Jon

The CLARO/MCJOB/ALPHA crossing was very rough for me

I might not be able to finish this one. It is all filled in, but there is apparently a mistake. Considering that the fill is almost entirely crosswordese, it is very hard to find mistakes. I have decided that I want to focus on positive commenting for crosswords, so I will say that I am glad to have learned about a POET I didn't know about.

Very impressive construction, especially with such perfect cluing difficulty for a Tuesday.

I don't know that I have ever managed to complete a puzzle that seemed so hard without needing to go to the Wordplay column for hints. The puzzle never felt like I could finish it until the very end. That felt like some real perfect sweet spot difficulty for me. Bravo.

Oof, is all I can say. For anyone else stuck where I was stuck, TOYCON, TAB, CONE. Also, I felt like you needed to be ON DOPE to keep happy feelings toward this one.

Oof, this one was a HEAD TRIP, or maybe my brain just has a SOFT EDGE. Either way, I said AW GEE, I guess I have to LEAN IN and get MESSY.

This was a fun Thursday. I was thinking for a bit it might be one of my fastest Thursdays yet, until I reached the SE corner. I almost got DQED trying to come up with anything that fit that area. Ironically, I got BIBS right off, but took it away because it wouldn't fit with any of my other crossers. But my crossers were anchored by my favorite Stephen in V for Vendetta, Fry, which was wrong. When I finally realized it was REA, I was able to gain some ground.

I was stuck on FLEUR DE LyS for a while, but then I learned that the spelling I knew all this time is actually the alternate.

I don't have anything witty to say, I just wanted to say that was the most enjoyable Friday I have come across as far as I can remember. It was pretty easy for me, but I didn't get it all in one go. It took a little work, but things came together quickly. And none of the clues bothered me (that is the highest praise I can give).

SOCA? What is SOCA? This puzzle had some really egregious fill (ENCL, MYB, TEENER) but at least I could think of things that they were supposed to mean, even if they are "words" that don't exist outside of crosswords. But SOCA?

That puzzle sure took some OOMPH for a Wednesday. I really struggled with this one, and I found Tuesday harder than usual for me. I assume I will meet my match tonight at this rate. My current streak is 80 days. Will this be the first stretch broken by the puzzles themselves (rather than travel or other external factors), or will this be another week where the hardest puzzle for me is the Wednesday puzzle? Only time will tell.

This one was a trial for me. I have been able to figure out most of the rebuses in recent months, but the frequency and two-way nature of this one had me stumped. I had to go to the Wordplay column to figure out the puzzle. It always feels a little like failure, but at least I was able to finish.

I think that was the easiest Thursday ever for me. It helped that I got STEPHEN HAWKING, PI DAY, and ALBERT EINSTEIN on my first pass.

Wow! That was the hardest Wednesday I remember. I couldn't even get I'M TOAST as this one burned me. I was not sharing any brain waves with the puzzle maker. I had to treat this like a Saturday.

I really liked this theme, though I was too stuck on some of the clues to get it before turning to the Wordplay column. I thought it was a good puzzle, I just wasn't able to wrap my mind around some of the cluing (it wasn't bad cluing [mostly], once I got the answer the clues made sense, but a lot of the clues didn't help me get to the answers). Good puzzle, but I struggled.