J lawrence g

I really liked Deb's comparison between solving and wine appreciation. So tired of seeing everything being timed and/or turned into a competition.

Great puzzle, but....I want to start a petition that decrees that that any clue asking for a rapper must auto fill. Really, there must be 10,000 of them out there.

I come here to do a crossword on my tablet, not a white board. This is a great construction, but belongs somewhere else on the game page. Not fun, good-bye streak, don't want to sit at a 22 inch monitor with a legal pad and pencil.

Funny how trivia can make or break you. Bond's pistol was my entry solve.

My first inclination was a Yoda theme.

A bit of a lesson to be learned here. There might be more to something than is apparent.

I'm older so was familiar with all these headlines, maybe this theme is payback for all the thousands of celebrities and rappers younger solvers might know, but I have never heard of.

Between Friday and Saturday's puzzles, two of the best - I'll never get this, I got it, challenges in a while. Like walking through ankle deep mud but you finally get there. Thanks to all the great constructors.

As someone who has a hate hate relationship with cellphones and texting, those acronyms are a strain.

A perfectly satisfying tooth pulling exercise.

The closest I came to "I'll never get this" in a long time.

Great fun. If opening this puzzle and seeing that grid doesn't get your attention, well then...

Really tough and really satisfying. Thanks for the challenge.

A great puzzle is brutally humbling in the first 15 minutes, then like pulling alligator teeth, finally comes to fruition. Funny how clues can make sense in hindsight when at first seeming so clueless.

Between yesterday and today, two really great challenges. Thanks to all the constructors who make Fri/Sat so much fun.

The impact when it opens and you see the grid was the best part. A real "aha" moment.

A little longer than average, start in bed, wake up at 2 a.m. and start to see the words. A perfect puzzle.

Just right. Thanks for a clever puzzle.

Between yesterday and this puzzle, two great ones in a row. Thanks to both constructors.

Great fun, great clues, great challenge.

I think the name of the puzzle refers to what it takes to get through it. Very tough, but doable. One where you start out and think that you'll never get it, but just keep plugging away. I had a 45 of "I've been everywhere" by Hank Snow. That answer was the crack that got me started.

Help! What do you do when your fill is perfect, checked against the key, but doesn't recognize the solve?

As I'm working through this, I'm thinking, there are a lot of debuts here. Great puzzle, just the right amount of resistance.

One of those, first time through - I'll never get this. Pick it up, put it down, repeat. But slowly things began to appear. So many no knows. A perfect Saturday, thanks.

A very fun ride with fair clueing, and for a first time Sunday!

Very clever and a lot of fun. Took me me too long to realize what day of the week I was working on.

The most difficult puzzle I've done in a long time, just so hard to get an entry point. Had it not been for 17A, might still be staring at it. Let me renew my request to ban the use of rappers and children's book authors. There's just too many of them.

Have gone through comments but haven't found an explanation of "snees?"

A great challenge and just right, and me too, that NW quad was tough.

That was stellar. So easy to enter an incorrect fill and taking too long to realize it. NW was last for me, confounded by Olympic trash sport.

That was a fun, fair ride. And Fort Hays, who wouldn't know that!

I agree with Sam, I pick it up and out it down numerous times before finishing. And always amazed at how answers just seem to appear when I return. Hard puzzle for me, modern made up words from a universe I'm not into.

Sam, I totally agree about the feeling there is a connection out there. It's how I explain putting it down and later picking it with sudden revelation. More than subconscious wheels turning. The trick of this puzzle was coming on a Wednesday. The bar joke got me going down the right path. A fun ride.

Just right for me, like pulling teeth, twenty four minutes longer than usual. Very clever and fair.

A fun challenge with an "aw ha" kick. Just right I think for Thursday.

Very clever and fun. Any tie-in to Seinfeld makes me smile. Congrats to a fellow Kansan.

Fun puzzle, and Sean's second paragraph just as fun.

Great puzzle, great Friday. Another grid that was really hard but finally got it done, 7D was the last to fall.

I'm with Caitlin, the SE corner was the last to go. And I love the cartoon quote from the New Yorker, I'm going to print that on a tee shirt and add it to my Tee Shirts For Hermits collection.

PDA ?

Talk about not being on the same wave length. I persevered but it took me twice as long as normal. I'm tired now.

Bowie?