--art

@Darren Thursdays usually feature some sort of trickery and those clues were clearly marked. It was just a question of figuring out what kind of changes to make. Took me awhile to get it though because I read the first as RAT OUT and then GUTTER without the rat, but that didn't make sense with the clue. I think x to y would have been too much of a hint but something in the info for those that don't know about Thursdays would help.

@Lynn I grew up in Ohio. Google Books Ngram shows it peaking in the Victorian ERA and still slightly more prevalent than bed frame with or without a space.

@John, I agree. The longer entries came rather quickly without many letters for help. Probably had to gauge difficulty on those. The right half of the Wednesday puzzle was a slog for me.

@James H jazzy license. Cement mixer putti putti... I have a terrible memory but can still remember my dad singing that line (he was an architect that used tons of concrete) <a href="https://youtu.be/BLkFyzzcbSQ?si=doHR6om2URKFIx_W" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/BLkFyzzcbSQ?si=doHR6om2URKFIx_W</a>

@Remi agreed, but is a hotdog a taco!?

@Richard Landster it was uneven. I was moving through most of the puzzle at a Monday pace and then spent most of my time on that rare fill. Loved the bird theme except for the cluing of nice for common. As someone who doesn't know birds that well I missed that stretch.

@Jim I never heard of ELEVENTY either, but was pleased I came up with it with many of the crossings as it made so much childish sense.

@Jacqui J, I went through those exact steps except I tried Erie first. I don't follow sports any more but that one was still in my noggin even though I have a terrible memory for other things.

@Calhouri I don't know how you solved without ever figuring out the trick used for that and three other pairs of clues. TSTORM or how to solve 45 across TS TO RM, so peTSit becomes peRMit. Took me awhile to get it but I thought it was a good one.

@Becca your description actually made me chuckle! I felt the awkwardness of many of those you mentioned, but somehow the pieces kept falling together for me as I chipped away so to me it was still enjoyable. I really struggled with the puzzles last weekend. I have known naticks but only today learned what they were called! BMX bike is a very common word to me but somehow I still tried boxbike first. On the other hand, the skateboarder's Ollie which comes up in the puzzles frequently is something I only learned recently.

@1325867 making it hard to figure out made it good. I had more than three quarters done before I figured out the first. Drop the fruit from toPEARners and you have the answer to the clue, TONERS.

@James that NW corner was the last for me, MAP... BUMP.... BAT ??? arrrrg! Baseball has made me an eejiot again!!!!

@Chris H me too. I also chuckled at ious when I finally got it even tho I had long noticed the connection.

@David Pearce I felt the same way partly due to too much of a sense of the word from shopping spree, but a spree ~= binge -> drinking bout. Locs, dreadlocks, protecting curly hair??? Never heard of that definition of GAM so didn't like crossing that with the neologism....

@Joanne rebuses can be annoying when you're not sure if you've entered one incorrectly (is it GLOVE or U/GLOVE...GLOVE/U) or you've made some other error in the puzzle. Might be nice if you were notified when everything was correct except a rebus. I think only requiring either the up or down letters removes the annoyance but in this case you can miss out on the cleverness of this puzzle with the across clues aiding the downs.

@Times Rita I too enjoyed this one. I only hoped to find GEORGE and CANTSTANDYA, tho I love ya, in there. Appreciated the clueing and fill as in spite of the initialisms and my ignorance of French I was able to solve without lookups.

@Ed would have been tough. Hard enough to come up with a tree that you could add an F to either end and still have a word. Then to find an arboreal clue for FLOTUS? Maybe, Wife of cherry tree chopper at some point. Enjoyed this puzzle.

@Bill do you solve on paper? On the app the the squares of the other half of the pair are highlighted making it clear where the answers might be tricky.

@heironymous I didn't like Peretti either (I had Handler first) nor did I know her even though she's made me laugh on Brooklyn nine nine. At least the second T made it sound like a valid Italian name. I don't understand the people who are so rigid in their thinking that they just couldn't flip it so that you change xx in the grid TO yy to solve for the clue.

@J not sure what you mean. It was a rebus "eye" entered into single squares. Maybe it still counted it correct as long as you had the e? Or were you referring to some other part of the puzzle?

@Jim I don't know but I chuckled at it when I finally corrected one across and got it very late even though I had long noticed the stud/stud-ious connection.