Oscar Pansy

Terrific puzzle!! Very clever and fun. For those solvers annoyed by unfamiliarity with the Super Mario universe, I can only say that's how I feel nearly every puzzle day about clues dealing with professional sports, a complete terra incognita for me and for which I have utter distaste.

I blew a perfect solve because of the cross of "Arepas" with "Ahisee" --in other words because I didn't know a foreign language word, and the creator's arbitrary form of interjection (I assumed"oh," not "ah.") That's a frustrating fail of dubious fairness. In general, I just don't see why words in Spanish, French, German, Swahili, etc are allowed.

GRAVYBOAT in place of SUSHIBOAT slowed me down for a long time --a victim of my own food preferences, I guess. Fun puzzle, great misdirects!

Really fun, nicely chewy puzzle. I was very interested to learn about the Ggantija structures--thank you!!

Perfect Wednesday puzzle!! I'm always happy on the rare days when there are no clues about basketball.

56D--it sounds odd to me to call almsgiving and pilgrimage "rituals." Not every religiously motivated act is a ritual. Ritual suggests a ceremonial act of a defined nature. The puzzle as a whole was fine and fun, though.

I wonder if 38A "cooties" will become the next big concern of our HHS Secretary.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR--now, there's a household name for you. As a person who dislikes sports in general and despises basketball in particular I can't say I particularly enjoyed this otherwise easy puzzle. In my own solving I give myself a free pass to look up sports celebs, rappers, and obscure cable TV actors, all of which constantly clutter up NYT crosswords and which I do not in the least blame myself for not knowing.

You don't need to be Jewish to know about the bitter herbs on the Seder plate: Charlton Heston as Moses in the "Ten Commandments" explains it. And of course Christians also read the book of Exodus where the first Passover meal is described in detail.

Like you, Deb, I both wrestled and had a good time. 45 minutes over my average, but savored every minute. My breakthrough came when I finally gave up "teacher" for "preacher." Excellent challenger, very well clued!!

Excellent Wednesday puzzle!! I was stuck for a bit on 58 Down but managed to "get on" by turning my JIBE into a VIBE.

Pele will live on to eternity in crossword puzzles.

Ridiculous gimmick, not a fun puzzle in the least. Too many techie clues lately.

Could someone please explain the answer for "holesome" figures?

I poured an hour and a half into this puzzle, but "moue" and "tude" were unknowns to me, and unfortunately they crossed. Ouch!

Sports clues are my pet peeve. So two tennis clues, two b-ball clues, and a running clue in one puzzle are really too much, IMO.

Never heard a $5 bill called an Abe. "Fin" kept my NE corner unsolved to the bitter end, prolly my first failed Tuesday in ages.

French soccer star, and "Aesopica." Just wow.

It took me over an hour and a half of some very hard thinking, but what a satisfying solve. A real brain workout, with fiendishly clever cluing. The NW corner took me forever.

Sports clues are to me weeds in the fair fields of crossword puzzles. I never know the answers because I hate sports, and 9 times out of 10 they ruin my solve. Today it was 4D, and I didn't catch my mistake because I had PLC as the cross for "Inc alternative." I thought LLC was for law firms and other professional practices. Oh well, the price of living in a sports-mad culture.

Way too many TV references. Also, another day, another basketball clue. Not fun.

Yet another puzzle spoiled for me by a single letter mistake--this time "acer" crossed with "atno" (I tried "icer" which I hoped might make some sort of hockey sense). A pet peeve for me is how much sports content appears in nyt puzzles (that, and throwaway contemp celebrities from obscure cable shows).

I thought "eureka" meant "I found it," not "I have it." And I can see how Mercury (planet) can HAVE an apparent retrograde motion, but it sounds odd to say it's "in" retrograde.

Clever and fun. I enjoyed the "aha" moment when I "ripped" away the "ab"s from the starred answers.

TWO obscure bands? Really?