Katie

HELLYEAH, MINNESOTA NICE! We've LIVED through some tough times recently, and have felt less SECURE by the day. To say we are MIFFED is an understatement. Thankfully, we didn't have to go it SOLO, as we are always here for each other. Minnesota will be an ICE ARENA no longer. We won.

Well, that's the most sexist thing I've ever seen in a crossword. Can we please do away with the idea that women are more "emotional" than men? This stereotype has been used to keep women down for centuries. The idea being that since we are so "emotional," we can't be rational, like men. Who apparently do not have emotions. Showing emotion isn't getting in touch with your FEMININE SIDE. It's just called being human.

Why the heck are the comments so hatey lately? This was a lovely puzzle, and a fine debut. I have no idea what people are complaining about.

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. TRY TO SOLVE THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD."

Today I learned the International Monetary Fund cannot help you get pregnant.

I like my GRAY hairs, and refuse to cover them up. Except with a hat. Wind chill is currently -40, and I'm trying to work up the courage to get to the rally in Minneapolis later. Plan is to wear three pairs of pants.

This one nearly destroyed me. First off, asking me to spell ONOMATOPOEIA is just mean. The constructor should have known that I can't spell it, and taken steps to preserve my ego. Second, I could have sworn that is was cocoa nibs, not CACAO NIBS. A quick Google search for cocoa nibs gives me a snarky reply: Including results for *cacao nibs*. I do not appreciate the tone, Google. Third, I had misspelled PORTOBELLO as portoNello, and took forever to realize my mistake. This led to me having "ALT ten" at 27A, it seemingly never occurring to me that there is no ten key on my keyboard. In spite of my ineptitude, I enjoyed it! Great job, Alina!

I didn't realize until I came here that the shapes spelled chips and salsa. I'm so grateful to have this column! Thanks, Deb!

I thought IPAS were hop-ular brews. ... I'll see myself out.

Is it me, or has there been a huge amount of negative comments in here lately? I can't believe so many people disliked this puzzle. I thought it was amazing. I think most of the puzzles are amazing. I think Will Shortz is amazing, and Daniel Grinberg is amazing, and anyone who's ever actually constructed a crossword puzzle is amazing. Have a nice day.

I feel like Sam has missed the main complaint we have. It's not that we feel the puzzles are of poor quality. And we try hard not to insult the constructors. The issue is that the puzzles have gotten noticeably easier. This quote says it all: "everybody, regardless of solving skill or experience, needs to feel welcome." The fact is that people of a higher skill level no longer feel welcome here. The puzzles are getting easier, and our concerns seem to be falling on deaf ears.

I just can't. This would have been fun on any other day, but I'm just miserable right now.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle! I loved seeing RIBALD, and 56A made me laugh out loud. Congrats on a fantastic debut. It should be noted that the CONE OF SHAME only applies to dogs. When cats wear the cone, they feel no shame, only thirst for revenge.

Wow, I'm seriously surprised at all the complaints. I thought this was a fantastic, fun puzzle. I wish more people would abide by the adage "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Far too may of these negative posts don't have any legitimate criticisms, they just say "yuck." At least show a modicum of respect and say WHY you disliked the puzzle. There is no excuse for rudeness. There's enough of that in the world right now.

That was insanely difficult for a Tuesday. I got most of the proper names right away (UHURA, LEVAR, ROMO, IMAN) and still struggled mightily. I ended up having to look up a couple entries to make sure they were a thing (GESSO, ADOLFO). The longer phrases were the hardest part, and it didn't help that two of them were part of the theme. A MINORITY OF ONE? SET IN OPPOSITION? AT A LOW EBB????? I'm not sure any of these are "in the language," and if they are, they're very rare. I don't mean to PAN this puzzle, but I just didn't enjoy it. I could've used an Oreo or two.

I loved this puzzle. I thought the theme was fun, clever, and easy to understand. There was also a lot of fun fill, like PERETTI, OCTOPI, FINESSE, and the full ET TU BRUTE, rather than the more crossword-y ET TU. Hannah, please don't listen to the haters. There have been a lot of them lately, and they all seem to have a bug up their APSES.

Fun puzzle! Though as others have mentioned, it's difficult to see in digital form, even on my fairly large laptop screen. I had to look up what a CORN PIT was, as I've never heard of one. I grew up playing on my uncle's farm, and the "play area" was wherever the heck we wanted to play. It seems a CORN PIT is something found on those "farms" that are basically just amusement parks. On a real farm, you do not play in corn. People die that way.

Why would middle schoolers laugh at URANUS? URANUS is majestic. URANUS is giant and gaseous. Granted, URANUS has a weird ring around it. But URANUS deserves respect! --Katie, age 37

Word pairs that have the same amount of letters, thus tripping me up when I try to enter them in a crossword: --Pistil and STAMEN --Mauna Loa and Mauna KEA --Sasha and Malia Obama --Jerry's friends Elaine, George, and Kramer --Sierra Madre and Sierra Leone --Mattress makers Serta and Sealy Can anyone think of more examples?

Oof. I confidently filled in RAMADAN at 1A, but things went very quickly downhill. My first pass left me with about three answers filled in. Things got a bit DICEY in the center-west, but I'm one of those DAMES who never gives up. In the end I RASSLED the puzzle into submission. FYI, I've had BETTER THAN SEX cake, and it's not.

Full disclosure: any time I get my hands on a calculator, I type 80085 into it. My name is Katie, and I am 37 years old.

I scrubbed the kitchen floor yesterday, and my arms didn't TREMBLE so much as explode into aches as I lay in bed last night. As I get older, I've added Advil to my list of cleaning supplies. Anyway, this was a lovely puzzle. I wish everyone had the same tolerance as the constructors. I'm praying for my immigrant neighbors every night. I love you all.

Anyone with a cat knows the OWNER in the relationship is not the human. (Can emus be cat ladies?)

It was lovely to see ROSA Parks crossing MALALA YOUSAFZAI. Two exceptional women, together at last!

So many people not getting the theme... It seemed pretty obvious to me, and super cute. They're false sightings, that's why they're spelled wrong. The idea of a hairy monster with cigarette lighters for feet cracked me up. "No no, that's BICFOOT. He's not mysterious at all."

I just didn't like it. For one, there was a lot of glue, especially abbreviations. SOC, ETAS, STA, REL, etc. Second, some of the theme fell flat. The METRODOME has been gone for more than a decade, so the clue felt oddly outdated. Unforgivable for me, though, was 48A. Holland and DUTCH are not interchangeable, and DITCH does not mean tunnel.

This was an excellent debut! ELMO was the one who clued me in to the theme. Many thanks to the little red dude, and to the constructors. I wanted [Plot problems] to be moles so very, very badly. I tried googling "toe smoe" in the hopes that this was a ballet thing I was unaware of. Google instead showed me results for "toe smoke," which was mostly pictures of people holding cigarettes with their feet.

Misspelled OLAJUWON badly and thought, "My God, what have I done?!"

A lovely almost-themeless puzzle. Favorite entry: COLUMBO, who I am slightly in love with. As a TEETOTALer (fifteen months!) I do allow myself the occasional ginger ALE. I wonder if there's a theme to be had in nonalcoholic liquids that sound like alcoholic ones? Root beer, oyster liquor, and...?

This was everything a Saturday puzzle should be: difficult, but not unfair. Several words I didn't know, but a bunch of ones I did, so it all worked out! Me gusta!

This is unacceptable. This is a Saturday best for me, but I feel no sense of accomplishment. This was a Tuesday-level puzzle. I finished it more than half an hour faster than my average. Nearly every clue was straightforward: "Word with corn or cough," "Gym amenity," "Word with paper or humor," "Short-term workers." I am seriously considering canceling my subscription if this trend continues. I come here for a challenge, and if I'm not getting a challenge, then what am I paying for? I don't want to to complain. I try to go by the rule, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." And I appreciate how much work the constructors put into their puzzles. But this is really getting to me. I'm starting to not enjoy these puzzles.

OPE, it looks like everyone hated it. This confirms my suspicion that most people simply do not want a challenge. This was a great puzzle, and I'm sad that more people didn't enjoy it. I'm so sleepy I'm basically half-dead, and I still managed to complete the puzzle and understand the theme, albeit with a lot of thought and caffeine. It was full of lively fill, such as 14D, 75A, 12A, 113D. There were a bunch of fun entries, like SONOFA, PANANG, KASBAH, and MANIFESTOS. I especially loved the clue for SOMALI. I've read some SOMALI poetry, which traditionally is memorized and spoken out loud, much like the Iliad and Odyssey back in the day. Any puzzle that name-drops EUGENE Levy is fine by me.

This was just too easy. I've put off commenting on this for a while, but I've definitely noticed a trend of decreasing difficulty, especially on Saturdays. This is supposed to be the hardest day of the week, and this puzzle was not difficult at all. I used to look forward to the challenge, but now Saturday is like any other day of the week. The problem seems to lie in the cluing. Most of the clues were completely straightforward. Example: [Requirement of some dress codes] for SLEEVES. Not only is this easy, it's boring. This is Monday-level cluing on a Saturday puzzle. Please, please, PLEASE bring back the difficult Saturday puzzles.

I got BARBIE DREAMHOUSE immediately, though I never had one as a kid. My Barbies lived on the couch and drove a dump truck.

This is really getting old. This was a puzzle with a Wednesday-level theme and Monday-level cluing. I know for a fact that both these constructors can do better, so this is absolutely an editing issue. For inexperienced solvers who like an easier puzzle, look at it this way: The Times is basically saying you will never be good enough to solve a real Thursday puzzle, let alone a Saturday puzzle. They are saying you will never improve, so you should not even try. They throw you the easiest possible puzzles, because they think you are not intelligent enough to handle the tough ones. They are insulting you to your face. Are you going to stand for it?

Friendly reminder about the best headline of all time: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/science/moray-eels-eat-land.html?searchResultPosition=5" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/science/moray-eels-eat-land.html?searchResultPosition=5</a>