Classic Hip-Hop Fan

This. This is the best kind of Thursday themer, where the theme is an extra layer of puzzle, rather than making the puzzle easier by giving away answers. This was fun and clever. And it has SEATTLE in it, so that's cool.

I love this puzzle, and I gelled with it, even though I've learned that if you give me a drink in a martini glass it will end up on the nearest wall (I apparently talk with my hands, who knew). I love the graphic upon solving, but my favorite part of the puzzle is the Scott Joplin clue. My aunt is a professional RAGTIME piano player so I shared that with her. This was solve #972 in my streak... eek....!

I did it! I did it, I did it! 1000 Wooooooooooooot woooot!!!!! Now for 1001 and so on....

Me: okay, the puzzle is done, but what is GOD IM? What is GODIM? Why is no one talking about that in the comments? Also me: Ohhhhhh. Yes, I did indeed (temporarily?) GO DIM.

With this puzzle, my streak is at 999!!!!!!!! I'm very excited about this. If I complete the Thursday puzzle on time, I really want a lot of gold star swag. NYT Crossword needs a merch shop.

I'm staring deep into the ABYSM... and I'm not annoyed at all. MAXIMUs did seem weird, and it violated the puzzle theme, so when I flyspecked I found it and fixed it. Happy music! And I'm only a week and a half away from making my streak four figures. Wish me luck please. I actually care about this for some reason.

So I had a little bit of stress this morning when I realized that I had never returned to the Friday puzzle after starting it Thursday night. I was very sad to say goodbye to my streak, and especially because of my own forgetfulness and not because of being stumped by a puzzle. I decided to go ahead and continue working on the Friday puzzle before starting Saturday's puzzle. To my happy surprise I got the gold star when I completed the Friday puzzle. And then I remembered reading from other commenters that that had worked for them as well to keep their streak alive. I never want to put this to the test again, but I'm happy to report it worked. With the Saturday puzzle also now done my streak is 1,170. Wooooot wooooooooooot!

I love this theme! (Though I must confess I didn't notice the C O W part until I filled in the revealer.) My 8 year old son, however, rolled his eyes at the theme when I showed it to him. (Too many dad jokes in his life??)

Brilliant trick, I loved it! Thanks for the fun solve.

The dreidel tells you the overall theme of the holiday and the rules of the game: "A great miracle happened there" = Nes Gadol Haya Sham. Nes (nun, nothing happens); Gadol (gimmel, take all); Haya (hey, take half); Sham (shin, put in one). Loved this theme. Chag Hanukkah sameach and happy Gregorian new year to all!

Sometimes I think to myself, “I could write a book…” but then I read a book that blows my mind with how brilliant the author must be to have written such an impressive work, and I don’t pick up a pen. Sometimes I think to myself, “I could write a crossword puzzle…” Well, you get the idea. This puzzle stops me from picking up the pen. Wowwwww.

Zipped through this one but it still made me think. I enjoyed it; nice job, constructor.

Did the Monday puzzle in under 4 minutes, keeping my streak alive; got the wordle in two tries; hit genius level in Spelling Bee; and the Mariners swept the Mets (definitively). I'll take the Ws!!!!!!

I never stop to look up the constructor before I dive in, and this puzzle was no exception. But as I wended my way through great themeless fill with top notch cluing, I had an inkling this was a Robyn Weintraub. What a talent! I love solving your puzzles, Robyn. Thank you for making them.

Best graphic yet! Made me laugh. I almost didn't see it, because my app goes to my solved screen (with my 1150+ streak, woot wooooot), but I happened to click back through to the puzzle. Nice touch on a fun puzzle.

The irony of having to fix OHo to OHH to get the gold star.... ha!!!

Oh I see what you did there! And on a Wednesday, no less. Once I understood the trick, I wanted more circles to fill in.

Ahhhhh, PLOYS not PLOtS -- that had me hunting at the end, but since I've never eaten RtE bread, I figured it out....

Clue: Gladys Knight's backup group Me for a half second: Wait, like when THEPIPS aren't available?? Why would they be somewhere else such that she'd need a backup? ....ohhhhhh.

Hi mods, the link is broken to this wordplay column from the puzzle in both the iPad and android phone apps. (I got here the hard way.)

That was a rough ride. Sometimes you just click with a puzzle, sometimes you don't. I thought this one was risking my streak because it took forever for me to get a real toe hold. Pleased to keep the streak alive (882!).

Feelings: superLative… unreaL… eLaborate… sLy… Light… Ultimately: compLete.

This was a fun Saturday. I managed to get through it in great time for me but still found it a fun challenge. Thanks constructor! After every Saturday puzzle I feel relief that I've kept my streak (of over 1,100) alive through the hardest part of the week. Phew!!!

I had SEE red instead of SEETHE, which made the bottom right corner last to fall. INCOGMEATO is new to me but I like the name. I'm off to HATE WATCH something....

The last square to fall for me in this puzzle was the first P in PROPER because I was convinced from the down clue that this was where the fourth monster belonged. I guess I assumed MANGONADE was a real thing. So I was struggling so hard to come up with some kind of monster that ends in -EMP, with OLIANEMP as my ridiculous placeholder. I knew I was missing something but couldn't get my brain to approach it another way, and coming up with monster types didn't help (though it did briefly sidetrack me down a VAMPIRE rabbit hole), so I switched to just P as my placeholder and bam! I unexpectedly got the gold star (and kept the crazy long streak alive). Huh??!? I know the first letter alone works for rebuses but couldn't suss out what monster starts with P and ends with -EMP. Puzzle "solved", I turned to the comments and saw GOLEM mentioned. Ahhhhhhh, MANGONADE isn't a thing. I get it. Except that I've never thought of a GOLEM as a monster, no more than a Roomba is a monster. The GOLEM, made of clay and brought to life, carries out chores. The biggest risk with a GOLEM is that you forget to tell it to stop making the latkes and then latkes fill the town. More delicious than monstrous.....

Top notch cluing for SOBSTORY and BOOTYCALLS! I disagree with all the suggestions that this should have been a Wednesday puzzle. It slowed me down by two minutes over my average Friday time. Well done, constructor.

I enjoyed this puzzle and its cluing, but it went more quickly for me than I would expect from a Friday -- did anyone else think this was more of a Wednesday puzzle??

I struggled with this one. (Karma for my question yesterday about that one being too easy for that day of the week, I guess?) I couldn't get a toehold at first, and finally got down to just the upper left corner. I could picture CHLOE ZHAO's braids from Oscar night but couldn't come up with her name readily. Relieved to have eventually gotten it sorted and saved my streak.

Chef's kiss. This is fantastic and so impressive. And for the folks that hate Thursday tricks (I love them), you didn't need to understand the trick to complete the solve. This puzzle made my day.

The cluing really slowed me down for this one. Finished, but well over my average Friday time. Gotta laugh at myself for how long I had beauTYSCHOOL as a “Plan B, for seniors” — I thought it was awfully rude to the many amazing beauticians for whom that was plan A, but I figured it was influenced by Grease. Yes, that song is now in your head, sorry. Some of the clues don’t quite fit for me, though: - a PARER is a product that is *for* apples; it’s a real stretch to clue that as “Apple product” - in my experience, a RUG is never referred to as a “throw”. “Throw rug,” yes, but never just a “throw.” - I can’t make sense of “Returns home?” as the clue for IRS — isn’t it missing an apostrophe after “Returns”? Didn’t mean to NATTERON, just didn’t want to SKIRT the issue.

Also. There's only one thing I think of when I come across the word PLETHORA: El Guapo : Jefe, what is a plethora? Jefe : Why, El Guapo? El Guapo : Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora. Jefe : Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

I didn't see the graphics on my solve but luckily reopened the puzzle -- beautiful! (In addition to classic hip hop, I'm also a fan of classic comics. )

Tough puzzle! I stuck with it and kept my streak alive but it was slow, challenging going. Very fun, liked the cluing. Nice job, constructor!

The approach of the New York Times crossword puzzle takes when the fill is the name of someone who has done terrible things is to clue that fill innocuously without reference to those terrible things. I’ve objected to it before and I’m objecting to it again today. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Well, I had SHAN for an embarrassingly long time, making this a very long Tuesday solve for me and making me feel very foolish. Glad to have found my error and kept the streak alive. (I’m now obsessed with my streak and can’t blow it on a Tuesday!)

Has Eazy E been in a NYT crossword before? That made me happy.

Pop the popcorn and pull up a seat, because the comments section is about to get lit.

Well, cAPE and cAKE didn't work, so that slowed me down, but I loved this theme. Very clever and helped with the solve (once I understood it, which happened with BEEFEATER).

Wow, Jackson, awesome debut. Loved the long vertical fill. Eager for your next puzzle, and good luck on the SAT/ACT, though something tells me you won't need any luck.

Did anyone else think of BIG puN before BIG BEN? No? Just me? Hmm. What about BIG sur?

TIL that a LAY is a ballad. Only got that one thanks to the crosses. And thanks to my kid who just took the chemistry placement test for college for ERLENMEYERFLASK -- that helped break open the rebuses. Overall a fun quick Sunday puzzle.

I kinda spiraled around this one, directionless, until I understood the theme. That helped me with the fill. Nice work, constructor. I liked BOSNS the best (maybe because I expect it to get complaints?).