Norbr

Very fun puzzle, though I agree with the general sentiment that it was on the easy side (new Thursday record for me). Still, very enjoyable, with many clever clues. "Met someone" was definitely my favourite!

I love it when I think I've figured a theme out, then even after completing the grid, I realise that there is some much more to it than I thought. I figured out the revealer and the missing T's, but I was not until I came to this page and read other comments that I realised two more things: first that all the T-less words were still actual words, and more importantly that they all ended on the massive dark squared Ts (that I somehow failed to notice!). Mind blown. Really well done.

Nice theme overall, might be simple but it's still very elegant, I enjoyed it. I thought I was on my way to a new Thursday record but I ended up getting tripped up by too many unknown words. Like others pointed out, the BINET/NITTANY crossing was especially tricky, as well as ETCHANT/STINE. And I learned the word SEDGE today.

Like others here, I ended up beating my personal best on this one, faster than my fastest Monday even. I'm curious though, could someone explain the "You win! I give up!" clue? I must be missing a reference here and Google is not helpful.

Nice theme today, fortunately for me my love for Toy Story gave me 37A immediately, which in turn helped a lot with getting the theme. On the other hand I struggled with the SW corner, being unfamiliar with QVC, HSN or MCPHEE, I had to make a few guesses there.