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This one wasn't fun at all for me-- SO many obscure words. I'm not expert in crosswords, but have been trying to do the NYT crosswords for a couple of years now, starting from scratch as an adult in my 50s--had never done any before! I'm an academic so I tend to think my vocabulary is pretty strong, and I've been building up my crossword acumen. Can even do most Sundays now without looking up any answers, and even some Saturdays, too! But ones like this where I have to look up so many clues really aren't any fun at all--just a slog to try to finish for finishing's sake and simply discouraging. I said out loud, "what the heck?" after this one. I got the theme, but it wasn't a sufficient reward for what I thought was a mess of a puzzle.

I'm really bothered by the OPTICLOBE answer. Optic lobes do not exist in humans (as other have pointed out). As a neuroscientist, I'm feeling offended by having something this blatantly inaccurate here.

This was one of the awesomest puzzles ever for me. Bravo, Mr. Vu! Really enjoyed it all-- from the start with being totally confused by what seemed like really odd turns of phrase for every single one of the across clues-- was every clue some weird wordplay? What day of the week was this? To gradually revealing hints of the answers through the down clues, to the 3 fun reveals, and the biggest AHA! and WHOA! moment I've had since starting as a newbie in doing the NYT crossword a couple of years ago (never did any crosswords previously in my life, and I'm middle aged!). For me, a giddy thrill. Every single across clue. I thought that was a tour de force.