Heidi

I have never heard of Church Rock uranium spill until tonight. Thank you for enlightening me. Now that's wooooooooooooow.

I was guessing guessing what I filled in, I thought I had vision vision then I finally realized what was going on. Clever :)

I prefer chicken Kyiv. It's a Ukrainian dish.

John Travolta will have a hard time completing this puzzle (60A)

I'm sure Arjun would be watching over, thrilled by Ms. Baik's accomplishment. Looking forward to more puzzles in the future. From Gen Z's point of view, I suppose 37A is indeed a "retro" tech. I feel old...

LOL@44D Thank you.

Very nice Thursday puzzle. For some reason, I started filling the clues from the bottom and the big theme appeared right away. Starred clue 42D helped me what to look for in the other starred clues. Favorite clue of the night: 57A Companionship?

1D: How many of you uttered (audibly or at least in your mind) the answer in his accent?

As a regular traveler on NJ and Mass Turnpikes, the answer to 24D Peter Pan transport made me chuckle. Hard clue for those living overseas or even outside Northeast US.

Thank you for the trip down memory lane - I clicked on the link to Mr. Gordon's 1993 Sunday puzzle, and it all came back. From the deepest layer of cerebral cortex, the Sunday puzzle's rainbow rebus brought back vivid memories of my first year out of college; living in my own apartment, too poor to afford a bottle of wine I came to appreciate after taking a wine appreciation class instead turned my interest into savoring good coffee. My Sunday morning routine was to take a quick walk to the nearby newsstand to buy the Sunday paper, brew a good cup of coffee and begin solving the Sunday crossword. Back then, I would struggle and it would take me an entire week to crack the puzzle if I was lucky. I've just begun solving crossword around that time and I remember this particular puzzle very well - it was one of the first rebuses I've encountered. Once I realized I could squeeze in letters into one square, I colored them in instead. The color filled squares, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, the clanging of hot water radiator of the apartment... as I started filling the squares tonight, this time on screen, they all came back along with answers like Violets Are Blue (123A), Geegaws (51A), but clues for Carnac (22A) and Cat (91D) needed a little refresher. Johnny Carson had just retired and Socks was the White House Cat back then. Was FALA a nod to Socks from the puzzle by any chance?

Proper Saturday crossword. I'm glad I did it online than pen on paper, lest the grid would end up illegible or torn.

Enjoyed this puzzle very much. 12D, could this be the answer? ...I'll see myself out.

1A: Confidently entered WARSAWPACT, resulted in 41A after a while.

In 1986, when my English was still not as good, I saw a car from Texas with the license plate that had "Sesquicentennial" written on it. It commemorated 150 years of Texas statehood from 1836 to 1986 (Sesqui = 1.5, cent =100, thus 150). To this day, I am thankful for encountering such an elegant word so early in my English learning days. The prefix is also used in chemistry, e.g. Sodium Sesquicarbonate. I did not major in chemistry but from the prefix, I can tell that it has 1 and a half of something.

I'd prefer to attribute human hubris as Titanic's undoing, even though iceberg was the direct cause of its destruction.

I realized after reading the Wordplay "Japan's kitchen" is what's known in Japan as "tenka no daidokoro", a nickname given to Osaka during the Edo period. As the center of commerce and cuisine during that era, "tenka" means literally directly under heaven or the best in the world, and "daidokoro" is kitchen in Japanese ("no" is a particle that can be approximated to a preposition in English language, in this case "of" would be most appropriate). The northeast corner was tough, along with 2 down.

TL;DR I was hoping for War and Peace or Anna Karenina for subsequent answers. Personally, I would have made this Wednesday's and yesterday's rebus for today. However, as witty as yesterday's puzzle was, I was somewhat dissatisfied with lack of point symmetry with the placement of rebus squares, even without non-rebus themed answer. Both enjoyable puzzles - I was smiling as I worked on them - but I feel that there is a slight laxness and lack of rigor the past couple of days than I expect from NYT Crossword.

I was not exactly a fan of this type of puzzle, but when all was said and done and I saw the visual transformation of the completed puzzle, I remembered the days I used to solve on paper and that's exactly how I used to enter answers to this type of themed clues. I now have renewed appreciation and I will adapt. 13A: Is it just me or do I have a dirty mind?

I must have been on the same wavelength with Mr. Musa. That was fast solving time for me for Friday, yet very satisfying. 43A was solved incidentally by filling down clues. Wimbledon - lawn, Roland Garros - clay, and Australian Open and US Open are hard courts so I thought it was some acronym for fancy surface until I came to this page. Essie - I will have to remember that for future reference.

The ratio of time spent by the constructor making the puzzle vs. time spent by us solving it, this one might be way off the chart. Hats off to the constructor for an overimaginative puzzle.

I can relate to this experience. Also, something made me think of SkyMall catalog found in seatback pockets as well. Good times, when air travel was less stressful, and about the worst thing was finding completed or half completed crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine.

Agree with most of the comments regarding dissatisfaction with today's puzzle (not to mention some technical issues with NYT site that did not allow me to begin the puzzle until an hour later). 17A followed by 23A made me realize misspelling was intentional. The theme was overall weak and same goes for the clues. Could 45D clue be something like "GoT Title?" instead of "To be, in Spanish"? What was most annoying was 8D. Never a fan of compass direction clues, this one was among the worst in which two possible answers could make sense, but without the ingenuity of that one particularly memorable crossword that had two possible solutions to every clue.

Nice twist to a lot of clues. Once you're on the same wavelength as the constructor, you hit the groove and 15D : )

82D I zeroed in on that clue and I could not think of such a Brazilian player with 5 letters. When the first letter turned out to be M, I thought, "he's Argentinian, I must write to the editor for factual error." Then it dawned upon me, and I must say, I was embarrassed at myself for overlooking her achievements. I really despise those who look down on women's soccer and here I was, committing the same error. Took a little time to realize this was a themeless puzzle.

We had International Women's Day themed puzzle over the weekend, so I thought today was National Inventor's Day, but alas it's on February 11 (it was also on Wednesday this year, it would have been just the right puzzle).

Sometimes, it helps to skip clues until you come across the clue that begins to reveal the theme. Noticed something was amiss at 2D, proceeded down to 52A for an aha moment. Thereafter, smooth sailing as clues were not Thursday level. Cute but feel like I've only had half a portion.

I enjoyed fresh takes on some of the clues such as 50A (almost put in the usual corrida cry). Made me 38D at 26D, very well done! Thank you

My puzzle was one [letter] off due to my input mistake. I read "The God of Small Things" by 58A shortly after it won the Booker Prize. I remember that I got so excited that a certain Metro North station, the station that I used to commute from at the time I read the book, was mentioned in that novel.

I could only remember single humper - dromedary. Thank you for the reminder - I hope to memorize two-humper but alas, I am at the stage of life where I am forgetting more than I could acquire or reacquire information.

Personally, I liked clue to 36D. 50D Really? It seems like a stretch but next time I walk through security, I will try to impress the agent by calling the item as such.

Was expecting ants in your pants somewhere but I liked 39A better, Thank you.

I was stuck on WADI (28D) which I find is a more legitimate answer to the clue. Others were tricky but some, like 48A was a delight. Overthought on 53A, thinking there was a name for that particular pattern. I admit 32D, (insert 31D Emoji here). Well done.

Pluto is no longer a planet, Chicago is no longer No.2 city in the US... Things I've learned growing up is no longer true and I have no idea who Playboi Carti is. Upon filling 26D, yet another relic of my youth came to the forefront and it is now an earworm. Is it just me or did anyone experience that tune by Alphaville of the same title begin to play in your head?

Hey NYT: I looked up the puzzle's theme puzzle inventor and turns out his birthday is July 13. I suppose difficulty level of today's puzzle would have made it too challenging for a Monday crossword. Also, I expected Tuesday's crossword to have something to do with Bastille Day but alas no. Missed opportunities, if you ask me.

39A: I had L instead of R and it made [more] sense to me with the L. Hence 21D had me stumped until I tried every letter of alphabet at the intersection of 21D and 44A. Not my finest moment but still managed to stay under my average solving time for Wednesday.

I look forward most to Thursday’s puzzles as they have traditionally featured rebuses and some kind of witty bonuses that added another level of fun. Today’s puzzle was adequately entertaining and there was a sense of “yeah!” when I figured out the theme. However, for a Thursday puzzle, I was left a little dissatisfied. Wednesday puzzle perhaps, but not Thursday. I felt like I was served undercooked russet potatoes.

Had to print out the puzzle halfway through when I realized that some of the answers extended beyond the grid - something that the app or online versions could not provide without giving it away. I don't think it's the fault of the constructor - I actually enjoyed solving it (except for a few clues such as 41 and 44 Across which were weak), but joy of solving has been diluted by limitation of the app/online versions.

Timely theme. I have evacuated with my laptop to the basement, where it remains cool without AC. By now, I have come to expect rebuses on Wednesdays. Hope that means Thursday puzzles get more twists in the future.

Got 101A early on. Poor Ross, according to one poll, he was the least popular of the six. Here, he is associated with "sewer" - pronounced differently of course, but on written text they're one and the same. Let's give him some love. I was a casual watcher of the show during its original run, my favorite character was Phoebe.

In a true Scrabble tile fashion, I wanted to leave the last two squares as they are but it won't let me finish the puzzle,

11D could have followed food + object compound word as in other 4 answers to the themed clues. Somewhat dissatisfying like a meal with ungenerous serving. I'm getting hungry after solving the puzzle.