Peter C.

"It’s your puzzle. Solve it any way you want.” I read that quote in Deb's "How to Solve the New York Times Crossword" primer when I first attempted doing the puzzles, and it was truly liberating advice. Back then I was still struggling with Mondays. Instead of routinely abandoning puzzles because of an actress I didn't know or a currency I'd never heard of, it gave me permission to complete what I'd started, which helped me develop the skill to eventually solve without looking anything up. (Um, usually.) I'm sure I'd have given up crosswords long ago if I'd remained convinced that researching an answer was cheating. So, thanks for that. I'm grateful. Anyway, I enjoyed this puzzle, for the theme, the cluing (e.g., [Make in the end]), and for the answers that still were real words with ICE removed. Thanks for the fun!

Several lookups for me today, even after I finally figured out the theme, which was well-done. Thanks for the fun! But I'm concerned that Ayo Edebiri was not included in today's puzzle. Is that even allowed?

Ugh. This was a frustrating puzzle that took way too many lookups and word checks before I finally finished it. (I wouldn't claim I "solved" the puzzle today.) The constructor and I were definitely not on the same wavelength - if, indeed, he was transmitting at all. I did not have fun. Hurry up, Sunday.

Ugh. This was the least fun I've had doing a puzzle in a long, long time. The SE corner filled in quickly, but after that, the clues might as well have been in Sanskrit and the answers in Esperanto. Eventually I abandoned all hope and did whatever lookups I could just to get through the awful thing. I really look forward to Saturdays. What a disappointment this was. And could somebody please explain ADDS?

I enjoyed this puzzle if for no other reason than the trick involved the Downs, which I feel are too often second-class citizens in Crosswordland. Thanks for the fun!

Ha! As I worked through the puzzle, the theme felt kind of half-baked - but that was only because I didn't fully understand it. Then it occurred to me, you know, that could be either JOHN or JOAN, couldn't it? Suddenly, HORA made sense, and I laughed out loud. Thanks for the fun!

After midnight, dishes done, feet up, listening to music, could I do a Saturday puzzle with my ear buds in? I usually like it quiet when I take on the hard ones, but I immediately got THATSIMPOSSIBLE and ITTAKESAVILLAGE, and the rest filled in nicely at a satisfying clip. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Nice debut, and thanks for the fun.

I could never have finished yesterday's puzzle without a few lookups; today's I was able to guess and scratch and figure out bit-by-bit to completion. Some days you get the puzzle; other days, the puzzle gets you. It's the main reason I look forward to weekends now. What's more exhilarating than an empty themeless crossword daring you to conquer it? Thanks for the fun!

This was a swell little Thursday puzzle. I couldn't figure out why I was omitting certain letters until I had it completed and studied the circled letters. Very clever! I have to disagree with Sam about CDs being obsolete, however. Actually owning the music you pay for will never become obsolete.

Oh, this was a good one. It started out slow and sporadic for me, and I had a flashback to my earliest crossword days when I'd have a little freakout - "ARGH! I'll NEVER solve this!" But I chipped away with some guesses, many of them wrong at first, until eventually the rubber hit the road. There were a lot of interesting words and clues today, a cut above what we usually see, I think. Thanks for the fun!

Really, just a perfect Friday for me - enough resistance to make it interesting but enough give to beckon me onward. Thanks for the fun!

Oh, nice debut! This was a good one. I was really baffled for a long time. Nothing made sense. Then I reached the revealer, and Click! Click! Click! went the gears in my head, and it all fell into place. What a great feeling that was. Thanks for the fun today.

The NW corner beat me today. Like many others, I've never heard of AUDRE LORDE or ADU, so I had to look her up. And the clue for WRIST is quite a stretch. But it was otherwise a pretty good Friday for me. Thanks for the fun!

Scrolling through the comments, I see a number of people found this to be an easier solve, but that was not my experience. Today's puzzle gave me a healthy, Saturday-level challenge, for which I'm grateful - well over an hour, two cups of coffee, lots of sighs. The NW corner was a foggy shoal until CRAIGS LIST finally emerged from the mist. (When you say "classifieds," I'm old enough to still think "newspaper.") Time well-spent today. Thanks for the fun!

Oh, very tough. I got about 95% there but just couldn't bring it in without several lookups to finish, and typing A B C... until I hit paydirt. Don't know what a KEG stand is, and never heard of KIVA - I just kept trying letters until I got it right. How does TEAL answer [Dabbling duck], and what is ALT-comedy? Again, I just kept guessing letters. This one was not in my wheelhouse, but thanks for the challenge.

This was one of those puzzles where I couldn't fill in the grid fast enough. Every answer came to me almost immediately, even the long ones. Am I brilliant? No, of course not. I credit deft cluing that slyly pointed me in the right direction. This was maybe my fastest Friday ever, which ordinarily would be kind of a bummer, because I look forward to the challenge, but today it was just a joy. Thanks for the fun.

All right - first things first. Writing, "Laurel and Hardy, a comedy duo..." is like captioning a photo of a five dollar bill with, "Abraham Lincoln, a president..." Sheesh. I was not surprised when my completed grid did not generate the happy music. I had, I think, five guesses at problematic crosses. What did surprise me was I only needed one lookup, SAWEETIE, to earn my gold star. I guessed wisely today. Thanks for the fun!

Nifty little puzzle for a Wednesday. SPARGE sounds like a word Kramer would make up when playing Scrabble with Newman. Thanks for the fun!

What a joy it was to open the app and see this empty grid! I love this kind of challenge. I was surprised, therefore, at how smoothly the solve went for me. The NW section was the only one to give me any real resistance. I started and ended there, and finished in half my average time. SNEE, unfamiliar to some, is a word I've known since childhood. My parents often played "The Mikado" as they prepared breakfast on Sunday mornings, so my siblings and I learned the songs and sang along even though we barely knew what they were about - including the Lord High Executioner's line "I drew my snickersnee." Thanks for the fun!

I agree with Dave Munger, below, that this puzzle doesn't really need the rebuses. I think it would have been more elegant without them. But my problem wasn't, "Is it a rebus or not?" My problem was I thought TROUTERS are pants you wear when you go trout fishing. The crossing SAYS TO worked well with that. So it took me a while to get where I needed to go, but I eventually got there. Thanks for the fun!

I found this to be a much tougher Wednesday than usual. For some reasons the answers were not coming as easily to me as I expect then to on Wednesday. The rebus was a surprise; it was the last thing on the board I couldn't figure out. Was there another late-night host named Seth? (I rarely watch late-night TV, so this seemed possible to me.) Finally, the idea of a rebus occurred to me, and that was that. This was very creative. Thanks for the fun!

Tough grid to build? Well, it certainly was a tough grid for me to solve. The southern third of the puzzle baffled me for quite some time. This was a very worthy Saturday challenge for me. Thanks for the fun!

This was a very smooth solve for me today, like a drive down a newly-paved road. Even MANU came to me almost immediately, and everything I know about English football I learned from Ted Lasso - which is to say, not much. I love these puzzles with the stacked long answers, and today's felt especially fresh, with very little crosswordese. Thanks for the fun!

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning. This was a very satisfying solve. The theme was easily apparent yet still required some thought to complete. How is it possible that HUMMUS has never appeared here before? Anyway, thanks for the fun!

This was a very satisfying Saturday for me. I'm pet-free, so ZOOMIES was unknown to me - and so were SPITS GAME, LOA, SHAKSHUKA, REIKI, TAKI, ELKSHOUNDS, and the delightful HAD NO CHILL. Yet, no lookups for me today, which I attribute to adroit clueing of crosses and simple dumb luck. I gasped, truly surprised, when changing SNIT to SKIT gave me the happy music. Thanks for the fun!

This one started out slowly for me due to some faulty assumptions - today I learned ADA LOVELACE and GRACE HOPPER have the same number of letters, as do CRIME DRAMA and PROCEDURAL - but once I caught on the sailing was pretty smooth. Thanks for the fun!

This was a fine, tough Saturday for me. Took me a little longer than my Saturday average, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Once I corrected DUNG BEATLE - a lifelong misspelling I'm not ever likely to shake - it gave me ELATE, which for me was a gimme for the clue [Send], and now I'll probably be humming the song all day. It seemed for a minute or two I was going to have to do some lookups after I failed to get the happy music, but eventually I zeroed in on SCARFING/ARCIE and did what was needed to be done. Altogether, a very satisfying solve. Thanks for the fun!

I thought this was a superior Wednesday puzzle, with interesting, offbeat words, clever clueing, and a cute theme. Not too easy, just the right amount of friction for the middle of the week. Thanks for the fun!

What a creative and enjoyable crossword this is! I love it when figuring out the theme actually helps me solve the puzzle. Thanks for the fun.

Nice Saturday. It seemed daunting to me at first, but fell together once I conquered the SW corner - there are several ways to misspell LARIAT, and I know all of them. Thanks for the fun!

This really was a beautiful puzzle and a smooth solve for me, but I think you could have swapped yesterday's and today's puzzles, to be honest. I'm not complaining, however. It was a joy to complete with those fresh, accessible spanners. I just wish the joy had lasted a little longer. Thanks for the fun!

Well, that was a good Saturday workout - an hour well-spent. I enjoyed [Main greeting] and [Called on one's birthday?]. It's a tribute to modern marketing that even though I have never been interested in comic books or the movies they've spawned, when I had only four crosses AVENGERS ENDGAME popped into view in the empty squares. Well done, Hollywood. This was an extremely satisfying solve. Thanks for the fun!

Ah, a rich, layered puzzle. So much to solve. What a delight! Thanks for the fun.

Earlier this week I commented on how a weakness I have is not questioning answers I'm absolutely certain of when I get stuck in a crossword, and that weakness did me in today in the SW corner. I had so much correct but just could not close the deal because it didn't occur to me that BEER could possibly be wrong. Although I didn't know the card game, I figured the crosses would reveal it, but I couldn't get there. I finally had to peek at the answer key to get my gold star. BREW! ARGH! Anyway, this was a great debut that I otherwise enjoyed, so thanks for the fun!