Ace

This puzzle danced on me like James Brown at the Apollo. When I thought I had something, this puzzle had slid cool across the stage and stared back at me, like what you got, holmes? Can you handle this? I almost looked stuff up, but I held out and thought it out a bit more. Some of the long fill opened up the synapses and then things fell in place faster. It took me like 25 minutes to get into the puzzle, and like 8 minutes to actually solve it. I did a straight fist pump when I finished this thing. I know that people didn't like this puzzle. That wasn't me. I loved all of the misdirects and weird word play. I liked how hard it was. I thought it was really fun to fight with it and get on its wavelength. I know this is not everyone, but this isn't your comment–it's mine.

So, my head is around 5 to 6 feet off the ground. This theme was, conservatively, 200 feet over my head. I solved this thing well under average, but getting the theme? Haha, no. Then again, I'm constantly bewildered by magic, so this should be no surprise.

While I caught the animals in the circles, the full theme didn't hit me until I read the column. I always think it is a tragedy what we are doing to our environment (I include myself in this. I can't live in late capitalism and not be part of the problem), so any attention brought to it is massive. I found this to be a fun solve with some interesting fill and no sweat. My time would have been slightly faster if I didn't have such fat fingers, but what can you do? I guess I could put my fingers on a workout regimen. Anyway, I hope everyone, after being bummed out by this puzzle, can enjoy their Sunday.

A fun romp through the words. While I momentarily groaned at the presence of my eternal enemy, the rebus, we came to a detente after 20 minutes of tense negotiations and marginal catering. A fun Sunday puzzle, a good introduction to the variety of tricks that the editors can hit you with in a very accessible manner.

I'm not seeing this eclipse as it is raining in Northern Minnesota today. It'll just go from gray to dark gray. Chill times. One of the first songs I learned how to play on guitar was MOONSHADOW. It was taught to me by a trumpet player. Go figure. My inner and outer music nerd was thrilled at the theme and had a fun time pushing out this Monday puzzle. Given the ease of the day, I'm in a constant battle to reset my PB. Was off by about 30 seconds, but such is life. All of you in the clear places: enjoy the eclipse for those of us in the clouds. Space is cool.

I did something I rarely do when doing a crossword: I let this one sit and marinate. I ate dinner and came back, focused and able to bust this thing down. A fun solve with plenty of misdirection. Honestly, I had a great time.

Hats off to the constructor. I had so many words that absolutely fit and were absolutely wrong. I ended up below average because of it. Deeply enjoyed sinking my average with this puzzle. I hope to see more.

When you get through three passes and you have a host of long fill waiting for you, the flop sweat starts flowing. Around minute 10, I said goodbye to any chance of finishing quickly. With that time restraint gone, I just had some fun puzzling through these clues. Took about 35 minutes, and I smiled when I got there; I thought it was going to be worse. CORNPIT was weird, but I'm sure I've seen one in my Midwestern odyssey. Was deeply pleased with CRAPPER. I thought that the NYT was classier than that, but they're not, and I'm delighted by that. I hated AAVERAGES, but it works. While I was challenged immensely by this thing, I thought the whole was extremely fair. Not too much weird slang, and the trivia (I'm looking at you, TIMREID) could be gotten by intersection. Also, like Mr. Slonecker, I want to shout out Julia Holter. She's quietly crushing it. New album is just great.

I was sweating like I was wearing a bad wig during a PR disaster. After I figured out that bad wigs were not the PR disaster, but it was HOTMICS, things didn't get much better. Even though my time was mid by my own standards (27 minutes), I had an absolute blast doing this thing. The fill was weird and fun. Can't say I've heard of PADIDDLE, a consequence of my only child nature and sleeping through road trips (a lovely habit I've maintained as an adult), but it was fun to figure it out.

Remembered why I don't do these at night. Mind really short circuited for a while. I got there under average, but this felt like it should have been faster. Anyway, love the revealer. Even as a man, there are too many man babies. If you would like a fun song about men being terrible, dial up "drone" by Chastity Belt in your streaming service of choice (unless you own the album and then we should talk about Live Laugh Love).

In a fun trip for me, I got the middle of the puzzle first before the corners. SE and SW wasn't too bad if I remember correctly. The NE took a prod, but crumbled. The NW was hell. I spent a grip of time just staring at it, wondering how to access its mystery. I eventually did, but boy oh boy. I ended up over average by 6 minutes (some of that due to a mistype on my part and having to find it), but I appreciated the difficulty. It is Friday after all.

A fun time to be had. I started to flop sweat as I cruised around looking for something to grab hold of. The clues weren't helping, serving as mirages. Hill adjacent? Oh, THE MALL for sure. But wait, that doesn't work. ELLIPSE? Nope. Ha ha, puny solver. POLISCI. The puzzle gives me a reprieve. It rewarded me with a real gem of a clue for Geno Smith. In the end, I left with it done in less than 30 minutes, which was still 50% over average, and a healthy respect for this puzzle.

A real delight of a Thursday puzzle. I had to get the revealer to figure out the jig, but it was fun once I did. The clues were reasonably fresh. It's been a while since I've encountered jai ALAI in a puzzle, so that was a good time. And, on top of having a gay old time, I got in and out quick and dry, which I'll always take on a Thursday.

A tip of the hat to the puzzle writer. The wordplay in the explanation made me laugh. Had to read the theme to get it, but eh? A fun time was had, and I did it in less than half my average.

This was a fun one. I was glad to see COMMITTOTHEBIT, a phrase that is often yelled in my household. Ms. Goldstein had me doubting myself sometimes, but isn't that what the best Friday puzzles do? RAH was the end of the solve as I came in at around 11 minutes. I had a fun time, and I sailed through dry as a bone. It was a nice contrast to the slog of S-------- B-- today.

Yea, this was mid for me. AREEL lost me. I probably would have gotten it by cross if I actually remembered anything about Dean Martin other than him being a flaming trash person. The theme was entertaining enough, but my app did not credit me for empty spaces; it required the letters, which was annoying.

I take delight in seeing our fair columnist not totally understand how a dunk contest works. There are time limits, but the dunks also have to be creative or awe inspiring (seeing Jordan dunking from the free throw line). Puzzle was a fun time. Did it in a little more than half my average time. The clues were fun, and I did have to think. Also, props to the crossword creator. The New Yorker ran a devilish crossword maybe a couple of weeks ago: Uncharted Territories. My wife was doing it but got stuck. When I saw the answers, I could do nothing but awe in the creativity. It was so good.

I breezed this (~7 minutes), but it was not my favorite. There was a lot of generic fill that made his rather clever theme a bit dull. Also, have there been more tech clues recently, or is that just me being sensitive? It's been a bit annoying to say the least. I hear the complaints of our international brethren here. This had a lot of us-centered stuff. The fact that y'all try this thing at all and solve it is truly an accomplishment to me. I'm still trying to figure out how to solve a cryptic on my own.