Maddy

I found this one to be a breeze! In a fun way. Since you asked, NYT: I’d love to see the column give background information about some of the trivia-based clues. I rarely find the “tricky clues” section that useful, and I almost never have questions about the clues discussed in that section. But I don’t always know the people referenced in puzzles or important events associated with answers that make them noteworthy. As an example, for today’s puzzle: tell me about Pedro Almodovar’s work, the relevance Broadcast.com used to have, Bon Iver’s biggest song, how many Benihanas there are. Not only would I learn something new but these factoids would help me remember the answers for future puzzles (or trivia nights!).

Fun puzzle! I assume it’s just by chance, but anyone notice when a bunch of answers repeat one day to the next? SEEP, EGOT, EMEND (excluding ODE since it’s so common) in both today’s and yesterday’s.

I can appreciate this puzzle in the write up, but I really hated this one. Found it near impossible. I should probably know world currencies better, but even when I figured out that was one of the tricks, I still couldn’t figure out what the answers meant anyway. I also didn’t like the theme clue, the phrase isn’t really something I attribute specifically to getting rich quickly but more just changing how much money you have. It both felt too obvious for the phrase and too much of a stretch for everything to replace all. Words I didn’t know even when I got them right: -EMIGRE (emigrant, sure, but not this spelling) -ELO -DEDE -EZER -ORR -PHIL -EINE -DENNIS Overall: woof. Total slog.

Enjoyed this one. I’m glad I trusted my gut to remove rock climber and window washer when those weren’t fitting with my across entries, only to then see how they did, in fact, belong. My only wish is that the revealer answer had a bit more of a punny relationship to the themed clues - perhaps, “Are things looking up?” Or, “Did you start from the bottom?”

Enjoyed this puzzle and its theme. Did get stuck for a few minutes having an E instead of a Y for Hasty/Lacy (Haste/Lace). Still kept up my streak but a little slower than usual for a Tuesday.

Friday PR! Enjoyed this wavelength.

Fun puzzle! I found it to be mostly a breeze but struggled with W middle area. Hadn’t heard of SABLE, FEN, the kids book, or the French sauce, which left a lot of mystery crosses. On my first pass I thought I was clever for 25A being “FIRST GAL”, where the tree is covering the full rebus of “FIR”. When I got to the next ones I figured out that wasn’t the right pattern, but maybe for a future puzzle!

Did anyone else get stuck in a hole where the revealer clue was “IGNORE ME” ? Many of the starred clues had “ME” in them (along with OM) so it took me a while to give up on that route. I got this one eventually but had to come here to understand the revealer, which makes that element a bit less satisfying. Still doable!