Michael

While most people there speak English, the Isle of Man has its own language, Manx, which is what I would've expended a language clue to refer to! There are plenty of punny place to refer to in Britain – Man in Manchester? – that don't run up against a local endangeed language.

Maybe a bit of a cautinary tale about involving current events in the crossword, but wince the fall of the Assas regime most people would say SYRIA's flag has three red stars, not two green ones.

I didn't find this too difficult, but I do have to object to the ABLE/ABEL clue. They're homophones as separate words, but the clue here was for the unstressed suffix, which does not sound the same at all! Unless you pronounce solvable to rhyme with table, it's just wrong! Otherwise fine crossword, for me this is the right difficulty for a Friday.

I have to say this was far too easy for a Friday, I actually beat my average Tuesday time and was not far off from a Monday. The fill was great, so I just think that cluing could've been a little bit trickier. Maybe I'm in the minority but I look forward to a real challenge on Fridays and Saturdays and this really didn't provide one...

I think this might be to do with the way Americans are taught to read, but I've never quite been able to grasp what crosswords consider 'silent' letters. 'Frut' would not be pronounced as FRUIT, 'ui' is clearly a digraph! These run the gamut from being genuinely unpronounced to a crucial part of the spelling. Also, the INCA weren't exactly known for their pyramids even if they built a few, I find that clue a little forced. And they would be basically the latest pyramid-building civilization so hardly 'early'! (Apparently it's a very nitpicky Sunday morning for me...)

Happy to see a puzzle with the appropriate difficulty for a Friday. Would be great if crosswords on Fridays or Saturdays had at least this difficulty going forward - this used to be the case and was much more enjoyable.

If there's any crossword where nitpicking grammar is justified, it's surely this one - 92A is incorrect in both versions. Since the clue specifies girls as the addressees, it should be 'pull yourselves together', not just yourself. A teacher would mark the connection itself wrong. There was no reason to add a plural noun to it, it could have just been correct! Good puzzle otherwise if a bit easy for a Sunday.

Despite the BEEMER clue being apparently controversial, I think it was a missed opportunity not to clue MERC as 'High-end German car, casually' as well. And I've always heard the cars called 'beemers' so even if BMW has a different official definition, the colloquial usage exists!

I thought this was great, a welcome return to an actual challenge! Took me a full 12 minutes like a Friday from years ago would have and I for one want much more of this.

I really don't think the reveal that we needed numbers in those boxes was necessary. It made the whole thing too easy, solving all the theme clues first was and admittedly fun mini-puzzle, but after that everything was pretty dull. Also as a minor nitpick, 'are you for real?' does not mean IS IT TRUE. It's more like 'are you really behaving this way right now?'

Is it me, or do all the Saturdays seem far easier in 2024? At first I wondered if I was just getting better but I also do crosswords from the archives and the Saturdays used to be way harder, and I remember getting stuck on 2023 ones too. These have all been a breeze...I hope we get some more difficult ones soon.

The construction was excellent but the cluing was way too simple - I finished in 4:09, which is a time I often miss even on Mondays and Tuesdays. Saturdays for me should take at least 10 minutes, and there should be a lot of little aha moments. Obviously some of this is luck but it's still a bit underwhelming.