty, then everything fell into place.

Nice Wednesday, below average time for me, but have never heard of THEFLOORISLAVA - Knew WELTY tho ;) Always amused to see SST and ELO and the like: Gimmes / inside jokes at this point. Can I get an ORB??

Fun, very easy for a Friday. So many good words / phrases starting with B - e.g. BARES and BONES were nice less common xwd usages

Glad I tried a Saturday, this seemed fairly easy & fun. But I still don’t get FANS?

I enjoyed this as a Friday puzzle that made me stretch - One of those times I’m glad I didn’t lookup anything, instead just took a break and then had some breakthroughs! Agree with some quibbles mentioned by others, but none detracted from all the fun aspects of the puzzle. So impressive that a 17 y/o constructed this! Congrats!

Breezed through it, fun - But I forgot to check the circled squares so I missed the ducks! D’oh!

Fun Tuesday! I finished faster than my average even tho I had a typo that took ages to find. I used to have a pair of ECCO boots, some friends love APEROL spritzes, learned TUCKET and UBOLT - Enjoyed all of it!

Nice one - I found this to be easy, I was on this constructor’s wavelength, but needed crosses for SPAWN and EPODE. Liked the word play throughout.

I actually got the theme / trick! Fast Thursday for me. Enjoyable. Maybe a bit too easy for a Thursday? Q: Is SASSED really the same as “Clapped back”? To me, SASSED implies a child’s perceived impertinence, but anyone can “Clap back” to challenge a statement or claim they disagree with.

Very nice! SW corner was last to fall into place, suddenly seeing BESTOW cracked it open for me. FED TO looked / sounded wrong, until it didn’t.

Fun & clever puzzle! Got everything eventually- Except missed the Y of YAWS and YOPLAIT so was baffled as to what I had wrong, should have tried harder to understand what Go-Gurt might be referring to! REPINE was too crosswordese for my taste. It was good to see IN A FUNK tho, no longer a common phrase

Somehow I was familiar with FIN but not ABE for $5, so I enjoyed seeing both in the same puzzle Nice Tuesday, excellent debut!

Nice Monday! The TONY Hawk double clue was clever!