Emma

Gosh, this one was hard for me. I spent several minutes staring at VENAh wondering what it could possibly be, considering I was positive that 37D was hEDGE. (I may have misremembered what it meant to "hedge one's bets"). Overall though, it was a fun Tuesday that was definitely a good challenge for me! I learned VENAL, what a COATI is (hopefully I'll get to see one when I go to Peru with my Mom this May!!), and I added Raging Bull to my watchlist. Gotta love when you come away from a crossword knowing more than you did before. As an aside, I've felt recently like the tricky clues outlined in the column are not as reflective of the tricky clues in the puzzle! For example, other then the inclusion of "Hell" in the clue for 42A, I am very confused by SATAN. The cluing for ADOS and HAVANA (as I stated above, I'm not sure I totally understand it other than the vague idea of a Cuban cigar) also tripped me up. Comparing these clues to straightforward ones like 1D, 14A, or 27A (which were oddly included under Tricky Clues) it doesn't seem like Tricky Clues are truly the tricky clues! This is a little disappointing as I like to use the column as a tool for improving my solving and reading of clues. Just a suggestion for future columns! Congrats to David Falkowski on his debut!!!

Fun fun fun!! As I gear up for my first ever crossword tournament this October, I'm so excited to see myself getting better and better at Fridays. Great clues, super fun solve! Amazing confidence builder :)

Really enjoyed this one! The map theme was really fun, and once the theme was clear the rest of the puzzle unraveled relatively quickly. The only sticking point for me was the NW corner - I had YAk for a while, then YAm. As a YAPper myself, I'm surprised it took me so long to get! In brighter news, I've learned about perigees today - and isn't learning the point of the crossword? ;) Small quibble with the cluing for DROVEAT, since it is typically used to mean explaining rather than suggestion. I could accept the roundabout cluing, but since it was crossed with a name, it made it difficult to parse. Overall a great Wednesday puzzle!

Enjoyed the conceit of the puzzle but my god, some of that cluing was improbable and awkward, particularly for a Wednesday.

Oh gosh, this one really got me at the beginning. I knew Mia HAMM was the female soccer player, but couldn't figure out how to fit her name in the clue with VIDEOGAMES being the cross! It was only when I remembered rebus was a thing that I was able to solve. I thought the theme was super fun, but once you got the reveal, wasn't too bad - this was one of my quicker Thursday times.

Loved this one! As a born-and-raised Maryland girl, as soon as I saw OROLES in 49A, the theme fell together for me. One of my quickest solves yet, and a genuinely fun Monday puzzle - great job to the constructors!

Thought the theme for today was buckets of fun, even though everyone who's been complaining about names in puzzles may find it a bit ABRASIVE ;)

I couldn't catch a break with this puzzle - or should I say OH ME. No one says that, what the heck. That upper left corner was completely brutal, with super long acrosses and some very niche downs (not to mention, I had wewhoareAGAINST and banD for the longest time and agonized trying to get them to work). The only reason I solved this was because I pretty much tried every single letter on my keyboard for every single square. Not super fun, but I really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.

Theme was fun, and it wasn't until I read the column that I realized the theme entries didn't have just one name, they were entirely made up of names, so that was fun! Maracas crossing with Caracas was also fun, but I realllllllllly disliked the cluing for ATM fee, particularly when crossed with a name. I spent a while staring at that crossing and eventually had to head to the column for help. Overall, a fun puzzle though!

Whoof. Unfortunately got very little enjoyment out of this one - I am a very strong believer that the best crossword clues are ones that are very difficult to parse when you first read them, but then seem clear as day once you figure out the answer. While the constructor gave it a good effort, ultimately I think the cluing left much to be desired. GAMETABLE has gotten a lot of celebration here, but I think "IT might be felt" is a much better clue with only one word change; the same goes for CULTY and IMEANYEAH. The Southeast corner was also particularly torturous, as pretty much every late night host or SNL alum fits - I tried Conan OBRIEN, Seth MEYERS, Jimmy FALLON, KEENAN Thompson, Johnny CARSON, John OLIVER, James CORDEN, and Graham NORTEN all before I tried Jimmy KIMMEL. When you have crossers that are inane bits of pop trivia (like SHOOKETH) or extremely vague/weak cluing ("I'm in!" or "Saturate") it sort of sucks the fun out of it for me. I saw this as a Gen-Z person who literally saw Christine Sydelko's post when she first said SHOOKETH! This one just needed another run through editing for the cluing.

Fun Monday! Thought the reveal of the theme was fun, and I liked that you had to think about it a bit more than you would a typical theme to get the eventual joke. For a while I thought it was going to be based around classic American high school experiences (Powder Puff Football, Homecoming Dance, Assigned Seating) but I liked the twist chosen here better. Was a bit frustrated with ALL, ROIL, and ARFS being paired, as I felt the cluing for all three of these was quite weak. C'est la vie - overall a fun puzzle!

Loved this one! I thought the theme was super fun. POTTERSPOTTER was what unraveled it for me (super fun cluing there as well). I hadn't ever heard Billy Joel's SCENES from an Italian Restaurant, and after I solved that clue, put the song on and listened while solving the rest of the puzzle. A little less challenging than I was expecting on a Wednesday - still super fun overall!

I thought the theme was fun, but I really didn't like that some entrees were reversed and other were not. I wasted a few precious minutes staring at ALLATINGLE wondering what I could've gotten wrong, particularly because I got PI(ZZAJ)OINT first. The cluing of "Uplifting music" was more than a little misleading for me, but overall it was a fun puzzle, even if I spent more time on it than I typically do for a Monday!

Really fun puzzle, but 41 and 46 down as niche names with relatively weak crossers was a brutal section.

Fun puzzle! But if you are going to include scientific details, please make sure they are accurate. Only electron MICROSCOPES are capable of resolutions down to a few nanometers. The upper right hand was also brutal for me (easily 10 minutes just there). With 14A being pretty obscure cluing (not a fan of WENTAPE in crosswords in general) and 8D having equal likelihood of being emdash or ENDASH, it makes for a frustrating and ultimately unfilfilling solve there. Otherwise though, loved the rebus!

I love a good Friday, but the cluing here was pretty weak for this to be a satisfying Friday. The "T" grid, combined with TEETOTAL was clever, but the bottom right corner that revealed it was an excruciating solve. I also had a few qualms with other cluing - the cluing for 26A was way too niche, and I'm not a fan of 19A, as Queen Elizabeth, now deceased, is no longer REGNANT. Similarly for 5D - SLYBOOTS? Really? But credit where credit is due - I LOVED the cluing for 16A. STUDYDATE fit in more ways than one, so it was a super satisfying solve. Not my favorite, but not a terrible puzzle for a Friday.