Alexandra Dixon

Loved this one! Jampacked with punny but very fair clues, and MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING came pretty quickly based on the clue and the partial fills, then it was just a question of grokking the gimmick. Get one, get them all. It must have been very tricky to find phrases or words containing national currencies which, when you replace the currency word with the letters ALL, still makes a valid word or phrase. I mean who *thinks* of something like this, then actually is able to *execute* it? I guess, someone who has written 189 previous NYT crosswords! Hats off to the constructor and here's to reaching 200.

It took me forever to focus on what DOUBLE REVERSE meant - I had it but then I ignored it. I kept thinking "this has to be the right word here" (TARANTINO for example) except the crossing words - of which I was equally sure - didn't fit! When I finally focused on DOUBLE REVERSE and realized TARNATION was a rearrangement of TARANTINO - it was *so* satisfying. I'm always amazed at the creativity of NYT crossword composers. You think there couldn't possibly be another gimmick that works effortlessly, and then - there is!

A real tour-de-force. So many elements that each stand alone as great theming. It's difficult to believe that this was even possible to construct, it's so intricate!

I *love* this puzzle. The way the theme is included in two different ways, the elegant clueing, nothing forced ... just everything about it. To me this is the perfect Sunday crossword.

This is one of my least favorite NYT puzzles. As someone who stubbornly won't research the answer to any clue, but is almost always able to solve at least Mon->Thu, I found two large chunks of this puzzle too much of a slog, and finally gave up. I had both long Across descriptions and both DUCK (luckily I guessed this, because I had never heard of KYD) and RABBIT ... but too many clues crossed where I didn't know the answer to either clue. And that *one* rebus was in one of those chunks. I don't usually blame the constructor when I can't finish a puzzle but in this case, I kinda do. I don't finish every puzzle, certainly not the ones later in the week, but when I can't finish a Wednesday without massive effort and a few guessed letters... that means some of the clues probably shouldn't have been in the puzzle. There were far too many that relied on knowledge of pop culture, entertainment, and business deals, among them: DORITOS, MEYERS (I guessed MYER because it sounded right and I thought I only had *three* (not *five*) cells to fill in), BUD ICE, CARELL, JDATE, SAKS, BIEB. Looking at the clues, there was an unusually high number of references to proper names that relied on trivia knowledge; that was the main reason I found this puzzle frustrating and ultimately decided to bail. Looking at the solutions, I could probably have dragged myself across the finish line, but … I generally stop when I'm not having fun anymore and it has turned into a slog - which this had.

This was an IGIBIDGI for me (pronounced Idgy Bidgy). It stands for "I got it but I don't get it." I had to read Deb Amlen's explanation to get that there were four letters in each answer that read [X or Y] that made sense of the second part of the answer, and were the initials of the two parts of the clue. Really neat once it was explained to me! Also kicking myself because I think I could have gotten it with a bit more thought. Kudos to the author for caring about details such as, not repeating any letters, and trying not to have OR appear in any non-theme answers. I'm glad he didn't obsess over that. A friend once told me "You have to learn when 'good enough' is good enough" and I stubbornly replied "It's good enough when it's perfect" to which he replied, "Fine, then spend 50% of your time getting it to 99% and the other 50% of your time getting it to 1% if you want." Well when you put it that way...!!! I really enjoyed the sleight-of-hand clues (admit the worst, etc). Which of course I didn't get until I had at least half of the letters but these morsels gave me little bursts of dopamine when the penny dropped.

Imagine being sure that the answer to "DRIFT" was "MEANING" then being confused by the fact that the first four letters definitely worked but the next three didn't. Oh, MEANDER! I "reveal(ed) puzzle" with a few entries in the bottom left area unfilled ... I shouldn't have, I would eventually have gotten it. I know French, I don't know Spanish articles! I still have to get used to the fact that answers no longer have to be a single word. After all this time! Nice puzzle!

This is a delightful Monday morsel. Side F...X - brilliant! Made me chuckle once I realized it. At first I thought there was a sly F..OX hidden in each theme entry but quickly realized newp. The O was not consistent but the FX were. Once I entered the last letter in the puzzle and didn't get the happy sound, I checked my acrosses and downs and thought "Oh, OK, it's NILLA not NYLLA." Fair enough. But I didn't love FLIER for FLYER.

This was such a satisfying solve because I had to work REALLY hard to get the upper left corner and it involved searching my keyboard. I had LYFT for 1A and YOKE for 2D and ROYAL for 6D which gave me *K**S*Y* for *PEERS, which I knew had to be one of the upper (shifted) symbols above a key. First step was to replace ROYAL with REGAL which gave me *K**S*G* and then to realize that S*G* had to be SIGN. So then I had *K**SIGN, and that meant the K was wrong. LYFT hadnt seemed to work from the start so I got rid of YOKE and LYFT. Then I stared at the keyboard to find something that could be PEERS, and oh the delightful aha when I realized it was the symbol you shift to get the PLUS SIGN: EQUALS. From there it was easy to fill in the rest of the top left section. Ive been solving the NYT crossword for years and somehow constructors never run out of ideas! This one was delightful.

I'm ashamed to say I gave up on this when I had most of it filled in. I shouldn't have. I think if I had noticed that the circles were color-coded in three pairs, I might have grokked what was going on. Anyway after reading the explanation I'm blown away and wish I had stayed the course. It's incredibly elegant and intricate and I simply don't know how Dylan Schiff managed to pack so much into the grid and make it all work!

CAREER, CAREEN ... I knew something was wrong but I really thought CAREEN was correct. Where the answer was MEAT, I initially had CRUX which I was amused to find in the writeup by the puzzle creators.

Nice puzzle! Top right corner got to me. Although xxASKAROLL, I should have gotten it! Just picking a nit - SPAYING and NEUTERING are two different things (the former is performed on females, the latter on males). Sometimes it's abbreviated SPEUTERING in the animal rescue community when we're talking about the general practice in the context of reducing births to avoid overpopulation which results in healthy animals being killed in shelters - which by the way is at epidemic levels right now. So if you have room in your home to foster a dog or cat even for a little while, contact a local non-profit rescue groups and volunteer. They will pay all the medical bills, most will pay for food, and you'll be saving a life! Rescue groups usually don't have brick and mortar facilities, so they can't pull animals from shelters without foster homes ready to take them. The rescue group will take back the foster animal if you cannot keep it until it is adopted.

This was one of the hardest puzzles I've tacked so far! It took me over an hour to finish and I had to "check puzzle" three times (I only had two letters incorrect total but I guess I needed the psychological reassurance). My favorite clue? Well it would have to be the descrxiption of the three long answers. But a close second is GALA THROWAWAY. being right next to THEATER THROWAWAY, it "threw" me off for the longest time.

Nice theme. But 'outings for foxhounds?' a cluel for 'hunts?' Ugh. A trip to a museum is an outing, but a fox hunt? I would say the average 'outing' doesn't involve blood lust and terrified wildlife being trapped and torn limb from limb.

Nice gimmick! Took me a while. I think my entry point was FARGO?? but I needed to solve for ANYTAKERS before I really understood. Fortunately I got it without quite getting it (I had enough crossing letters to fill it in) and the "phonetic" in the clue really helped. With the Sinatra clue I thought "TOMBSTO"(NE) ... but that didn't work with the Down clues, then I realized that the word or phrase that lost the NE still had to make sense, so HEADSTO(NE) it was! Of course, I would expect nothing less from the NYT crossword, it's always elegant. One quibble - I think "seating a jury" might have been a better clue for IMPANELING than "selecting for a jury" - especially since IMPA(NE)LING and VOIRDIRE have the same number of letters. Just sayin'. That was my last section that I filled, and by the final time I tackled it after several passes I knew the answer needed to have an NE in it so VOIRDIRE wouldn't work. So, it was a bootstrap process but very well clued and tight. Congrats to the constructor!

This one really tickled my fancy. I do love a good pun and HEDGE ROWS was that. My last empty cell was - you guessed it - the first letter of 33A/33D. My favorite moment in the whole puzzle was when the lightbulb went off. Sure, I was working my way through the alphabet but then, I hadnt even gotten to E yet when it came to me. great theme, some good to great clues. A totally solid puzzle.

I really liked this puzzle. It was elegant and clean with a nice theme (and 'aha') ... and some great misdirection clues which I grokked right away for the most part except for 1A and 1D. I first had ROAST and REDS (ROAST is clearly wrong, what was I thinking, but some queens - in chess - are reds), then I had TOAST and TEDS and figured I just didn't know what a RED TED was ... then when I checked puzzle, and that square was wrong, I finally got BOAST and BEDS - forehead slap. Thanks for pointing to the constructor's previous puzzles, I look forward to solving them.

Nice one! It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the "back in black" gimmicke (even after I'd filled in that answer!) For some reason I had trouble with a subsection of the top left quadrant, in no small part because I had HOLD for 12D and so instead of KRY I had DRY for the element clue. Anyway after recharging my batteries overnight, I saw the hook, got DIDNT HOLD (BACK), the UT of WIPEOUT gave me the aha for that one, and I had it solved lickety split. I'm looking forward to more puzzles from Mr. Faiella!

R(YES)EED was a big help! I like that the gimmick revealed itself very slowly to me, but in the end I got there! Some of the clues were deliciously deceptive but all were fair. Also PUSH crossing UTERI and both referring to pregnancy/childbirth, I thought that was a neat little connection.

I love this theme. I almost giggled when I got the first one, I felt almost dizzy as my brain went through the loop. What a great debut, looking forward to more puzzles from this constructor.

What an elegant puzzle, I really liked the layout. I call cookies made with ground almonds MACARONS, not MACAROONS. But a check of the dictionary shows that MACAROONS is acceptable. Still...

This one stands out for its delightfully high proportion of clues that seem to mean one thing but really mean something else. And I am here for each and every one of them! I had trouble with the upper left section until I thought more about BAGUETTES and remembered that also refers to jewelry, and so I slid GEMS in there and that was enough to give me traction to finish the whole puzzle. Really delightful, thank you!

Wow, I completely missed the "in the clues" hint. I had most of the grid filled but the upper left section seemed to contain all the gaps in my knowledge so I was unable to fill it in and hit "Reveal Puzzle" after a while - a rare default for me. I think this puzzle was very fair, and delightful in hindsight, but not having gotten the gimmick, and not having been able to fill in the grid all on my own, I can't say I was personally delighted by the experience! But hats off to the new constructor, barely out of his teens, who created such a polished first entry. I look forward to many more from you!

This is the first variety puzzle that actually stumped me, I had to reveal puzzle. I am not mad though, because it is a beautiful puzzle! I was doomed because I thought it was YARD WORK not YARD CARE, so I tried to shove DWORK into the last Down cell. And then the two books, I thought they would be found on a SH-ELF. I did get DEAD HEAT but again, tried to cram DHEAT into the last cell, and that was so ovviously wrong, I knew I was missing the gimmick but couldnt figure it out.