Cloudy Rockwell

Wow! Comments, huh? Lots of rebus-haters, and rebus-hater-haters. I've seen a lot of downright insulting replies to people who say they hate rebuses--as in, you are just not clever, you will learn, etc. However, I just don't like rebuses much because they slow down my fun. In general, I am blind to themes and revealer hints, and just slog away, solving, filling letters, until I have to ask for a reveal of a letter or word. I do this because I want to continue the fun dopamine hit when I complete a word, and then a puzzle. I've been doing crosswords for about 66 years, and yes, I have gotten "cleverer" at them and at many other things. But I am just a girl, and I do just wanna have fun. So let me "hate" the rebus if it harshes my vibe.

Sometimes I love a puzzle more for the comments than anything else! Here we all are, sharing our experience, and a lively discussion ensues. Since my spouse & I are retired, we don't get much of that anymore. For my own part, I have decided that I am not much of a theme person. The Sunday themes are fun, but most of the time in weekday puzzles the theme is lost on me even once it's been explained. Themes are not why I come to a crossword. But most of the time they don't detract from the solving fun, as in today's puzzle. I played Clue a lot as a kid, as a solitaire game. All my siblings were 10 or more years older than I, so I surrounded with toys and activities that were for much older kids & folks. I spent hours in those rooms with the lead pipe & candlestick, and my set had a real rope, not the plastic lump that's in there these days, and I'd make up stories and scenes and situations. However, I didn't get any vibe of Clue while I solved the puzzle, and once I looked at 62A's clue and squinted at the circled letters, I couldn't make anything out of them, so I just carried on solving. After reading Sam's explanation, I see the room names, but it's not clicking in my brain. No matter! I enjoyed the solve, and I enjoyed the Comments, and I'm happy to be sharing this experience with folks from all over the globe!

I never see or "get" themes. They are almost always above my head. I just plug away and try to solve the puzzle, which I did with today's pleasant version. If I have time, I love to read Gameplay, so I can be informed of the clever theme that flew over my ducked noggin! This was fun. One of my wrong guesses made me laugh--OLDASDIRT instead of TIME, and I had others that just gummed me up, but I deleted and got on with it. Since I'm an online solver, I can go back and dredge up 20 years of archived puzzles, and I love to do the Sundays at a snail's pace, savoring the themes and trying to see them. Most of the time, I fail, but it's great fun either way. (What's extra-funny is those 19-year-old references to current people or events that I have to dredge up from my memory bank--or just give up and look up--which have since been consigned to oblivion.)

What a lovely puzzle! I'm trying to pack for a week-long trip, so I'm so appreciating these slightly breezier solves (at least fewer lookups) to ease my guilt at doing my crossword while neglecting all the to-dos involved in travel. I also was looking to have a Space Man, or to put David Bowie in the grid. However, I knew that the space-related hints were way too cheery for Major Tom. And once again, I love my trip through the comments--all my compatriots, agreeing & disagreeing, and all enjoying the crossword together!

As I was solving this puzzle, it occurred to me how in very many crossword puzzle clues (at least int he NYT) are puns, or dad jokes, as it were! Nice to have a theme both making fun of, and legitimizing, the use!

This was a delightful Saturday! I had to "cheat" twice, but both were great TILs--I should have known NUUK, since my husband is a circumpolar specialist, but somehow Greenland's capital hasn't gotten into my vocabulary until now. And I had to look up Anrdea Beaty, and found myself a whole new author of kid-lit, which is my guilty pleasure! I'm surprised that STICKUM gave so many folks trouble--I didn't know it was a brand name, but the folks where I grew up used that term all the time for glue, etc. RICKSTEVES was my first fill-in--I own that book! And can someone explain how indie CRED is a phrase one should know? I get the idea, but when did it become common enough to be a clue?

I expected some hate comments for padiddle, which I never expected to see in a puzzle. Padiddle was not a road-trip game for me--it was introduced to me by various boyfriends, who insisted that when we saw a padiddle, we had to kiss. Made for dangerous dates, but there was fun to be had! Slug bug, the game when you spotted a VW beetle, was also a peer-group car game and not a family road trip game. Family road trip games are I Spy and License Plate Bingo.

What a fun puzzle! My happiest Friday solve ever (I have lots of unsolved Fridays in my archives to try in the coming years). I had no lookups, but I gave myself a hard time in the SW corner when I neglected the tense for 35A with COSLEEP. I couldn't then think if a steak preparation that starts with a P. And I know I've seen The Yips before, but I need to get it from the crosses every time. Never heard it used in real life.

Loved this puzzle! I surprised myself with a few easy long crosses, even though I had NAUSEA for PUKING, but changed it once I realized NAUSEA was blocking my DEERSTALKERCAP. I found myself resisting the KONG, since something from the 70's is too modern to be a classic thing! But once I KONGed the clues, I found myself with the entire northwest half solved, and a lovely blank southeast challenge with only a few cells to clue me in. My very last square to fill in had me guessing, but "singles" couldn't be SINGS, but SONGS, so the mystery athlete had to be someone names RONALDO. I looked him up after the solve to make sure I knew about him from now on! Portugese soccer--very much not in my lane!

What a fun puzzle! A rebus that I could handle, thank goodness. I had to laugh at myself a lot. I had ALADDIN in 7-A for a looong time. I had EGGMASK in 24-A. I had MACKELMORE instead of NICKELBACK for a while. My last fill was for [Start to boil] and it took me long second to see how a misspelling of "seared" could be right! My eyes finally SEE RED!

This was so much fun! When I solved 42 Across, I thought, "This puzzle will be all about me!" Luckily for everyone else, the constructors came up with other weather themes besides little ol' me. I was stuck for nearly ever because I spelled Patton's last name with a D at the end. My method, when I'm patient, to find the wrong square(s) is to review all Down clues, then all Across clues, which made 134A the second-to-last thing I checked. I will not forget Patton OSWALT any time soon!

What a fun one! I skipped the northwest corner, since I didn't the unknown field was unknown to me, so I moved on to the southwest, which is my pattern. I the northeast, had MARTY for a few minutes, because 8-down & 12-down worked perfectly. Once I gave up on that and deleted the middle 3 letters, I realized the surname fit, also! I got the proper names with crosses, thank goodness--I mean, I knew LUCE because I'm old as the hills, but otherwise, it was guessing all the way. Once I returned to the northwest, I started tentatively with the 3-letter down--an easy one--and the the 5-letter down--and then I noticed 16-across and did a "doh" and filled in the rest. This was lovely! (Nothing like last Thursday's puzzle, with the darn numbers, just sitting there like a poisonous toad. I have 2 rebuses filled in on that one, and I know it will take me weekend time, not weekday time, to get to the bottom of it. Grr.)

I truly enjoyed this one, and usually I am troubled by Thursday puzzles. I liked the reimagining of the poem, with which I was way more familiar in high school sixty years ago, because my memory was hazy enough not to be insulted by it. It solved really smoothly with the crosses, so I felt super-smart! However, the last word to fall into place for me was PEG. How is that related to the clue THROW?

Love, love, love! I am always lost and dense with the concept of a theme, even a Sunday theme. This one just fell into my lap, or my eyes, actually! What an entertaining and fun puzzle! Just challenging enough to keep me interested, and easy enough for me to have the hope that I'll finish without looking things up. Thank you!

TIL that there is a "Y" in the middle of what I thought was spelled "matrushka". I also ultraconfidently entered BOG for 39D, and BURST worked OK for 39A (this was early in the solve), but really needed my ZOOT suit for the cross. Live and learn!

Loved the puzzle--I'm a lyrics nut! Hate Scrabble, though. Too restrictive and rules-bound for my word-game passions. In all my years a playing with my family, I never managed to achieve any great coup on the TRIPLEWORDSQUARE. But today, the joy in seeing GIMMEGIMMEGIMME pop into my scope! I definitely had FUNFUNFUN! Somehow I can't summon a good joke for the GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS, so...BYEBYEBYE!

Wow, this puzzle might have been constructed just for me, full of in jokes and ear worms! Billie Jeans, is not my lover... However, the most persistent of ear worms will be a very particular one. I was in the musical Pajama Game in freshman year of college, and now I will be hearing the Sleep Tite anthem, from the beginning of the annual company picnic, all day long: "Sleep-Tite, Sleep-Tite, Sleep-Tite we pledge our hearts' devotion to thee, to thee, oh Sleep-Tite, best in the land, with your reinforced buttons, and stretch-proof waist band!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcbgojnJklI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcbgojnJklI</a>

I don't get themes--I feel really obtuse! But I enjoyed solving the puzzle immensely anyway. I still don't get the theme and feel extremely TL:DR about it, so I will move on! My kids had pogs in the 90s, and I'm always disappointed when my word game apps won't accept pog as a word. I had to get DIEGO with crosses, because I've never seen any Ice Age movies. TIL that Ewe is a language--love that clue.

Wow. I'm glad some folks liked this one. I was not thrilled, and couldn't finish without help. Never got the theme--I will have to re-read the column to see if it can make sense to me. And too many proper names (33A, 36 D, 37D) right where I was stuck. So not fun, but I'm glad some of you had a good time solving! :)

For once, I loved the rebus--and my method worked! (I just stuck in ie or ei as I was solving, and that was accepted). I liked the puzzle overall, but I think my comment might have been negative if my rebus method had been rejected. Nobody like rejection! I don't like to take pains to try all sorts of combos in the squares, and I'm one of those who will happily break my streak to figure out where I went wrong--or what the online design says needs to be in the rebus squares.

Well, I had to give up and peek at the answer, because I could not for the life of me figure out what in heaven's name "The Southhatt" could be. I enjoyed the puzzle right up to that point, so I understand why everyone loves it. I'm just sad that I didn't get it. I am very bad at the devious parts of NYT crosswords--I see themes, but the revealers never help me. And when you don't have an indicator that there is REBUS action, I am a lost, lost kiddo. Happy Sunday, everyone!

3-down really bothers me. In all the other Down clues, the HOLE is pronounced with a long O. CHOLER is pronounced with a short O. For some reason, that ticks me off!

Nope. Just nope. No fun.

Loved the puzzle! Fairly easy solve, although I tripped myself up be confidently guessing 44-A as Sheila, thereby ruining my downs in that area for along time. I kept trying to think if there was some urban legend about using the name of Henry Knox to break evil curses, kind of like a reverse Mary Worth or something. Kind of disappointed that isn't the case!

Well, I got every clue right (except for having to look up the nattick at 62A 38D), but I totally blew the lock word. I had OXCA, so I changed it to ORCA, but then I gave up. Ironic that I changed the only correct letter! Giving up is OK with me! I have 32 years of archives to solve, and I gave up on having streaks sometime during 2020, when I had a 257-day streak (I think).