Kate

@Marshall Walthew I kind of wish the solve wouldn’t be accepted without the full rebus entry. It was disappointing to solve so quickly and miss the trick.

@Andrzej I have a work colleague named Campbell who goes by Cam, so that’s immediately what I thought of. I have known Camerons who went by Cam but never any who went by Ron. Every Ron I’ve known was a Ronald.

@Thor my downfall is usually a typo that takes me a couple of minutes to find.

@Isabeau I recognized the balloons as balloons but also thought the party hats were Christmas trees until I looked at the comments.

@Anita Q*Bert was the clue that broke open the puzzle for me. Spent many hours playing it on the Atari my parents bought us for Christmas in 1984. Good times!

@Red Carpet I keep hearing this, but when I go back and solve archived puzzles from 10 - 15 years ago I get similar solve times to my current ones. Some puzzles are hard but some are still hard these days too, and the average (for me) is quite similar. Now, going back to the late 90s/early 2000s I don’t do as well, but some of that may be differences in trivia and how good my memories from 25-30 years ago are.

@Isabeau I also thought it was odd that two of the themed answers were actual types of parties but the 3rd is just a pun.

@Niall Sunday puzzles always have a theme - figuring it out is the tough part. More than once I’ve solved a puzzle but not understood the theme until reading the column afterwards!

@B Come on, I did the LA Times one as well and it was far easier and more straightforward than this, full of short answers and easy fill. Granted, this puzzle was not too bad for a Saturday, and the LA Times one is free - but claiming today’s LA Times one is what a Saturday should be here is… an opinion.