Lpr

My longest streak ever was 622 days. Then on a random Wednesday in September 2024, I solved the puzzle and got... a blue Congratulations message. What!?! No no no no no! I had forgotten to do the Tuesday puzzle. 😫 Well needless to say I resolved to never let that happen again. And today I broke my 622 day streak. Yay! 😊 [In case anyone cares, I never look anything up while solving but once in a blue moon I'll peek here or at the dictionary if I have a typo at the end and am completely stuck] Thanks for helping me celebrate 🥳

My old friend Minesweeper! I nearly jumped up out of my chair and clapped with glee when I finally saw the revealer! Those of us of a certain age played it for countless hours (at work when we were supposed to be working, or on boring conference calls) -- in addition to it's counterpart Freecell solitaire. Ah the sweet nostalgia for all that wasted time sitting alone at the computer 😂

I had SWITCHEsGEARS which tripped me up and I had to come to the column to peek (luckily Caitlin had that one first). Did I lose my streak? No! I keep my gold star for Silly Typos and Naticks I Didn't Notice. Those are my Personal Streak Rules and we all have our own rules which is Totally Allowed because "It's Your Puzzle"! And your streak! (In case anyone was wondering what the "rules" are. We all get to make them up) 🌟

To anyone who got MUKBANGS / IGA and LIANE / LUCA all on the first try, I tip my hat. You win the Natick award today.

As a bookkeeper, I can tell you that most CPAs are not bookkeepers and most bookkeepers are not CPAs. They are almost mutually exclusive. Ahem. Anyway I enjoyed the puzzle 🙂

BUCKAROUGE reminds me of a family joke: Every summer my dad asks at the farm stand if they still have "Pirate corn". (It costs a buck an ear).

Wow I finished that in record speed (literally smashed my record) But I wonder: why do I do that? Rush through a puzzle when I think I'll beat my best time. That whole timer thing is kind of silly really. I need to stop caring about it, or at least trying to beat my best times. It robs me of the enjoyment of the puzzle. And anyway there are outlier easy puzzles which set the bar so high (or low) I'll never break them. Been solving for 5 years now and going forward I'm going to try to forget about the timer. Emphasis on try! That's my musing for the day. (Many of you got there way before I did!)

I was embarrassed to even begin to know how to spell the K sisters but to my credit I got some letters wrong.

I was so chuffed to get in the first comment that I forgot to say: I think Ms. Zhang should reconsider wanting quantity over quality of comments. Seems like the puzzles with the most comments around here are the ones where there's a "trick" that gets everyone riled up or a deviation from the expected "hardness level". I think if I was a constructor I'd be happy with fewer comments, which would mean everyone found it perfectly cromulent and not worth complaining about (Lol).

I saw an interview with Josh Gad, who showed Spaceballs to his daughter. She then asked to watch "Spaceballs 2" because Mel Brooks refers to it in the movie. Josh explained to her that there was actually no Spaceballs 2. That night, he dreamed the whole plot of Spaceballs 2, and then proceeded to call up Mel Brooks to pitch the movie. Whereby Mel said "Josh, I've been waiting 35 years for this phone call!". So they're making the movie. I don't even remember Spaceballs but I saw that clip on TikTok today (it was from an interview with Seth Meyer) and I thought it was funny so I had to share. P.s. I didn’t even notice the anagrams which is good because I am bad at them.

That was fun, cute and puzzly. However I am a bit disheartened that it seems AIART may become the new OREO. I feel we may come to regret this when the AI take over and cause the downfall of human civilization. Hopefully they'll still let us do puzzles. 🤖 [I'm sorry I can't allow that DAVE]

🥵 phew! Feel like I climbed a mountain with my brain! Definitely got my money's worth! Hard and fun. Great puzzle.

Came here to say: 1. Love this community 2. I hope they will leave most of your comments stand. It's doing my heart good to read them. 3. Puzzles, esp. NYT puzzles, are my #1 refuge from life and I'm not giving that up for anything. Even for a few days.

Can't believe I fell for the ID trick twice in a row! I was seriously imagining a forbidden country like N Korea. You got me good Erik! 😂

That was fun! A gentle easy rebuild. I enjoyed it.

WELCHS is a soda? GAZPACHO = course? I get it but... SERGIO Leone had to google. I like a tricky Thursday and I enjoy NATO alphabet puzzles but this theme seemed to be stretched a bit far. Hope we get a good Friday puzzle for the impending Nashville snowstorm (3 to 5 I inches! Might as well be a blizzard ❄️)

A GEM is also a LITTLE ROCK 💎

Wow. I have no idea how I completed this with no lookups. I knew RAISA but nothing else so the rest was a series of total guesses that eventually coalesced into making sense. In other words, my favorite kind of Saturday puzzle! A workout!

Lots of "erasing" in this one, esp. In NE: Teeth before MOLAR Lie before HEX "Hard C" before HIPPO[campus] (thanks for nothing Thursday puzzle with your SOFTC) Confidently entered MARY Wollstonecraft and then doubted myself and deleted it 😕 Happy All Saints Day 👻 May your ancestors assist you with today's puzzle

That was bracing for a Monday. I liked it.

Oh man sorry so many struggled and didn't enjoy but I loved this puzzle! It was sooo hard. Took me a long time but I love it when I have to struggle to figure out every letter. Luckily I forgot or didn't know WADI. My last error was KRONe and I couldn't figure out what LeND had to do with a plot. I think there's a tipping point between "this is impossible I hate it" and "this is impossible and I will solve it no matter what" and I stayed on the fun side of it.

I love a puzzle that seems impenetrable and then slowly over time the answers coalesce into place, materializing out of a haze of confusion. I love how an answer that seems unknowable pops into my head after setting the puzzle aside for 30 minutes. A fun struggle!

Didn't get the theme at all and lost me at EDUMACATE which let's hope for our ancestors sake is never in the NYT crossword again

Shout out to Roosevelt Island in the xword! I lived there for a few years a very long time ago. It was delightful. I had a panoramic water view and it felt secluded and quiet, even though I technically lived in Manhattan and had a 212 area code. When I was looking for apartments at age 21 it was much more affordable than Manhattan proper (although a bit harder to have a social life). My neighbors included a lot of UN personnel wearing interesting clothes from their native lands. For non new Yorkers, Roosevelt Island is located in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It's accessible via the subway but also via a cool aerial TRAM that goes over the river at 59th Street. Oh and there's a bridge from Queens but no automobile traffic on the island. When I lived there the southern tip was off limits (of course we explored it) and contained the ruins of a 19th century asylum of some kind. I believe it's now a park and residences. I'd be interested to hear what it's like today.

Enjoyed! But Dracula wouldn't eat a bat -- he *IS* a bat!!! Is he eating a friend?? This struck me as a cannibalistic faux pas! 🦇🧛‍♂️ Otherwise fun and fresh (I don't love the "tall boy" format, but this more than made up for it).

I enjoyed the clue for ANI, it made me LOL. Fun rebus.

Hmm. I felt it was a bit backwards as well. But I am content that I figured out the trick. I like tricky puzzles. However I predict there will be much grumbling about this one. I hope Hannah doesn't take it personally.

What!?! The LORIS strikes again! I was pretty mad about that this morning. I dont care how cute they are, I'm still grumpy about it!

I am mortified to admit that today was the day I learned how to spell Sergeant What?!? 😲 my apologies to the veterans!

Oh man that was great. Number was a good one!! I like puzzles like this that are made up of a collection of little riddles that each take a few minutes to suss out. However if they each take me more than 10 or 15 minutes then I get cranky (like last Saturday Lol). I guess we all have our point when we go from "yay this is fun" to cranky. Luckily for me this one was in my sweet spot 😊

😲 construction. What a cool trick.

Whoa. I was initially a bit irritated at the awkward abbreviations, but I can't stay mad at this puzzle... what a spectacular feat of construction! I can't say I necessarily *enjoyed* solving it more than other Sunday puzzles but it has a definite "wow" factor that makes it memorable for sure. Kudos and all that.

I am not a "sportsball person" either (Lol @ Isabeau) but I enjoyed it a lot and was sad when it was over. Due to my early careless spelling of HAM and OCAM it took me a while to catch on but that made it more fun.

Delightful! I loved that UP or DOWN could go in either way. Very clever!

Clever and brilliant but to me more annoying than fun to solve. However I can see that a lot of work obviously went into it. 🌈

Quick and fun! I sure do love Gmail's "Undo" button. Fun tip: did you know you can customize thr number of seconds it gives you to change your mind? I give myself a generous 15 seconds to have second thoughts. I use it far too much.