Jeff B MD

Attaboy! Clever little Wednesday theme. Even though was easy for a Wednesday, the theme made it worthwhile. I liked the "mother of a stable family" clue.😊

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!😊

As I live and breath, this was one of my favorite rebus puzzles. An amazing feat! I only wished there'd been more than 13 colonies but alas, you can't change history. (Well I suppose people try!) Plus, fun clueing like the Monk's orderly life. And a test of my Roman Numeral knowledge retention! Made me HAPPY!😊

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!

OH FUN!!! Like pennies from heaven! Answered the US Mint first, which helped me answer the other theme clues. Loved the rebus! Penny loafers my favorite. I tried to fit in "penny for your thoughts" at first instead of "put in your two cents". No go!. Seance was my last clue to fall, but I liked the misdirect. What I wouldn't give for a fresh hot cross bun with coffee right now!!!

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 can only imagine how difficult this was to make. And such a beautiful looking grid with 6 spanners to work out. Perfect Friday for me.

Thanks for a great Wednesday puzzle. Nice to bring up carnival memories from my childhood and good times with my children. Step right up and try your luck made for great memory evokers!. And a straight forward rebus to boot.😊

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.

Enjoyed everything about this Sunday puzzle! No obvious theme answers. Each one required multiple crosses to figure out , but each was on the mark, very clever and made me smile.😊

Nice having 6 theme answers in my Monday puzzle, yknow.

I don't usually do cryptic puzzles, so I enjoy when one pops up in my crossword puzzles. A couple took awhile to sort out after completing like Knight (made me smile though) and Crave. Favorites were "Not completely honest" and "Never Ending Story". 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎵🎵🎵__ (Unfinished Symphony!)

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)!

I loved figuring out this puzzle. And each theme was a new challenge with great rewards. Amazing debut! I had most trouble in the Mideast (sounds true to life!) as I had company instead of comment before getting the theme. Also, I had innard instead of Ankara for Turkey part. I had it working for me until I had to put in Hazmat suit.

Nice Tuesday puzzle. Great musical references. Slowly,gently the puzzle unfurled its splendour and you can listen to the power of the words. Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in to the power of the words. Sweet words are made of these, who am I to disagree. Some puzzles want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused by you. (I don't think lyricist is in my future).

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.

Well "I'm not the world's most physical guy" and just a regular old puzzler, but I slogged my way through this tough but enjoyable Saturday puzzle with some definitely needed look ups (afortiori and Diego Luna) to help me through. And now I am hearing L-L-L Lola! (Great song worm to have in my head for the weekend!). Thanks.

Out of this world. Great debut. Wouldn't say astronomical but perfect for a Tuesday morning. Thanks.🪐🪐🪐

Took a bit for the aha moment to arrive. Buzz Aldrin did not quite fit and pizza roll was close but no cigar. Then a I saw the revealer and AHA! I finished with ZZZZpia! Needed to research Nazca civilization to sort out NW corner. And sadly needed to research Fuzzy Wuzzy for SE . (I should have remembered that bear, it was somewhere in the recesses of my brain!)

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.

Well. I just finished because I kept needing to go back to right middle area. I had spew instead of spec, even though it was already used and I did not know the word canard. I 'plead ignorance'I was happy to figure out 'door opener' and 'set designs'. Loved the clueing for all the spanners. They were straight forward enough but made for fun and some smiles. 😊' I know the feeling' of a Friday success!

Amusing Tuesday. 😊 Loved the clever puns. Delhi platter was my favorite. I recon there is no roast beef on that platter.

Clever. I only wish they jammed more rebus jams in!

What a great Sunday themeless grid. Loved having four 21 letter spanners to work on (come on in the waters fine , my favorite). Lots of amusing misdirects (bee sting and ant colony for two). The way the grid created 3 multilayered stacks made for great fun. I didn't mind needing 3 look ups. Toni Stone, whom felt important to learn about and Isolde crossing salat to finish the SE corner.

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.