Alexandra

DADAISM is such a great bit of wordplay that I literally LOLed and annoyed my husband who is still actively puzzling. That whole SW corner is just fantastic: IVANA, INERTIA & VACANCY Nice

The only good thing I can say about this puzzle is that it didn’t have any clues related to golf (something I have not and will not ever care about). So many arcane and out of date phrases & slang here: AH ME, BRO CODE (ew), GAH, KEEN, ROFL (dates back to 1989 Usenet-speak). Then we have the clunky and flat-out incorrect CUT IN ON (correct phrase is CUT IN), MUD HOLE (the greenest paint you ever did see), HD TV SET (no one has used “set” after “TV” in decades), and the very apt NOT QUITE RIGHT (an acute angle could be 45° or lower). The fill here is made even uglier with the trivia-centric acronyms AEC & TASS appearing right next to each other, two three-letter German-language words being clued with “in Austria”, and the bizarre URBS which I have never encountered before in my life and truly hope to never see again. The theme, unlike the fill, was not abhorrently bad. It was merely so weak that I barely noticed it. 1/5 stars

Did Will Shortz’s grandfather clue this? Are they perhaps a native of Natick, MA? Way too much obscure trivia and dated references to be enjoyable - I saw Back to the Future 2 in the theater when I was in the 5th grade and haven’t thought of it since… if people in their mid-40s find the puzzle to be old-fogeyish, that should maybe be a strong indicator to freshen things up a bit. I eventually broke down and started googling things to get the puzzle over with. I need to go do an AVCX cryptic as a palate-cleanser.

It’s not a terrible theme but is it worthy of a Thursday? Hardly. I miss a good, tricky rebus. This theme is nicely cohesive and there are some great answers in here that go beyond crossword-see: POSOLE, SHTETL, SCRIP and PROPHESIED were all strong. But the trick to the puzzle isn’t worthy of a Thursday imo.

Boy howdy it’s nice to have Will Shortz back in the game.

I loved how “auteur” was thrown in with Ebert’s hilarious pans of Hollywood schlock. There was a bit of a missed opportunity to clue “stone” as director Oliver Stone, but I’m nitpicking. Great theme, good fill - more like this, please!

Now that’s what I’m talking about! Great theme! Pleasant amount of resistance. Adored the cluing on ROME, INGRATES, and ONION. I’m definitely not an AC/DC fan but I love Brian ENO so l’ll let it slide. A massive improvement over the past few days. Nice!

Disappointed with the lack of a theme, relative easiness of most of the clues, green paint answers (SAKE BOTTLE, really?), and over-reliance on PPP trivia. Themeless Sundays are usually a bummer, this one was especially so.

This could have been a Tuesday. Definitely not worthy of a Thursday. Can we PLEASE get a rebus puzzle or something similar for Thursdays again? This ‘theme’ was so weak that I barely noticed that it was there.

This was a slow solve for me, mostly because of the current lack of caffeine in my system. Satisfyingly rigorous, happy to see this level of difficulty on a Wednesday. I usually rush to the comments to kvetch when a puzzle is a flop (cough…Sunday…), so it feels nice to start my day by giving some positive feedback. 😊 Hope to see more puzzles from this constructor soon!

Hoooboy! Tougher than most Saturdays. I got a little Naticked on the MANIOC/SENOR cross. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Mexico City (it’s on my list) and the texture of tapioca gives me the ick. Loved the cluing on ICE STORM, SINK HOLE, and TAX EXILE. Satisfyingly difficult - easy Fridays are always a bummer. 8.5/10

This felt like a Wednesday. No challenge, no grit, no bite. There was nothing *that* terrible - I’ve never seen Survivor, don’t care about the CMAs or ADELE’s music that much, but that’s just my contrarian tastes I guess. But there was no clever world play here, nothing to think about, no “a-ha” moments. Another letdown after a weak Thursday.

Ok let me start out by saying that I have never ever EVER liked AC/DC. There’s a lot of great bands that are loud and only know three cords. AC/DC was never one of them for me. So the theme wasn’t necessarily terrible but… eh Never heard of WIPE OUT, and WARD ≠ CARE. Like if someone is your WARD, they’re in your care I guess? Weak cluing yet again. Step it up NYT. We need a real distraction these days.

Could have been improved by working MEL BLANC in as a revealer maybe? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A little weak as a theme for something as iconic as Looney Tunes, but nothing *terrible* per se. Now I’m thinking about fun ways to have a Looney Tunes themed Sunday puzzle (Wile E Coyote chasing the Roadrunner around the grid with some rebus action)… but alas it’s 9 am on a Monday and I have to write work emails instead of learning puzzle construction. Boo.

I like the idea of this theme, but it might have had a bit more *zing* with at least one more film/fish cross - perhaps with a film that’s come out more recently (as in after 1990), Or maybe it would have worked better on a Sunday with more of the theme answers providing visual clues to the overall premise. I’ve only seen 2 out of the three films represented as the “hooks” (war movies generally aren’t my thing) and both of those were before I graduated high school - and I’m old enough to need reading glasses. As a trivia-heavy Thursday with only three theme answers I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed and unsatisfied. 3/5

I love Scrabble & I love crosswords so this puzzle was a bit of a bummer. Tennis trivia crossing obscure musical notation got me seriously Naticked in the Northeast. HOARY always brings to mind an old man with tufts of ear & nostril hair and big bushy eyebrows, not “trite”. 2/5

The cluing was fine but the difficulty level had more of a Tuesday feel. The theme: also fine but imho not quite tricksy enough for a Thursday. 3/5 - almost but not quite.

How, just HOW could you possibly have a Shawshank Redemption themed puzzle and have zero mention of Red, Morgan Freeman, or the Warden? Any of these names or characters should have at least garnered a mention in the cluing. I think Stephen King, obsidian, Rita Hayworth could have also been used to good effect here. Missed opportunities for sure.

Seemed more like a Tuesday or a maybe even a Monday. Very disappointed.

Surely the NYT gets better submissions than this? INASUIT? Seriously?

My take: a pun is not a theme.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a trick in a puzzle doesn’t read both down and across. I’m also not a poker player- this one just wasn’t on my level.