P

@Zack This is exactly what happened to me. Tuxes, then limos, and the eat/ate debate. Before I had any crosses, I was wondering if Nutella was an English thing. All sorted in the end. :)

@Sleepyinsummerland I've been doing these for about a year now. The Thursday puzzles can be really tough. And if you're unfamiliar with rebuses, they're even harder. I was really happy about finishing today's. After a year I'm still missing some Thursday's. Friday's I'm about 50% on (but that's way better than where I started). I don't even try Saturday's. Keep at it, I think most people playing for a full year will be doing much better than I am. :)

@Francis Whats a good clue for "self-dealing"?

@Steve L From context, not from the memory of today.

@KFC It gets easier, but never easy. I've been doing these for just over a year now I think and I've definitely gotten better, as well as learned some new words. :) Thursdays can be super-tricky sometimes, 75%-ish solves on those. I'm up to about a 50% solve rate on Fridays. I don't even bother with Saturdays still. But Sun-Wed....I'm pretty proud of how well I knock those out now. :)

@John I had "pro" in there for such a long time. Sigh.

@Andrzej Thanks, I appreciate it. :) Unfortunately I went and read the comments. Now I'm just embarrassed and can't delete my comment. :(

@Francis The way our brains recognize and interpret patterns is fascinating. I remember reading something long ago about the differences in brain activity between growing up with Chinese characters vs the English alphabet. Something about the visual-spatial recognition and using additional parts of the brain. I remember feeling disappointed that reading in English wasn't as brain-stimulating as if I was reading in Chinese. I could see a DOOK being a fish. Though also maybe an Australian bird? "Crikey, that red-billed dook just swallowed that mouse whole!" hehe Proper names are what usually get me. There'll always be some I've never heard of before, like today's Apple TV show. For those, I just have to hope I get ALL the crossers because you never know how someone will spell their name. Komal sounded reasonable to me. Kumail, Kumar.... why not Komal? ESPECIALLY when "I got to" also seemed like a perfectly reasonable answer to "No other option for me".

@Peter I second this!

@Roberto My father and brother are both Peter. :(

@Marcus "Jimmy Eat World is an American ROCK band formed in Mesa, Arizona, in 1993." - Wikipedia No clue how someone could consider them emo.

@G I did go back this morning. :) Couldn't believe I missed teat. Then likeaboss came to me, followed by egos and the rest of the SW corner. The rose of rosegarden was a stab in the dark, but led me to atsea and ultrasuede. Still unfinished so I spent quite some time trying to find the error(s), finally landed on "well, pylons IS a word" still no idea how it related to wires until I read the comments here. I've never heard of a pole or tower referred to in that way. So technically solved, but thanks to several guesses. :p

@Megan it took me forever to remember his name. I just kept thinking about him as the bad guy in the 80's movie where Robert Downey's character dies. Glad that movie wasn't a clue, because I still haven't remembered the title! :)

@Leontion I tried both of those as well! :)

@lucky13 Just took a look at the link you included. Those look like a lot of fun, will definitely try one in a bit. Thank you!

@Steve L I really appreciate the encouragement. :) Hearing you've been doing these for 40! years helps. Sometimes looking at the comments and seeing people say how easy they found some puzzles makes me think I'm just not cut our for this, despite my objective improvements. It's always easier to doubt rather than believe in myself, lol PSU is what saved me in exactly the way you describe. Actually had my best time ever on a Sunday, 41m 42s. (Though a typo of ALLREE instead of ALLRED hurt) I'll keep plugging along, and maybe next year I'll have some Saturdays under my belt. :)

@fehstik I can't believe I didn't get that. I was like, I have no idea what a Nbaref is, but everything else fits. 🤷‍♂️

@RozzieGrandma Will do, thanks for the suggestion! :)

@Mike I completely agree. My only guess is "activities" on a video cassette tape? Either way it's not something anyone would ever say. Sound recordings aren't "activities", and no one would ever call a VHS tape a cassette tape.