LBG

Two words diverged in a crossword (YUNG and SMOOVE) -- I shall be telling this with sigh: I looked them up. And that has made all the difference.

This puzzle should have run on Holy Thursday. Sorry.

So that's what passing a kidney stone feels like.

Streak hits 1000 today. A special shoutout to what made it all possible -- hey, it's already been mentioned in today's puzzle: retirement! That, and Covid boredom. Toughest puzzles of them all? The ones before and after major surgery, which thankfully were Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. And the unexpected rewards ... for instance, where else would the idea to try bibimbap come from?

Never knew there was a plant called Russian Ivy. And guess what? There isn't!

All these years in the Western Hemisphere, thinking the largest city in Brazil was São Paolo. Talk about being SET IN one's ways.

I'm a big exponent for this puzzle. It's like it was created by a higher power. And in the words of Andrew Wiles, I think I'll stop here.

Often get the feeling that many here assign a ceiling to the time spent on these puzzles, then just plain quit when they hit that limit. Too hard! Unfair! Bad clues! This one took 30min more than average, but it finally yielded after a healthy (unhealthy?) amount of hair pulling and foul language. Maybe that's the benefit of being retired -- or starting at 4 AM!

Four quadrants of cleverness. Well done and a worthy Saturday. Especially liked the intersection of DO NOT WANT and YES THANKS.

My old Physical Astronomy professor worked on the Uhuru satellite that surveyed the sky for cosmic X-ray sources. He explained that it was named after the Swahili word for 'freedom' -- which, of course, was the inspiration for the name of Nichelle Nichols's character on Star Trek. This boring interlude is brought to you by the sort of insufferable nerd who found this puzzle a walk in the park. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Was convinced .... • Tesla was a Serb -- and he was, but as FUN FACTS go, it wasn't very useful today. • Italian grinder was a sandwich, but on this day it wasn't something to sink my DENTE into. • Mediocre was meh -- MAN, was that wrong. DONGLE? BITTORRENTS? We solve to learn -- will just chalk this one up to retribution for that easy Friday.

In some traditions the 2nd Commandment is, Thou shalt not brag about solve time. Indeed, many scholars have concluded that Moses solved with one finger on his tablet.

As Thursday twists go, this was all over the map. Will admit, didn't know where I was going for a while -- but finally turned the corner. Sorry.

Miranda even managed to work in the Rubicon -- sheer brilliance. Lettuce rejoice. Sorry....

Had to take a break during this puzzle to feed the boss -- cattus interruptus, you might say. Sorry.

Never heard of SZA -- then again, this is coming from someone still listening to WAX, with all that HISS. Yeah, yeah ... BETTA get out more. Sorry.

Saturday's too easy, Tuesday's too hard; This clue is cheesy, That one's a bard.

Geez, people, it's just a puzzle. It's not as if the Supreme Court just gave someone the right to ban clues beginning with the letter D. Sorry. Didn't mean to give them any ideas.

Found this a bit challenging. Sitting in an emergency room at 1 AM didn't help. Just the flu, thank goodness.

Well, this math major will admit to being a little embarrassed that it took so long to recognize this LIE group -- but I GOT IT eventually. A debut of manifold brilliance, Rena!

Medium difficulty but rare cleverness. Well done!

The pitfalls of solving at 4 AM: Confidently filled in Prado at 9D, then spent diez minutos trying to find the mistake. Just shows to Goya. Otherwise, fun and much faster than yesterday.

You don't have to be Stephen Hawking to solve this puzzle -- just Dylan Schiff to create it. Out of this world.

Sticking with rent instead of REIN would have meant spending 525,600 minutes on this puzzle. THERE ARE NO WORDS for my admiration of these constructors. Particularly liked IRON AGE.

That one semester of Art History has lasted a lifetime. And they say a liberal arts education serves no purpose.

Kinda like the symmetry of ANGELO Dundee in the SW and the ol' ONE TWO in the NE. Intentional? I SAY yes... especially from a constructor named Clinchy, right? Nearly floored by this puzzle, but ended up going the distance.

Ngenous.

Well, as President Kennedy once said, 'We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things -- including the Saturday puzzle -- not because they are easy, but because they are hard...' Speaking of other things: Chewbacca had a lot of fur, but who knew about the extra E?? YEESH!

ANTEATER is cool, but I'm partial to the Banana Slug.

This puzzle was a pain in the -- got there in the.

Complaints notwithstanding, this puzzle made a lot of cents. Sorry.

Clever and funny. Maybe a little easy, but as Rick might have said to ILSA, we'll always have yesterday. Speaking of the Bible, funniest part of the solve was instinctively typing inre instead of INRI -- too many years of office memos taking their toll.

Was having contractions this morning: That dog can't hunt. That dog won't hunt. THAT DOG DON'T HUNT. The frustration of being OOF by a letter or two, har har.

SAMOSAS, not mimosas. Never a good idea to drink in the morning.

Loris having his Andy Warhol moment.

Random thought: Back when presidents were more clever -- or clever at all -- one of them said, and to paraphrase, We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Big day for the oh-so-hip I-finished-in-three-minutes crowd, eh? Talk about you're so full of yourself.... Speaking for the great unwashed, really appreciate the brilliant construction of this grid, Spencer.

AM I NUTS, or was that one heck of a debut effort?? Missteps here were UCSD (not SDSU), deduct (not DECOCT), melee (not BRAWL). On the strength of that double triple alone -- Katie Hoody, you are MY IDOL.

Finishing this puzzle was much easier than finding Comet Tsuchinshan tonight. Unlike the latter, this required no lookups. The great thing about comet humor is that it won't RECUR for another 80,000 years.

ESTAR or not ESTAR -- that is the question: It took 25 minutes to cut the Gordian Not in this puzzle. What can I say? My Spanish is not SO HOT. Fun otherwise.

Deb -- Words cannot express. Pun intended!

Slowest Sunday in months -- got stuck in the block between GIFS and WASABI. Never heard of chiasmus, but hey ... we solve to learn, we learn to solve. Sorry.

That was less fun than a barrel of monkeys. IS IT OK to do a lookup a few times a year to keep the streak going? Puzzle zen indicates yes. We puzzle to learn. PERIOD. Ultimately, it's good for the THALAMI.

After the arduous workouts of Friday and Saturday, was grateful for today's gentle breeze, tiresome naysayers notwithstanding. The play's the thing, after all.