Evan Bartlett

@Toni-Ann There will always be some vicissitude in difficulty from week to week. Maybe this was a bit easier than last week. But what is not random is the consistent improvement we experience in solving from week to week! Maybe last year you wouldn't not have finished this puzzle, and maybe next year you'll solve Fridays on some consistent cadence. Take the win! You deserve it! Friday or not - this wasn't "easy".

@Barry Ancona Much like princip.al.le, I suppose. Principals are people. Principles are concepts.

@Wayne Harrison Why do I seem to fly through some of the "difficult" ones and get absolutely blocked on many of the "easier" ones? The NYT CW some days makes me feel like a genius, only to take it all back the next day and stick me in the corner with a dunce cap. "The Crossword giveth, and the Crossword taketh away"

@Endall I'm not sure about "exponential" change in difficulty. But while I'd agree that this one was on the easier side of Friday puzzles, the average difficulty of Friday puzzles doesn't seem to have changed much in my view. At least over the last 10 years. We can all cherrypick certain Fridays to make a point but that's why I like referring to the averages in archives if we're looking for trends.