Cody

Wow - I guess I’m the only one who absolutely hated this puzzle. I’ve never heard of the Grand Tour, so that probably doesn’t help - but even so: ALBA and LOPE; SLAMMER (hoosegow???) and SIMU; SLADE crossing CHAMPS ELYSEES, NED, and LEACHMAN, with EELED right below (congers??); VIAND crossing TINAS. I don’t know if these are all just very non-American references or what, but this felt more like a Friday to me than a Wednesday, and I’m shocked there isn’t more grumbling in the comment section.

Just awful. This never should have gotten to print.

Just terrible - an absolutely awful solve. Kudos to any of you who were able to continue a gold streak on this, but I can’t imagine there were many. Clues were either ridiculously vague with a dozen possible entries, or hinted at abstruse proper nouns (or both!). There was nowhere to even start. Boo, boo, boo.

Am I the only one who can’t see how NOTDO fits for the clue “Abstain from”? “I abstain from drinking” “I NOT DO drinking” ??? Generally frustrated with this puzzle. Just not vibing with the cluing, I guess.

Guess I’m alone here - I thought this was miserable. LIBRA (sign of justice?) crossing INA and ANTEGG (which also crosses NERFED, JIGGETYJIG, and GOB). So many obscure proper nouns - ELIHU, IBSEN, AEGIS, ONSTAR, EAMES. It’s no fun when nothing “clicks” and you’re just relying on guessing letters for blank squares.

Weird puzzle. Super easy aside from the northwest corner, which was just silly. SOPOR crossing with ARCTICS and MILKSOP? Come on. I just had to try random letters until it hit.

An incredible amount of gobbledygook and extremely clunky cluing / fill in this one. Major yikes - needed to go back to the drawing board.

Can’t help but roll my eyes at the title of Ijeoma Oluo’s book - It’s just intentionally antagonistic. I don’t understand the left’s strategy of intentionally trying to alienate 30%+ of the US voter base. Even as someone who has never voted Republican (and never will), it’s not mind-boggling to me why so many can get turned off by the far left of the Democratic Party.

BLINI crossing BATIK is a little natick-y for a Monday

LEMMA crossing TAM on a Monday is… a choice

Calling EXCEL an alternative to Google Sheets is crazy work

Maybe it’s just because I’m under 50, but I found the cluing on this one to be really challenging and obscure in spots. Made for a pretty painful fill.

Some extremely weird answers in this one for a Tuesday. I have no idea what a JUGBAND is. BONESUPON? RYE as alternative to white? HEAVE for emit a sigh?? Sheesh.

ZHUZHUP crossing KATZ and AZT is a little too trivia-y for my liking.

Frustrating - but fair and satisfying - solve. The middle threw me - I originally had GEAR for anabolic steroids (too niche?) and PRELL crossing with HARE, DVORAK, and SIBERIA were just trivia items I didn’t know. Was able to get there with crosses, though. Good construction!

I thought this puzzle was absolutely brutal, and not because of the theme (which was challenging, but nevertheless solvable). RIMIER crossing with IRINA is a major natick. SANRIO? Come on. LAMINA is such a ridiculous misdirection from Patina that screwed up the whole corner for me. No doubt this was a challenging puzzle to construct, but this was not fun to work through.

Didn’t hate the theme (which I think is totally fair game for a Thursday), but man did I not vibe with the constructor on cluing here. The NW corner was a doozy.

Good Friday. A lot of tricky clues (some of which I still don’t understand) but was able to suss them out with crosses.

Really impressive build. Some difficult filler to make it all work, but a fantastic debut nonetheless!