Jeanne

Really surprised to see the THEWIRE as BBC’s no. 1. I binged it a few years ago; it is amazing but too painful to rewatch. Almost Naticked at 31 down and 41 across until the S was the only missing letter. Then I realized I know that French word; eight years of French classes wasn’t totally wasted on me. Lots of nice fill and JAMAISVU is now my favorite new expression. Loved this, just as a crossword should be, slow to get into, then takes off.

You had me at RAYCHARLES. He doesn’t need highlighting but should appear more often. His name puts me in a good mood.

I remembered to check the title and finally got the theme halfway through which helped a lot. It was a challenging slog but worth it for “Manufacturer’s gross product?”: SMOG.

I was stumped on “one buying a stuffed mouse, perhaps” when I looked up and saw kitty cleaning himself.

I had to get out of bed due to a fit of rhinitis, and there it was: Robyn’s name, I knew this would be good. It was one of my fastest Fridays despite continually stopping to sneeze and using 1/2 a box of Kleenex. HaHa, I thought 24 down was out of my wheelhouse, never getting physics, but laughed when it filled itself in from crosses. The mahjong answer also needed crosses but got me smiling as a dear friend has taken it up at age 84. Thanks, Robyn, this puzzle is a favorite gift.

This was incredibly easy, especially considering my deficient knowledge of sports. Good one. Gooooal! PELE is the OREO of the sports world as ASTA is the dog of B+W movies.

My cat is purring like crazy now that he knows he is BOTH the revealer AND five rebuses. Purrfect Sunday. I love this, my time came in 5 minutes under average even though it was thrown off because I have to stop and hug kitty every time something even remotely feline-related appears. I’m years overdue for my next Kit Kat bar, hmm, Halloween is coming.

Seems like blasphemy to paraphrase Frost but when I was able to figure out the reimagining, it was very satisfying to compete the phrase long before the crosses were filled in. Very nice Thursday. GIDDY UP, I love that.

Good one! Got me laughing! Doable without stress. Just what I enjoy on a beautiful Sunday. Thanks.

I always learn when I come here. So there were rebuses! I thought the lies were to be hidden in black holes (black squares). Answers were accepted that way in app. So timely!—(End of political rant.) Enjoyed this one.

Many thanks to all you ERICA’s out there who happen to be nurses. (I mean you among them, ERICA, at UCSF). Thanks, I enjoyed this quick solve.

Oh well, I missed the point. I thought the iBeams were some nightmarish street roundabouts. I enjoined it very much nonetheless.

I haven’t finished yet. Just came here to say: I love it when I get the theme halfway through and it helps with other answers. Thank you so much for this fun one.

I loved this once I caught on and realized that’s how backcombing works. First I tried going straight up, then up diagonally. So eventually the revealer helped me on all three. I rarely get that much help and fun. Thank you for an excellent Thursday.

Thank dog I’m sports-avoidant so it entertained me nicely 31 minutes, some of which was cat distraction. Even so, a good easy Friday. Thank you. Enjoy this “long weekend” as the name of the holiday seems to have lost its meaning.

This was a challenge for me, seems appropriate for a Saturday. Finally finished after hitting reveal letter a couple of times. Love that it satisfied my cat’s desire to participate. Yesterday his actual full name appeared (19 across, no hyphens), PEEKABOO, and today one of his endearing habits, 45 across, HEADBUTT.

I normally hit a lot of typos on the grids but this one was way too small for my eyes and fingers. Once I saw the animation and illustration complete with color and spots, I forgave the designers. Clues and fill themselves were challenging but I kept going to see how it all connected, and was relieved I didn’t have to connect the letters myself. Very good complicated job. Happy special animal day, if you celebrate.

Got the revealer early on but didn’t connect it to a sitcom until afterward and was very annoyed with myself for taking too long to get CHANDLER, a city(?) where I’ve visited friends. Had enough difficulty along the way to make it interesting but finished in good time. All in all a good Sunday puzzle. Thank you.

I thought one letter of each shaded area should have a substitution and the letters substituted would form a revealer. Unscrambled I get egit (or is it iget?) which might make sense in Pig Latin (or some kid language my brother used to insult me) as idiot, what I felt like at the end. But honestly I really like this puzzle.

This was a couple of seconds slower than my Monday average but seemed much easier than one I just completed from 1994 which needed one lookup and about seven more minutes. So I liked it a lot, except (just kidding) for painful reminders: Judge ITO, I remember that verdict as if it was yesterday, time stood still as I blurted out “what money can buy” to my attorney co-worker. No novocaine for baby teeth, I would just stare at the wall of good-girl rewards the dentist kept at eye level.

I aced this without shredding the GNAR and learned a new expression and how to pronounce it. Fun, quick puzzle; trapped the ANT right away.

Just sayin: a little help (cheating?) can change pouting into joy. Your call how much help you may seek. I loved several answers on this one, especially the revealer, so much fun to get a timely puzzle and the rebuses were good; I kept thinking there has to be a PINE in there somewhere, and there it was, my last rebus. Thank you. Ho Ho Ho and a joyous season to you all.

It’ll take weeks to get that ear-worm* out of my head, otherwise enjoyed this one very much. *not spelled out in case you dislike it as much as I do.

I got five filled in on the first pass, plus one halfway filled in and a couple of S’s. Will have to sleep on this one.

This is my longest Sunday time ever, 54:38. Sometimes a good win is finishing before the next day’s puzzle appears. Good challenge, done in segments, the 4 am session was particularly rewarding.

I very much enjoyed this sweet puzzle, and when it was done I loved the bonus of looking over the construction thinking, “you make it look easy”. Wow!

I foolishly tried Albania when I had ALB—-A for 45 across even though I knew it couldn’t be. I love Canadian viewpoint humor: A Canadian once asked me if I had ever been in the Rockies before, I said, “yes, in Montana, Colorado and Wyoming”. She laughed and asked, “Oh, do the Rockies extend into the States?”

I struggled with 51 Across even though there used to be a shop called FOREX along my morning commute. I went in there one day to convert some $$$ to various pre-Euro currencies. Filled in the EX but took this aging brain a long time to remember FOR. Eventually got ATSYMBOL but it made no sense to me until I saw where to split it in the comments. Eons ago I did easy non-NYT puzzles that indicated how many words.

I was very happy when I finally got 29 down and 40 across (automakers). Seemed easy to medium for a Friday, loved it.

This seemed impossible late at night, gave up with just a few filled in. After a good night’s sleep, (using autocorrect) I made rapid progress but there were still some impossible sections. I used reveal word a couple of times and ended up with ONLY three red marks. For me, that is a success. All in all I loved this puzzle, enjoyed a different way of looking at things and learned some modern lingo. Where have I been to not know VAPEJUICE? CROMAGNON! That’s me. Had the ESH and was so proud of myself to see it as FRESHSALAD.

I got hung up on HOUSEOFworship, found dog but not god. Ok, I didn’t get the trick but did see the ones going down and turning right but googled Momoa. Otherwise, an amusing challenge for me as I knew very few of the famous people. Took a long time baffled by FRENCH-PENS. Hmm, 14 pens, no idea.

I loved this one! It is so rare for me to get the gimmick early enough to help solve all the theme entries. It has a nice balance between my wheelhouse and those that I only got from crosses. Seemed difficult at first but was a quick game.