Don H

I laughed out loud, not at a clever clue, though there were many. But my guffaw was at my own expense. I stared at 12D for a good half minute, wondering what on earth an EAR NEST was. Waxy buildup? Precursor to a bird brain? The mark of a good puzzle is even when I get it right, I get it wrong.

This is what I want out of the Sunday Crossword. Sunday is my favorite crossword day to take a lazy, long time with it, in no hurry to finish (and mild disappointment when it is complete -- what else will I do today that is as relaxing, creative and amusing all at the same time? Today's puzzle suited my strengths. Hey, I've lived through all those error messages and somehow still like my computers! And now I know that the next time I run into a gorilla, we have something in common to discuss besides loincloth trends.

Unlike other commenters, I am not sad that this puzzle failed to provide Halloween related content. I was, however, disappointed that OREO did not appear for a third consecutive day, we had to put up with ORCA instead, its close cousin and hottest competitor for the most-used NYT solve word trophy. Hats off to GIRLSCOUTTROOPS for taking on today's cookie challenge. I strove mightily to fit DOUBLESTUFFOREO into those squares but, alas, it was not to be. But tomorrow is another day, and I'll even be placated by a HYDROX.

I have to join the haters on this one. The last straw for me was "Certain miniature vehicle, informally" leading us to RCCAR. I found no enjoyable puns, no clever wordplay, just a whack of obscure proper nouns, including RENATO, a character that even Wikipedia mentions only in passing. And this, after Connections sent me to the dictionary today for 4 of its 16 words. Maybe I'm in a grumpy mood, or maybe I'm just an ICEHOLE.

OREO! My long-lost friend; at last, you have returned.

Got it, no help from Google, didn't balk at the rebusses (rebi?) Since Thursday is usually my least favorite crossword day, I just strode in here to SINg a happy song, albeit sans a shampoo bottle.

Just another lazy Saturday morning for me -- but, then again, I'm retired, and every day is Saturday. So I was just sitting around, sucking on coca leaves, listening to my MF Doom albums (as usual) and thinking what a fine lyricist he is. Haven't counted, but I'll bet he's penned MMMDCCCLXXXVIII great songs by now. 28D threw me off my game, as my first-pass fill was JOHNHENRY and thought that sorority pledges dreaded MID DAY, as lunch can be so stressful when one is young. Other than those, everything worked themselves out, although I wondered why NEEDNT is a "quaint" contraction, it seems like all the others to me.

For an easy opening step, regardless of the day you're playing, do what I do: find OREO first. It's as regular as OKRA and SSN, although today the latter was in the clue, not the answer. Now, some days OREO is also hiding in the clue, which brings us to HYDROX , a fill provider when an X is needed. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

I never do well with Thursdays which means I often hate Thursdays. But today I caught the trick and got a gold star. Yes, I'm posting this just to congratulate myself. I almost lost it with 11D -- where's the X? But a typo was my mistake, and when it went away, the X slipped right in Yay me.

It may be possible to arrive at the comments section without scrolling through the Wordplay column; if so, I don't know how. But every day, so many commenters seems to have accomplished this. Slow down and read it, folks. The columns often ask and answer the same questions that get (mis)posted here, and besides, it's usually a fun read.

Attention to puzzle play metrics is a personal choice; we all find our fun in different ways. But I just don't understand why anyone would want to finish this excellent, joyous puzzle as rapidly as possible. It's like going to a fine restaurant and devouring the entree in three minutes flat, and then boasting about it. That's not what the chef had in mind. I turned off my timer long ago, and enjoyed savoring both my morning coffee and these hilarious clues in a long, luxurious lazy Sunday manner. I'll let Frank explain it, he does a better job: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuANCcsODq0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuANCcsODq0</a>

Mr. Aaronson: I enjoyed your constructor notes. Where I live, seeing celebrities while on a walk is extremely unlikely, unless XI JINPING decides to take up crabbing. Also, not too many fashion models go out on the docks for some reason. I've often wondered if B-list stars clip and save crosswords when their names first appear as a clue. I would!

Maybe the morning coffee kicked harder than usual, but I felt very smart while working this puzzle, and was therefore having lots of fun. Part of a belt? Buckle didn't fit, but I had a few letters from the fill, and then -- Aha! Another puzzle from recent days had taken me to Wikipedia to get schooled on the Kuiper Belt, a more distant cousin of those pesky ASTEROIDs. Carpe Diem and SEIZETHEDAY let me in on the parenthetical "French 16" part of the clue, so I scooted back up and proudly typed in DOSANDDONTS, cashing in at last on high school language classes. So, it was one of those rare mornings when everything clicked. Maybe tomorrow I'll even survive the dreaded Thursday experience; à demain matin.

My first run through had the much, much better answer to the clue "It may bring out the kid in you": GOATMILK. If I were Don Draper, I could turn that catch phrase into $$$millions for the world's goat farmers. Call me if you need help with YOUR ad campaign.

Great puzzle, some very enjoyable clues.

Technical nit: it would have been helpful if, when 73A was selected, the seven italicised clues had been highlighted (as things like this usually are). Finding the italicized clues meant putting on the reading glasses. But I loved this puzzle! A perfect Sunday experience and the theme, once discovered, was a delightful aid to the sneaky 7. Mic drop!

This puzzle, I loved. It hit me at just the right moment and in just the right way. I was so smart. I knew the Gloria Gaynor song and inked it in. Marley and Clapton? Only one possible song, and it fit, and I was so proud of myself. The Who? First I thought of Pinball Wizard -- too short -- but then the right answer popped. And then, none of the crosses fit. Impossible words. So, I thought I'd better take a closer look at the bottom right theme clue, which stumped me at first. But my neighbor has a dog named Yoda (yes, he's that ugly), and next came a guffaw, followed by edits to my musical brilliance with the Yoda-esque word arrangement. After that, the rest of the puzzle flew by. Really, truly fun. Actually, sort of easy for a Wednesday once the theme was decoded. But I give the author an OBIE, an ESPY and a standing ovation for bravery.

I groaned aloud (with appreciation) when I solved 14 across (Frank account), enough to startle my dog. The answer is true both generically -- I thought "yeah, that fits" -- and more so for the specific person, Frank. But before my brain used the proper noun as a surname I was trying to think of what five-letter word could be used as the title of a Frank Sinatra biography. A bit far afield.

A near-first for me: the revealer helped me solve the theme entries. It's far more common that I struggle through a puzzle until it is complete, and only then see the cleverness that glued them together. And then I read that Ms. Cohen submitted her first puzzle at age 9. I'm about 60 years older than that and still haven't the courage to face the icy stare of Will Shortz with my own submission. Also, the "#1 spot in London?" ! Blimey!

I loved this puzzle. My favorite so far this year. Maybe Thursdays aren't so bad after all. I also am continually amazed at how feeble my brain is. I got 10D entirely through crosses, and then stared at it for a long minute, wondering what kind of word BESILENT could be. Besilent? Is that some mineral on the periodic table? In its liquid form does it become besilyne? I'm no EINSTEIN.

My first pass was a first-class disaster, beginning with 16A as HAZYLITTLETHING (the brewery's strong IPA) and ending with my confident entry for 58A CHICAGOILLINOIS. I was so chuffed at my brilliance in nailing the long crosses so knowingly. In the end, there were a few I just never would have known, and I agonized over the spelling of a c-section, insisting on spelling Caesar's name correctly. On to Saturday.

I did the first half of the puzzle on my phone, in a coffee shop. Not my usual style. I was struggling, and thought I would not be getting a gold star. But being a dinosaur, I came home to my trusty desktop and suddenly saw the gray squares. They may have been there on the phone app, buy, you know, dinosaur eyes. The hodgepodge of POLTERGEIST showed me a backwards egret in gray, and having already solved the revealer I was on my way to enjoying the San Jose Strut. In a world where everyone is a phone addict, I jones for my desktop. Two screens, a mouse and a keyboard gives me my fix. Maybe I should have saved this thought for one of the (many) LSD-answer days.

Re the 51A giggles: as we examine our The New Normal attitudes we can keep in mind that its is not uncommon to see adult toys touted on Amazon and staff-tested (ahem) by NYT journalists in Wirecutter reviews. The birds and bees have expanded their repertoire.

One thing you can be sure of when a puzzle author makes his debut: they will read every single comment. So, Hi, chad! Your job, which you say you love, reminds me of the Cheers episode when Norm finally gets the gig of his dreams: beer taster at a brewery. In case you've never seen it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgouWHo4RhU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgouWHo4RhU</a>

I admit it, I woke up in a crabby mood, and this puzzle did not help. I didn't like it. The first thing I thought was off was the odd Editor's Note: "Once the puzzle is complete, the circled letters, when read from left to right, will spell a punny two-word phrase." If one must explain a joke, it is never funny, or punny. And circled letters are just not one of my favorite things to find in a puzzle anyway. Topping them with tree-name rebuses failed to turn my opinion toward the better. I am not a fan of 96A. Birdspeak is Twitter, not Chitter (nor X, for that matter). Ta-Ta See Ya crossing with Yes Yes is cheap fill, as is OOH for Fancy That, and I'm not happy that Erica Wright thought it would be clever to re-spell her given name with sound-alike syllables (did I say I woke up grumpy?). 17D was clever clueing, so I'm not totally without compliments. But do we set any of our timers to OVEN? No, we set our oven timer to minutes or hours. Sunday is my favorite crossword solving day. Big, meaty puzzles that usually feel more special than Fir Yew, a punny, two-word phrase that tickled the constructor's fancy way more than mine.

Having never hear of our columnist for the past two days, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, I strolled over to YouTube and watched a few of his videos. His comedy is an acquired taste to be sure, but he had me giggling. I recommend taking a gander.

I'd barely begun solving this puzzle when my entire region lost all internet service. So all hopes of Googling "Father of Transcendentalism" and other online cheating were dashed. But I did better than I thought I would, and finding all of the theme answers unaided was a lot of fun. I groaned when I realized why DAIRYFARM fit the clue.

I usually dread Thursday, it just seems that the trickery is more essential that the solving. But today, after removing a couple fruits, I was actually smiling and could fill in LEMON to finish 59A. A few clues were a bit much: I've not before encountered GAMIN or the West African Financial Center, but I slogged on through.

Note to Sam (<a href="mailto:sam.corbin@nytimes.com">sam.corbin@nytimes.com</a>): I believe the term hop skip and jump was the common name for the Olympic event we now call the Triple Jump. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump</a> You Learn Something Every Day Department: I now know that a rhea is a kangaroo-like animal. I previously only knew of Rhea Perlman, who is probably grateful that her parents named her as they did (although Kangaroo Perlman would be a great show business name). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Perlman" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Perlman</a> Kismet Department: first thing this morning I put a huge, meaty ham bone into a slow cooker with pre-soaked split peas, then found pea soup to be a clue/answer in both Connections and the Crossword. I must be doing something right. <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019881-split-pea-soup?unlocked_article_code=1.5U8.vXh7.6hcs_gypWYRu&smid=share-url" target="_blank">https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019881-split-pea-soup?unlocked_article_code=1.5U8.vXh7.6hcs_gypWYRu&smid=share-url</a>

Vehicle in which it's often legal to drink alcohol: UBER, TAXI (probably not, but if you tip the driver...) SLED (Run the entire Iditarod without a flask? Unthinkable!) DISC (Those aliens driving saucers are a menace) TRAM (Maybe...) ZZZZ (Theme! Zero of these answers were correct.)

I enjoyed this puzzle. I lost a lot of time when, on my first pass, I confidently filled in BOSTONCREAMPIE for 113A. I also thought 71D might be BMS, but no...

I loved this puzzle, the perfect Sunday experience for me. And thanks to the link provided by Caitlin, my time solving the puzzle was eclipsed by the moments I spent enjoying the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. If you like the Hannukah in Santa Monica song, check out Proud Mary on the sidebar. If only I were gay, lived in Los Angeles and could sing, I'd join those fellas.

Unfortunately for me, MICKEYMOUSE has the same number of letters as TONYORLANDO, so I lost a lot of time to a self-made red herring.

When you see a puzzle maker struggle to fit in TORNTENDON, you know that they must have recently experienced such a (painful!) event, and couldn't get it out of their mind. Also, off topic, what was the deal with the colored squares in today's Mini? Several shades, and I couldn't see any reason for them.