Mick
PNW
58
Comments
0.585
Avg Sentiment
33
Positive
22
Neutral
3
Negative
PNW
Does the EPA still have geologists and biologists?
Fun puzzle - finished well under average but had a good time. Congrats on the first puzzle! I admire Mr Chen for helping so many new people publish their first puzzles.
@David to celebrate I’ll have an OREO topped with OLEO.
Great puzzle! Nice cluing. Happy Holidays!
Quite a bit of clever misdirection. Loved the Styles clue.
I liked the theme a lot - made me smile.
I like trees - I liked the puzzle.
CATDAD - ISTHATATHING? (Finished the Friday and Saturday today…)
Absolutely loved the theme and the puzzle - get like the payoff was worth a few weird bits of fill that were very guessable.
Extremely fun puzzle - thanks for making it!
@M If you’ve done a thousand puzzles, no Google needed. When I decided to start, I would google and reveal til I picked up and remembered the common words and tricks. Just like memorizing the two and three letter words when you want to get a bit more serious about your scrabble game.
Really liked the theme! Very satisfying.
Well I respect everyone’s opinions but lest the constructor be disheartened I’ll add I thought it was a fine puzzle. I found the theme eye rolling in a good way. I was well over my Tuesday average but chalked it up to being unfamiliar with hockey and some of the other bits of trivia. It was totally solvable just took longer than average for the day. More like my Wednesday average. Looking forward to more puzzles from this constructor!
@Cat Lady Margaret Can also clue as “What only 20% of Portland drivers know they should do.”
Oof five minutes above average and had to start googling to check my spellings and entries after I had it filled it. The error I couldn’t see was I had SNIT for “small drama”, and though I’ve eaten shakshouka, the word didn’t come to mind and it appears to have several spellings in the Latin script…. I think I’m trying to justify my googling to myself. I’m fine with it. Thanks for letting me talk that out fellow puzzlers.
Really enjoyed this puzzle - lots of interesting long fills and clever short ones.
@Grant I think originally it didn’t score points in itself but earned you the chance to “try” to score points with the kick.
Nice Thursday - got the trick with the revealer and quickly filling in the NE corner. Always feed good to apply the trick to solve a few themers.
@Frankie B “Ah, gotcha. Now I see.”
Congrats on the puzzle! I enjoyed it.
Smugly typed in redundancies way too early, but I got the idea pretty quickly at least. Fun theme!
Like if you also had a Thursday PB!
Loved the puzzle! Also been a big Ejiofor fan since he was the baddie in Serenity - was very fun to confidently type his name in to todays puzzle. Highly recommend The Shadow Line if you want a good BBC detective crime drama.
Reading lots of the same good vibes - over average but enjoying every step of the way - challenging proper nouns but logical and doable with the crosses.
@JM It’s in our middle school history textbook, so I don’t think one has to be a specialist to make the connection. Seems more than fair for Fri/Sat puzzles.
Thanks for that little lead-in at the top, Deb - just knowing one of the rules was broken gave me the aha and the satisfaction of mostly getting it on my own.
Easy Thursday but loved the construction explainer - I wish there were a way to make “getting it” part of the solve itself. I’ll take a shower.
@Sean congratulations! I’d be pleased if my daughters got into it, too - when did she start trying to solve them?
Definitely had to focus and ponder from beginning to end but filled in fine eventually. Was confident with some early fills that were wrong and lacked confidence with others that I didn’t put it but should have because they were actually right.
@Lavinia I think Barry has to win that because of there is A correct way to take a clue it’s a fine clue.
@Steve L no clue about PUTTEES but STUPA went in on first pass FWIW
Smooth sailing for lower 2/3 - got stuck with dominANtSPECIES for a while. Anyone else end up with that for a bit?
@B I tried making a joke that puzzle constructors were now always cru_cifiedverbalists I’m this comment board, but that didn’t go through.
I know there is lots of talk of easiness and I have had many faster than average solves recently, but my PB was still in the supposed golden age of difficult Saturdays, FWIW.
@Francis yeah I definitely think there is a 20 year sweet spot. I’m in it. I don’t just think I’ve gotten better at solving since I first started in college, there are just way more clues for my generation now.
@Jamie NYT editors famously say, “It’s your puzzle. Solve it any way you want to.”
@john ezra The explainer says it’s about web pages, but still not a popular phrase for sure.
I’ve been enjoying the recent puzzles with lots of uncommon letters! Didn’t get the music at first. Did anyone else have REDS/ROASTS instead of BEDS/BOASTS?
Just here to say loved 14A.
And now my Saturday PB is 10% faster than my Friday PB. Gasp! 😱
@Gareth as a middle school teacher those were gimmes, like most of the puzzle lol. I don’t care too much about the difficulty stuff tho. Kids don’t say Yeet anymore, but man I wish I knew where Jimmy was so I could tell him that this weird word he tried to explain to me ten years ago is in the NYT crossword. And has been several times. You did it, Jimmy!
Smooth puzzle - it was a perfect amount of tricky for me. Nice variety of clues.
@Andrzej APPCAB - an uber or the house wine you drink with appetizers?
Quick solve without needing to get the theme - clicked after I finished - very cute
Nice puzzle! Added a few minutes because I was convinced mADD was right and was sure coinage would be more of a misdirect lol. Loved the long entries, of course.