Jeff B MD

Forzamoment I didn't think I would stanzachance in solving this puzzle. I says to myself ariakidding and after plugging away succeeded. Gosh, sonatathing!

Thank you Deb for all the years you have helped me with the tough puzzles with your humor and crosswordese expertise. I have always enjoyed when you shared personal anecdotes. You felt like a secret friend. And thank you for your most important crossword lesson: the puzzle is for my enjoyment to complete however I need. I can look up an obscure actor's name or the 3rd high prince of Egypt if I need one less stressor on an already stressful day. I retired one year ago and love it. Can read 2 books at a time now and have more time foall my NYT puzzles. So thank you Deb and good luck with the next stage of your life!😊

I think HIP HIP HURRUMBA might just catch on. Will surely need to try it at our next celebration.

What an amazing Monday puzzle. Slowly reading across the top and appreciating the theme in all it's glory as it revealed itself was heartwarming. Congratulations on a puzzle well done. Take pride in your puzzle and your message.

Amazing Sunday puzzle on multiple levels. Loved the rebuses especially spIDEr! Tricky move having the rebus in the revealer! And able to fit in all the Caesar salad ingredients to boot !!!🥬🥬🥬

So very clever for a Tuesday. I loved it. Like a Thursday without the brain pain.

Just the right amount of Thursday brain strain for my Thursday morning. The downs were straight forward enough to solve the revealer and then enjoy the 6 mini brain teasers. Great puzzle. Good luck and enjoy your premed. Though, it's hard to imagine how you will find the time to create puzzles while in Med School!

Hard enough for me. Couple of look ups giving me a few ILT moments. Looked to see if Emily Dickinson had a blue or grey period until I got enough cross letters for the "MORN" aha moment and smiled. I enjoyed typing Toy Poodle. I do miss my blind little red toy poodle, Rosie.

What a fun and clever theme! And any puzzle that has Slash as an answer is a Sweet Child of Mine!!!

Well, I found the theme fascinating to look back at after the solve. I thought the wonder of goofoff shuffling back to itself and so allowing it twice in the puzzle a fun aha moment and worth the price of admission. I did have trouble with northeast and had to look up T Booker and the MGs and Noor ( yet again although I think I have her tucked in the brain for next time.).

I've been waiting for a puzzle all about William Tell!!! Fun outing today. And it's nice to start the day with the sounds of a couple of alliterative phrases. Shooting star and marksmanship. Loved the special effects on solving.

Tough one today. Had to leave and come back a number of times (breakfast, Connections,Wordle, elliptical) but I got through with just one or two look ups. Great puzzle. Nice accomplishment for me.😊

Perfect kind of hard Saturday for me. Loved my DOH/aha moment when I finally saw Sesame Street! Especially liked intestine for "inner tube". Smiled when I changed 'Persona' to 'Fursona' with the entry of sour!😊

Very excited when Lil Ol Me finally figured out the center BLOCK rebuses. Never did figure out the C to O conversion to connect the theme clues to their answers until reading Wordplay. Clever though.

Impressive spanners. Enjoyed discovering answers to all five as they revealed themselves. I will do my best to kill with kindness today..

Amazing grid. Great stacked middle section. As Debbie used to write: do what you need to do to enjoy completing the puzzle. I googled for rig Veda, Paulina and Fontane to give me footholds in 3 sections . Favorites were dog breath, loud shirts and soap stars (recalling Susan Lucci /Erica for all us old All My Children fans)!

Very much Enjoyed this Thursday. After a few of the down answers were missing the final T, I imagined them in the black squares. It wasn't until I got to the revealer, I then saw the Forest through the 'Tees'! Oh, and thanks for reminding me that noseeum (?no see em?) and black fly season is about to begin here in Maine!🪰🪰🪰

Tricky but rewarding theme answers. Took a minute to figure out why 'Can Opener'was the answer but then I got it. DUH. Will be listening to some Emmylou Harris today, for sure . Check out Coat of Many Colors and Boulder to Birmingham. And trio albums with Ronstadt and Parton. Also lending back up to Bright Eyes, Dylan and Young.

Dana Carvy's Church Lady skits were brilliant. And The Stranger still Billy Joel's best album IMHO. And what was with Billy Joel not being on NYT's top 30 singer songwriters list. Who was behind that . "Could it have been Satan?!!!"

I agree it wasn't a Thursday puzzle difficulty, But it was FUN. Able to get the theme answers from enough down clues and then go back to each answer to get the clever wordplay. Visitor center took me a second to get but smiled seeing fairytale ending.

Great Friday puzzle. Yes, I was intrigued by shower beer (and discussion below) and loved the home run trot seed.

Great Sunday romp with giraffes. Who doesn't like an excuse to think about giraffes. West With Giraffes. For a good read check out West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, a historical fiction published in 2021 about two giraffes being transported to California in a pickup truck in 1938.

I enjoyed today's puzzle and it's word play (Boot out of Italy). Theme was clever for a Tuesday. I was amused by constructor's attempt to compare crossword construction with musical composition!😊

Per the guard in Hamlet. "something is noisome in the state of Denmark." Difficult Wednesday puzzle but still enjoyable. Perhaps there needs to be a "themed" Friday puzzle day.

A lot of fun after figuring out the theme. I also loved VIkingships best. Didn't know what an iking ship was at first until I realized it was 6 and not 5.

OMG. What fun. So clever and challenging. Figuring out the roundabout trick was very rewarding!!!

Great Saturday puzzle for me. Also enjoyed seeing all the expressions appear. Favorite clues/answers were "why the long face" and "call it in the air ". My biggest trouble was right upper corner with hemen/sights/teen idol.

This puzzle reached the High Water Mark, IMHO. I loved the visual effect of the circles showing off the water molecules! And glad I don't have to wait for the next R month to enjoy fresh raw oysters!!!

Hard one today. I needed to jump around and around to complete and needed a couple of look ups (Lydia). Finishing northwest felt accomplished. Favorite clues/ answers were for war stories (vet's reports), play times over (no more games) and tail gate party (gathering of grills and grilles).

Took all day on and off to complete. Loved all the spanner phrases. You can GIVETH me puzzles like this to chew on any Friday.

Easy Thursday puzzle but IV AHA moments more than made up for it! Clever theme. Thanks for a few smiles this morning.

This had to be my favorite Monday. Every pun made me smile as I figured it out. And the fill was nice.😊 (not lame at all)

Days are getting longer! Can't wait for Sweater Weather! Enjoyed the puzzle. 😊 And like anything else, the more we do puzzles, the better we get at them and faster we complete them. Plus, gives me time to work on the other Games.

As Debbie would write: "TIL". Enjoyable and informative puzzle. Plus got to think about Silly Putty. Fun to play with as a kid myself and again with my own children.Simple pleasures.

Not fair having Jewish rye during Passover week. And Oreo to boot. No indeedy!

Great Friday challenge. Thanks to Rachel. Loved the large crossings of DarkestTimeLine with OnAPositiveNote. Embarrassed to say, it took me too many crossings to figure out CivicDuty.

WOW. Amazing. I kept leaving empty squares waiting for the aha moment. It wasn't until almost all else was completed that I saw the trick and then OMG what fun and satisfaction. There was one HAPPY CAMPER here!!! Needed a few look ups (ie clef/fae) but that was fine with me!

I loved 🥰 this puzzle. Once I figured out the XO trick it was great fun. Great fill (no look ups needed).

Fun and a Nice level of challenge for me. Enjoyed the middle stacks, across and down. And who doesn't like to have Johnnie Depp's Jack Sparrow conjured up. And 45 across made wonder what I might read here today.

Great Sunday puzzle. Very clever theme entries that were fun to figure out.Tea sets was my first and favorite solve.

Deliciously fun Tuesday. I Lworded the revealer, starving artists. The artist/ art pairing's were clever.

I kinda sorta LOVED the clueing for alchemist, rooftop bar and steak salad.

Good Sunday solve! Enjoyed getting the theme answers enough, that I missed the trick until reading Wordplay. Got to go back to get the aha pleasure after. And that was ok for me. Liked learning the term emojipedia.

Like Sam, figuring out the revealer 'Parts of Speech ' after getting a couple of the theme answers made me smile.😊. Also amused by the concept of Robot Sumo. Thanks for a nice start to my day.

Delightful theme. Rhythmically, my Favorite was mayor may not. I couldn't finish it this morning because of middle upper section. I was thinking overarm was overhead with need for rebus . I had damn instead of main. Didn't know lothario without the crossings. Then aaagh came to me and all fell into place nicely. AARGH! That’s what elevated this from a Wednesday to a Thursday for me.

Northwest corner was a beast for me even with 4 clues in Wordplay (which I do not usually read until I am done but needed to today). I found the other 3 quadrants to be fun and rewarding. Wish I thought of Schmears since assorted cream cheese spreads did not fit!

Enjoyed solving this puzzle, even though I needed to use the Check Puzzle a few times. "Don't even go there!" "It was not my finest work". But it's done so "Let's party ". Pour the "cream soda!". "It's odd" , I do prefer Dr Brown's Cream soda (or even better Dr Brown's celery soda), ("Or so I hear)". Have a great weekend!

What a fun Friday.Enough easy clues/answers to figure out the more clever clues. Loved mixologist next to astronomer tied together with a Cosmos . Enjoyed figuring out the spanners 'extra large pizza' and 'electrodynamics' as well as the shorter frats, tailor to (nice alliterative answer) and trivial!

Clever theme, impressive execution. I got the sloping though missed the word 'hill' DOH! until I read the column.