Weak

I’m gonna post before reading. This was very dense topic wise, so mad respect. Even though I got the trick early, thinking on two letter rebus is very difficult, especially when several entries have multiple. I don’t recall a revealer that includes the trick, like in todays grid. But all good. All fair. Cleverly made. BUT bro. the four cells in the SW that are intersected by 43D,59D, 66A, 70A. All four of these clues are proper nouns! Come on! Give me a chance! Showtunes? Gay divas? 70s song? fringe singer? I rarely say unfair. But bro. My bro. Cmon.

Easiest ezersky puzzle ever. I couldn’t believe the constructor name when I solved it. It’s a Christmas miracle.

This was a fun puzzle. But because I’m a dope, I made all 15 theme cells, a 2 letter rebus. (xT). When I finished the grid, I didn’t get a gold. I reviewed, and didn’t think there were any errors. I removed all the 2 letter rebus, removing the Ts. Gold Star. I came to say this was bad programming. I now realize the Ts were proved by the grid. I’m an IDIO.

To my international homies. I hope most of you are ex pat Americans. Because, if not, take the night/day off. I can’t even begin to imagine trying to do this puzzle as a non-American. I hope you guys aren’t steak chasers. Cause that steak probably ends…now. Best of luck.

Everything about this puzzle was top class. The earth day appropriate theme. The Easter eggs for each part of reuse, reduce, recycle. The constructor notes. Everything that I expect and treasure about a NYT xword. Thank you Hoang-Kim vu

A fine Friday. Cluing that made you think a bit. Outstanding long entries. Really nice and punchy. Less comments is more. Thank you Geoffrey. Great solo effort.

My time doesn’t reflect this. But this was the hardest puzzle for me in 2024. By far. I was ‘annoyed’ I struggled so much for a ‘Wednesday’. But I loved it. Nothing came easy. And what came easy was wrong every time. When I finally cracked the revealer, it all clicked. I can’t even remember or list everything I did wrong. But isn’t CASE a good answer for “making or breaking?’ Thought the mountain range was URAL. But no, it’s a river. But I guess I’ll nitpick and say GESTS doesn’t seem like tales of daring. But maybe I don’t know what daring means. I BONE in stock? Or bones? TYPEO was just a great “those letters don’t make sense together” answer. Anyway. The theme was clever. I enjoyed the phrases and the clues and the fill. Thanks constructors!

This was a great Friday. I really struggled with it, in a good way. I really didn’t think I was gonna finish, until I did. After reading constructor notes, now I know why. It was accepted two years ago. And finally published. I really got stuck on 7 down. “Just okay. In modern lingo.” I had meh until I finally realized it was MID. 4 across “it’ll pass!” You don’t know how much I wanted gas instead of FAD. Great cluing all the way around. I really earned my gold today. Friday off days past. Thank you Rafael.

Yikes. I’m a dummy that takes like 25-35 minutes to do an average Friday. Today was 12? The comments are gonna be brutal. I read Thursdays comments less than 15 minutes ago. If @Lewis is unhappy with the cluing / editors, then you know we have jumped the shark (shout out Fonzie). Editors be like “GO EASY ON ME”

Honestly. I’m afraid to read comments. For me. I really appreciate the creativity and effort it took to make this puzzle work. Very appropriate revealers. Got the truck fairly quickly. But not too quickly. So it was definitely puzzling the first couple minutes. My biggest hang up after a while. Was that I started reading the down clues in reverse order. And got stumped! Quick sober. But just engaging throughout. Inspired work Vu Kim-Hoang.

Was looking for a quick Thursday. This wasn’t it. But it was clever. I really struggled with it, more than I should have, given I figured out the theme pretty early. I was really hamstrung by fill that I thought were gimmies. Like paver for MASON. Match for AGREE. Bland for ICIER. that said. If I was more relaxed and not trying to power solve. I think I would have enjoyed it more. But that’s on me. But gold, at least. I’m not a fan at all of IBEENHAD. It’s the expression, “I’ve been had?” And DVRs aren’t really features of smart TVs, are they? I don’t think like a Samsung, has a built in DVR. It’s more like a service than a feature. Methinks. But I think some clever non themer cluing. It was definitely “Thursday worthy.” Thanks Simeon.

I don’t know if the mob will say this was easy or hard, but it was such a delight. I’ll read commentary later, but the entries were so refreshing and fun (to me). Coupled with really fun, thoughtful cluing. THE MUNCHIES? PUNSTERS? SPOILER ALERT? COLD TAKES? LOCK AND LOAD? this is was inspired. I feel fortunate to have been given this puzzle. Thank you Rena. This was an OPUS.

Very smooth. Very approachable. Weintraubian. This puzzle filled itself in. I kinda wished someone who was new to xwords was watching me, so I could impress them with my incredible solving skills. I'm conditioned to enter DoH over DUH. And first put HoHOS (shoutout Santa), over HIHOS. END.OF.RANT and STAYCATION were the highlights for me. This puzzle was so nice, I have nothing else to say. I'm satisfied. Thank you, Jacob.

I struggled with this, almost throughout The SW just gave me fits. When I finally decoded AM, the puzzle finally fell. I made enough consistent progress that I didn’t need to put it down, but I was never relaxed. The constructor notes were so personal. Very cool. This puzzle, for me, came down to figuring out the long entries with minimal crosses. Because I had a tough time with the fill. Really fun long entry clueing. Great Saturday challenge for me. So I am confident the comments will be littered with “nice Tuesday”. I really enjoyed the workout. Thanks Katie.

Was it too easy? Maybe. Was it brilliant. 100%. To come up with that solution set. Just [chef’s kiss]. Daniel. If you made the clues harder. I think this woulda been POY candidate. I really really appreciated the work it took for your come to with this.

I cannot remember a harder Wednesday. The SW just destroyed me. HOTDATE? Carbon date. Age date. But I guess we’re talking about physical attraction. And I could not crack “eyeballed”. I don’t know what a BUGABOO is. But I definitely don’t equate to hearing word as a replacement for pet peeve. But that’s on me. I didn’t think my streak (not that I care about them) would die on a Wednesday. Wavelength? My antenna was broken.

Harder than Friday or Saturday, methinks. Never heard of a pip outside of Gladys knight or dice. Noisome and espial are new to me. And my phone autocorrect, as well. But great puzzle. I enjoyed this Wednesday. Thank you

The constructor notes are the gold star. What a great back story! Really really fun to read. I’m always gonna celebrate a crossword with sports. But the LARRY Bird clue seemed a bit off.

1 hour 10 minutes. But no lookups. Got the gold When I filled in the last cell, it was by the grace of god that I had no typos. I didn’t have the energy to find any error(s). I can barely remember when I started. It was a tough solve. Nothing came easy. Except ASTRONOMY and surprisingly, SUSANLUCCI! But I’m a better solver because of this effort. Thank you Zachary.

I need to be more observant. Last week? It was the Ts blacked out on the grid. This week. I never realized the starred clues were in the same column. I got the ‘revealer’ early. But the trick fell very very late for me. Always a bonus when the themers spell actual words. Constructor level of difficulty goes up a lot, I would imagine. Fun, creative, and just enough Thursday to make my brain tingle, but not hurt. Thanks constructors!

Hyunjin, Fellow (left/best) coaster here. Great concept and nice execution of clues for the themers. I’m sure you read these comments enough to know that criticism of ‘easy clues’ doesn’t mean the grid was bad. Comments are solve experiences, which include concept, fill, and clue difficulty. I’m not sure why I’m writing this so pedantically. You are the published constructor. Not me. But you are kid. Like 1/4 my age. So I want to say. That was a D1 grid. You get an A for me. Low key. Aura. Glazing… Uncle weak sauce.

No issues with the puzzle per se. But I’m having a hard time seeing the theme. I mean, sure, there is a loose theme here. But like, there could be so many themes that fit this revealer. Not a complaint. Ah, maybe it is. Just me. But kinda indifferent

Outstanding long entries. I mean so many fun entries in one puzzle. It could have been epic, but… yes, editors, you made it Wednesday level. It’s a shame. I want to DRINK this grid ALL IN. Editors. What’s up? Please explain?!? NO REPLY?Why you giving us the SILENT TREATMENT? It’s NOT OK. It’s fun to watch my average go down when doing 2026 puzzles, then skyrocket doing 2014 archives. I finished a Saturday Feb 22,2014 over a couple days. Granted I wasn’t “locked in”. But it took 1:09. Today’s took 25% of that. I know it is a Friday, but still. Amazing grid Erica.

I don’t know how I got through this. Methodical solve working section by section, starting in NE and going counterclockwise. Thank goodness for connectors between sections. Excellent Friday. I hope folks didn’t find this too easy. But I’m 35000 ft in the air. Enjoying starlink. Solving while concurrently watching World Cup. And won’t admit to being drunk since the FAA? Might be reading this…I PLEADS IGNORANCE. I really impressed myself solving this. Again. I hope this isn’t considered easy. Thank you Barbara and editors, for a proper? Friday?

I honestly haven’t done a themed early week puzzle in private a year. I thought today was Thursday. But obviously Wednesday. Glad I was mistaken. This was ‘hard’. Okay, not hard. But when you have DRopLET locked in. 4 squares are absolutely confounding. Fun theme.

I’m not an expert on Mondays, but this seemed like a tougher Monday? I guess we’ll see. I’ve always heard the expression, no fuss, no muss. Either I learned the expression wrong or people say a different ways. I’m sad. The World Cup is over. nothing compares to the excitement of the global game. Not to get to political, but did Trump have to hand out every medal. I mean the leaders of Mexico and Canada didn’t get to do anything, and they cohosted this tournament. Of course, I’m not surprised by our president. but I would have thought FIFA would’ve been a little more equitable Smh.

Great Friday. Great misdirects. Seemed like a Friday from OLDEN days. Plus our boy, Brian ENO, made an appearance. But this is not your father’s NYT. 46A. LOL. I entered it, but was sure I would have to erase. I miss these kind of late week puzzles. After 20 minutes, I’m staring at a bunch of blind guesses. thinking, I’m toast. 10 more minutes, and I’m done. Also. I’m gonna have to look this up. But do we say DESERT ISLAND, because it’s all sand like a desert? Or because of deserted, like left behind / uninhabited. But if the latter, why do we say it like the former. And why is deserted pronounced like dessert-ed. Man, I was born here, and I don’t get American English half the time. Cue the gilligans island theme song.

I like this one a lot. But I think there was a lot of wheelhouse in it for me. Everything fell pretty quickly. I struggled a tad with the northwest. Objectively I hope people find it a good Saturday, but I get a sense people will consider Friday’s puzzle a bit harder. The long entries, specifically, the down, long entries,were fun and life imitates art was amazing. I feel like so many different knowledge bases were required to get this puzzle quickly so I feel like it was a pretty gratifying solve for me personally but I am curious to see of course what the mob thinks about this puzzle. In any case. Kareem. I am a fan. Thank you

Not a fan of Sundays. Such a big grid. Too much time. Too hard to do on phones. But a harder Sunday. I am sure many appreciate, but not me. That said. A solid puzzle. Appreciated the double clues. More than the shaded trick. Made me work. Thank you. Maybe create something like this for a 15x15? But gotta say. Petrichor. What a great word. Very relatable for Californians. Some people I know really like the smell of gasoline. Is there a word for that. Other than weird?

There is zero chance these two hall of fame constructors had a hand in the cluing. I know many yesterday felt that it was Monday level clueing. Today’s was even easier. If I’m being 100. The theme was pretty underwhelming (again, given the constructor names). I literally started to slow down because I was afraid I was going to set a personal best. And I didn’t want it to be on this puzzle. Fortunately I slowed down enough. I know this post sounds so arrogant to some. But even xwstats said this was easy. The hardest part of today’s puzzle was trying to figure out how to spell SINISE. Yikes bro. Just yikes.

Oh man. I’m bummed. But relieved Solved in 20 minutes. Spent next 30 or so minutes thinking about how the themers made sense. Punted, and decided to read the column. I can’t imagine trying to “sleep on it” to figure out the trick, only to see this was a “technical issue.” Woulda been a lot more frustrated than I am now. But the ultimate troll job was having additional ones in the constructor notes and not underlining those! Pretty sure, the column could handle underscoring. So sadly. Too easy for a Thursday. And not fun because of the glitch. Regrettable for the constructors. Just my opinion.

Really great concept. Very well executed. The best part is that there is very little chance of getting the long entries from knowing a couple letters. It makes you work a bit harder to get ask the jokes. SOISIT. “They don’t want me to stand” HIMAIMUP. “Greetings, feel free to injure each other” Too bad no constructor notes.

I am shocked red wine super nova wasn’t the seed entry. Last summer? You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing a Chappell roan song. Extra points for the fun themer spanners. Nice Tuesday. Thanks Kenneth.

That was an incredibly tough puzzle. If I was live streaming the solve. The video would be 1 hour, 19 minutes long. And there would be a lot of time with no action. There was a lot of faith required in this puzzle. Putting in unsure long crosses just to connect to other parts of this “5 grids in one”. But I’m a better man for golding this bad boy. Very proud of myself tbh. Ryan McCarty. You’ve made me a better solver. Later bro.