Jake

I hope the constructor reads the comments — because I know I'll never get the chance to personally thank him for this incredible solving experience.

I'd like to nominate this puzzle in the "instant classic" category. Such a fun solve.

We've got an early candidate for the worst puzzle of the year. I hate to be so harsh, but the truth can be painful.

As someone who has eaten them and enjoys a beer made with them, I've only see the fruit spelled PAWPAW. That threw me off for nearly five minutes. (I'm sure Barry Ancona soon will arrive with a reference to a PAPAW in an 1800s era farmer's almanac to correct me.)

Puzzles like this are why I keep coming back. What a satisfying solve!

Tip of the cap to the constructor. Very difficult but very fair puzzle that took up a longer chunk of my day than expected!

I don't care that this took me nearly 15 minutes longer than average. In fact, that might be what I love about this puzzle. Very difficult but fair!

Brilliant puzzle, one that should satisfy the Thursday lovers like me — as well as solvers totally opposed to a rebus.

Really great puzzle with some sneaky good clueing. Solved far faster than yesterday, too. Also, TIL the combination of my race and gender are mediocre.

Haha, the first two comments I see: >> "Theme was not clever." >> "So. Freakin’. Clever!" Put me in the latter camp. This was a very memorable Thursday, but I knew it would upset some solvers!

One of the finer executed themes in recent memory. Congrats to the constructor.

Not the constructor's fault this Tuesday puzzle masqueraded as a Friday. Editing team missed on this one.

Easy but vvvvvvvvvvery fun! I'm a Gen Xer but grew up listening to my dad's record collection, so the first three theme answers came very easily.

I managed to do the Friday/Saturday puzzles in less than 20 combined minutes. I thought both were too easy to the point of dissatisfaction, then I see comments about today's difficulty, and it shows how certain puzzles can more easily click with different solvers.

As someone who uses voice-to-text far too often (it's very handy when on long walks!), I loved the theme idea. The execution on the other hand ...

Conservatively, I counted 25 clues that were not wordplay but instead trivia. Seems pretty high. The tone started immediately with both 1-Across and 1-Down.

About to post how easy this was (felt like a Tuesday) but the first comment I see is "felt like a Saturday for me." Funny how that works.

Some fun, fresh cluing, but if the editors think this is Friday-level, I need to find a new source for crosswords. I am working my way through the archives, and a puzzle like today would've been a Tuesday or Wednesday 6-7 years ago.

So much "glue" to make this grid work. Down clues for 27, 28, 31-33 were all abbreviations. Have to question whether it was worth it!

Way above my Tuesday average, and for that I'm grateful. Really well done puzzle with a chuckle; inducing theme.

My memory isn't great, but this has to be the best Wednesday of 2025. Great theme and clueing throughout!

I beat my daily average ... for a Monday. Seriously, the easiest Saturday I've ever seen. And I lost nearly a minute looking for one mistake.

It's a shame I finished the puzzle without figuring out the revealer, because it was brilliant bit of trickery today by the constructor.

I'll go easy on the criticism, since I'm thoroughly impressed a high school senior produced this. However, in the NW corner alone, 5 of the 6 across entries were in the PPP category. That's trivial pursuit, not wordplay. NOH crossing with THORNE, Brazilian soccer team, a Japanese cooking paste, a talking cartoon pig ... Just PPP overkill today.

I never thought I'd be the person who says "I might be done with the NYT crossword" ... but I might be. Getting Wednesday-level puzzles on Fridays is becoming all too common.

I know nada about Star Trek but still thought this was a fantastic puzzle.

Perhaps my favorite NYT ever (solving daily since 2019), almost entirely because I was a minesweeper addict for many years.

I'd be none the wiser if the staff had swapped Tuesday and Thursday puzzles.

Crossword gods heard my complaints yesterday about easy weekend puzzles and decided to deliver this.

Always great clueing by Robyn, but this was Wednesday-level difficulty.

Rare day when I mostly see comments about the level of difficult, ones with which I'd usually agree. Instead I had a sub 10-minute solve and a new personal best. Instantly getting the first three across answers sure helped!

I guess some records were never meant to be broken. Congrats to the constructor on his achievement, however, it came at the expense of the grid (and thus the solving process). This was essentially four mini puzzles with the flimsiest of middle sections tying them together. I had solved all corners but the (horrendous) NW. Solving 75% of the puzzle contributed exactly two letters to that corner. Just unacceptable.

Great theme spoiled by far too much trivia. Crossing the Hello Kitty creator with an author of a book on Yiddish? No defense for that. What's worse, I had the puzzle finished in a respectable amount of time. Except I typed YOURS instead of the YOUR in the rebus square. The print was so small it took me nearly 15 minutes to find that little mistake. Lastly, while I am a fan of the Thursday antics, I think it's time the staff consider running these as special puzzles, not weekly entries. Based on the comments, it feels far more solvers disapprove of them.

Would love recommendations from fellow solvers about where to go for difficult Saturday puzzles. The editors appear to be uninterested in providing them.

A meaty Friday — just how I like it!

EMU, UMA, GNU, RAE, ERA ... heavy on the crosswordese today!

Loved the puzzle but not a fan, at all, of the grid. Felt like three separate puzzles (top, middle and bottom thirds) with very loose connections between them.

Bad grid (NW/SE corners were basically closed off from the rest of the puzzle) but otherwise some good cluing/answers. Like yesterday, though, a bit easier than the norm.

Insultingly easy. What is the editorial team thinking running this on a Friday? Finished in 5+ minutes, only because I was half paying attention to a March Madness game while solving.