Swift

I'm mourning a recent death in my family; grief shows up in a lot of ways, and one of them has been in not really being up for or able to do puzzles (or really anything that involves mental focus.) This puzzle broke through the haze and brought delight; I'm grateful!

OXLIP, THX, and NHLMVP held me up a little, mostly because I didn't know the flower answer and could imagine other options for the hockey and texting answers. Got there, though, and really enjoyed this one!

Who else here immediately knew "WASTED POTENTIAL" and thought, "Take that [teacher's name.] I'm using my time and smarts to solve the NY Times crossword puzzle, now!" 🤣

Loved this! Morton: glad you persisted!

I enjoy punny Sundays! It lightens up a larger puzzle.

Not used to getting stuck on Mondays, but LILLE/ST.ELMO/ELO caught me. I'll have to remember ELO; I think that answer and the Xanadu clue have come up before.

Because of the tree theme, for just a brief moment I had eNT for OK boomer. Bru-ra-hoom!

Like many, I was feeling pretty impressed with myself until I got stuck in the NW corner. It felt good to get outta there with no lookups.

After finishing Friday under the wire (so hard!) I opened Saturday with trepidation. Getting "ONLITTLECATFEET" right away gave me quite a mood boost and the joy to keep puzzling away. Pure delight.

I'm totally here for the fun and sizzle of the puzzle today. It was the kind of puzzle that gave me that "Wow, words are pretty great" feeling.

I stared at BESTRONG for a long, long time.

Took me a long time to give up on Life of Brian.

Sometimes puzzles feel like they take ages to solve, and at the end I'm surprised that it actually wasn't that long. This puzzle took way longer than a usual Sunday for me, but it didn't feel long and I didn't begrudge the time--it was chewy and enjoyable all the way through.

Beautiful, elegant puzzle.

Joining others who really enjoyed this one; not because it was easy, but because of that satisfying experience of getting almost nothing at first, thinking it's impossible, getting a few, and then the rest coming in with a *woosh.* I solved up from the Southeast corner; Captain Picard, FTW!

This was a fun one for me; the northeast corner was where I figured out the rebus situation, and it all came together pretty quickly from there!

Love Deb's "some days you get the puzzle, other days the puzzle gets you." This puzzle got me, but I still enjoyed it because the clues weren't unfair, just lateral thinking from a different direction than my mind wanted to go. Did any one else have BuTTeRS to follow spreads before you figured out BETTORS? That one's kind of a microcosm of how this puzzle went for me ... I got there eventually, but it was not a smooth road.

With most puzzles, I end up with a favorite word; usually one we don't see often. Today: USURP! A great word, and one of those words that looks kind of funky when you write it out, at least to me.

Loved this! Definitely had los before LAS, but not for too long. The baby skunk basket: so cute!

This would have been the ideal solving experience for me if I hadn't needed to hunt and peck for my error (always especially rough to do on a Sunday!) I didn't remember the perfume clue (it's come up in puzzles before) and I thought iCE was a pretty clever (if old-fashioned) answer to a delivery that can't be returned. Ah well; I got there! And I really enjoyed this puzzle.

Totally delighted by the debut of HEADCANON! Geeks of many fandoms have this in our frequently-used vocabulary, so I'm guessing I'm not the only one feeling seen today.

For a moment, I had CdiF for "staff leader," which is a really awful pun. I was glad to be wrong!

Absolutely loved this one. Starting with RICKSTEVES put me in a good mood to take on the rest of the puzzle, even the tricky bits.

I was really hoping for a cross of TSURIS with TUchus! But I also laughed when I figured it out, so maybe it was an intended misdirect.

This was one where, on my first read through the clues, I thought I was well and truly finished, streak over! I got a little foothold in the NW corner, though, and it unfolded really beautifully from there. That's a gratifying solving experience! I'm really loving the freshness of puzzles by debut constructors. Thank you for persevering!

What a delicious, delightful puzzle. OMNOMNOM!

Fabulous. Pretty fun all the way through, and I liked that the rebuses were hidden, but also not too hard to spot and solve. It's satisfying to get the Sunday done on Saturday night, when possible, and this was a pleasant evening puzzle for me.

Fans of MST3K weren't phased by the (Tom) SERVO reference, I'm guessing. This puzzle really hit a sweet spot for me for an early week puzzle: no need for lookups, but a couple times where I had to question/change my first response. Very enjoyable!

So many lookups for me, mostly to correct errors. I may need a new strategy for Saturdays; taking a good guess to get going often seems to send me down very wrong roads. I think I need to get more comfortable with sitting with the blank grid and letting the whole thing take a longer time.

Expectations get in the way of a good time sometimes ... I missed having the usual Thursday puzzle-within-a-puzzle challenge, but putting that expectation aside it was still fun and fun to solve.

I saw the TO but couldn't make it make sense while I was solving... it feels backwards to me. I expected the "to" to help me get from bisHOP to BARHOP, not the other direction. Next time I'll know to check for the clue to work in a less-expected order.

Other than "JEB!" I wouldn't have guessed this was a vintage puzzle, though I did guess the constructor was my age or older because of SASE. This puzzle aligned nicely with a lot of my niche knowledge, so it was breezy, and I will take a breezy Thursday when it comes my way! Woot!!!

Mostly super fun and breezy--got to the SW corner going top speed and felt the lurch of getting suddenly stuck.

So satisfying! The theme makes me think of Wally the Wordworm, one of my favorite childhood books. Wally loves delicious words, and this puzzle was full of them!

The experience of being on the same wavelength as the constructor isn't totally necessary for solving or enjoying a puzzle, but when it happens ... what a delight! Loved UNCANNYVALLEY, OPERA, and most of all, QUEERTHEOLOGY. Excellent!

I got out of the crossword habit for awhile; this was a delightful puzzle to return to. No need for lookups, just a nice steady solve.

I solved up (south to north) on this puzzle, so I hit on GRAINOFSAND and FINGERSANDWICHES together and convinced myself the theme had something to do with "s-a-n-d" and diminutives. I didn't cling too hard to this theory and had to give it up quickly, but I felt a little sad to let it go. I don't even know what that extra layer would have signified, but I think Sunday's puzzle may have made me greedy for more complexity and wheels within wheels. That said, this was a pretty fun solve.

So, so lovely. What a great way to start the week!

Kind of a fascinating mix of solving levels and clueing styles, which kept me going and interested even when I got very stuck on the NW and SE corners (the SW, NE, and middle came pretty quickly for me.) One of my missteps in the NW was thinking there was a fly fishing pun ("on the fly") and having FISHJOBS in there for awhile (it didn't really make sense, but I got a little hooked 😉.) Loved the RHP reference and enjoyed that many of the words and clues felt fresh.

It's always heartening to read that I wasn't alone in the spot I got stuck--not sure why I was so attached to mot, but losing it for AMI opened up that whole section again. I knew JAPE but wouldn't have guessed JAKE on my own; that feels like a good one to remember for future puzzles. I was really stumped on the * clues! I had a feeling it had something to do with the first letter ... that's all I had. If I could do it again (and I'll try to remember for next time this comes up) I'd slow myself down and hold back from just solving everything via the crosses--I bet this one was a very satisfying revealer to get!