Maverator

The overlay reveal at the end was really cool.

TIL GNAR is a word.

This was my first puzzle where some gimmick squares were rebus and some not. That really threw me, but now that I'm on the lookout it should actually be fun next time.

It clicked with me, so +1 for the enjoyers.

I never quite know what to think about a gimmick puzzle that I only understand after solving. The best ones are when I'm stuck and understanding the gimmick allows me to get unstuck.

I started out slow and was afraid this one might get me. But it turns out the NW corner was the toughest part. The rest fell into place pretty easily, and I was able to circle back and do the beginning at the end.

An easier Friday than usual for me, although I did have to work around my incorrect answer to 36D for quite a while. Spoiler: it isn't coNdom.

I'm at that stage in my crosswording where I'm not sure how much of my gold star is me getting better vs just happening to randomly know the specific trivia vs easy puzzle.

I really liked this one, but I have to admit I didn't get the "spike" part of the revealer, so I can't say I fully solved it (no gold star for me). I had three superfluous rebuses (2x LIE/S , 1x LIE/V). I thought I was clever until I saw the dreaded "Almost there!" pop up 😭

I had fun, but the fact that the gimmick answers as typed have no relation to anything in the puzzle (as far as I could tell, and as alluded to in the column) was pretty disappointing. But I always feel good when I crush a Thursday, it doesn't happen every time.

If I can solve it in 21 minutes, I know it was an easy Friday.

I guess I have to agree with several people who said it was easy for a Saturday, since I did actually manage to complete it, which only happens maybe half the time for me at best. It was pretty much in my own personal sweet spot for challenge vs doability. I was very happy to see the gold star when I typed my last letter in. Of course it was the extra T in TEENTSY, which I think is a small sacrifice to make for the greater good of actually having a puzzle to solve.

A certain type of person probably really appreciates the gimmick puzzle in this one, although I'm not sure how much overlap there is with people who really appreciate good crosswords, which this wasn't. Removing the challenge entirely from crossword part doesn't make up for the ridiculous challenge of the non-crossword part.

The biggest DOWNside to a puzzle like this is that when it doesn't ding I don't know if it's because I screwed UP or because I couldn't figure out how the rebus wanted to be entered (which I argue is not me screwing up). Turned out I had a typo so YAYME for getting it eventually. I hope this puzzle makes anti-rebus people more open to them because it seems like a relatively low friction introduction. But if you just don't want a rebus in your crossword I get it. I don't like puzzles in my RPGs.

I'd much rather have an easy rebus on Wednesday than anything that requires numerical calculation on any day. So, well done?

67A stymied me for a bit because I had tExtED at first. I got there eventually.

At first I was annoyed that the revealer wasn't littleHAND because doing this on my phone, the rebus words are in fact quite little. Then I realized that they could be considered minute as well, so I guess I'll let it slide.

Very fun for me. The only issue I had was that I suspected the protruding letters were also related to the theme, but I don't have the visualization powers necessary to see it in my head. Even when I completed it, I had to screenshot it in the half second it was visible on my phone screen. Luckily, I didn't need that for any troublesome clues.

I liked the theme. Some of the clues were pretty strained. I like when an answer makes me go "ohhh cool" as opposed to "okay whatever".

This one took me a while, but I finally managed. The only word I was not familiar with or just had to accept based on crosses was BACNE. The slow incremental progress was the perfect difficulty for me apparently. Very satisfying.

"I finished the puzzle and felt chuffed, but I still couldn’t make sense of the revealer and how it related to the theme." Same here. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I guess it's clever, but since it was lost on me it wasn't that satisfying. I hope others had the epiphany while solving and could appreciate it during the process, which is way better.

Wow, this took me over an hour, but I did get my gold star. I had my doubts so it feels good to beat one that was really tough for me.

Yes, tough. I gave up too early. I had most of NW complete, and once I revealed it I feel if I had given it more time it may have come to me. I did feel really satisfied when I got the SE corner though.

Welp, I thought I might have a rate Saturday completion, but the upper-right stymied me. Looks like my people skills are lacking.

I loved it. I hate that I didn't get the full nature of the gimmick, that the slipped letters were actually the names of the colors. That absolutely would have helped me get a full completion, which I came a few squares short of. Still fun though.