Susan E

@acjones, you are the lucky recipient of my annoyance with comments/complaints such as yours. Explain your beef! WHY do you think it's dreadful? WHICH clues do you think are duds? Without any supporting examples, this is just a snide and whiny comment. If you explain, I might still disagree with you (I loved it, btw, especially in the middle of a soul-sucking heatwave), but at least I'd know where you're coming from. Generally speaking I scroll past meaningless comments like these, but I guess yours put me over the top and past my tolerance for rudeness. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Alan Parker, misdirects, wordplay, and gimmicks are not cheats. Crosswords have many iterations, and while you may not like that, that's the way it is. Perhaps as a child you received some advice on what to do when you didn't have anything nice to say?

@LJADZ, is that all you have, really? Did you read the constructor notes? Maybe offer support and encouragement to a teenager whose DEBUT in the NYT is a Saturday? No matter your personal reaction to the puzzle, which is pretty shallow, surely you can recognize what an accomplishment this is. Kindness matters. It lifts people up, and this young adult deserves kudos, not your curmudgeonly reaction.

@TholosTB, I couldn't agree with you more, on all fronts. The mean comments about constructors and editors irk me greatly. It's possible to express an opinion or criticism without being a jerk. And this puzzle was absolutely amazing on so many levels; the construction is impressive, the fill top notch, and the theme is deep. Delightful!

@Darren, oh my! The puzzle is dreadful because there were things you didn't know? If you know everything and never have to struggle with a puzzle, why even do them? I loved this puzzle. I didn't have any lookups but did need to use crosses to finish. I was 6+ minutes under my Friday average.

@Anthony, it refers to the fact that Pascal spoke French, and "loi" is French for "law".

@Mean Old Lady, a friend who used to live in Pakistan once told me that PIA stood for "perhaps I arrive"! In those days they didn't have the best safety record. That one was a gimme for me since that joke has stuck in my head for 40 years!

@Eva H., well that's a helpful and insightful comment. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I personally found it very engaging, just challenging enough, and finished a couple minutes under my Saturday average. I thought it was a great puzzle.

@gail garfield, find a little joy in life! This puzzle was breezy, fun, and relevant to the publication date. What else do you want on a Sunday morning?

@sarahgrin, I've stopped (if indeed I ever did) caring about what others think of as easy/hard/appropriate day of the week for puzzles. It's all so very individual and experience based, and I don't mean just solving experience. Life experience matters too! I've been solving NYT and other major papers' crosswords for about 45 years. When even younger, I solved TV Guide and lesser newspapers' puzzles, plus the ubiquitous Penny Press found at supermarket checkouts. In other words, I've been a crossword fanatic and word nerd nearly all of my life. I'm a skilled solver by any standard. And guess what? I still get stumped. Themes escape me. Pop culture is hit or miss. I often find easy a puzzle others have labeled hard, and vice versa. There's no rhyme or reason sometimes, and I've decided I simply don't care if someone else feels it's hard or easy or should be somehow different. It's a hobby that I enjoy immensely, and I read and enjoy the comments while doing my best not to get riled up by the! Congrats on your first independent "hard" solve! Keep enjoying the puzzle in your own way.

@Tim, I think your view may be generational. I'm 65, and I've heard "plumb tuckered out" my entire life; I remember my grandparents and other elders saying it frequently. I'm in the middle on loosey goosey, having heard both versions. Well, it's no wonder there are so many opinions on these things, given the variety and demographics of solvers.

@Elaine, this puzzle was amusing, entertaining, and the theme required fun mental gymnastics. What else, exactly, are you looking for on a Sunday? Sunday isn't known for difficulty. I've been solving for decades; I'm quite good at it. I do see a trend of "easier" puzzles, though not to an extent that I will give them up. It's a daily brain workout that I look forward to completing at the end of my workday. Overall, I find Friday and Saturday challenging enough; though they're sometimes notably easier, I don't feel they've descended to the realm of easy. But that's just one woman's opinion, of course.

@William, you might want to see someone about that. Rage? Over a single square in this puzzle? You have way too much time on your hands. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Frankie B, what are you even trying to say? That anyone who struggled with this clue is somehow "less than"? That the clue didn't belong in the tricky clues in the column? I often find that what is offered as a tricky clue isn't what I struggled with, but I simply think that we all have different frames of reference, and I'm sure some find them helpful. I don't feel a need to comment upon it. Whatever you were trying to say, it comes across as rude and condescending.

@LJADZ, why do you feel crosswords shouldn't have proper nouns? Do you mean only people's names, or place names as well? The only one today that I would call obscure is the super soaker inventer, yet I vaguely recalled hearing about him before. In any case, his name was easily found with crosses. Where's the challenge in a puzzle you can simply breeze through without having to think? It's not a true puzzle unless you are a bit (or a lot!) puzzled/stumped at some point. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Jonathan Baldwin, that's two clues out of how many? And those aren't terribly egregious, beyond not knowing what AAA is. Even Americans had to stop and think WHICH A is being abbreviated. I have NEVER been able to catch on to British cryptic crosswords, but I don't fault the puzzle or puzzle maker. It's simply not a skill I have. If you're struggling with a Tuesday puzzle, try sticking to Mondays for a while. Or maybe don't subscribe to an American publication's puzzles and the complain that they are American in nature.

@MRR, the phrase is "wheels and deals", as in, spins and ducks and dodges on the way to striking a deal. I'm sure you're right about "deals on wheels" for car sales pitches!

@SP, "rawr" is actually commonplace, especially among small-fry. I teach third grade, and it's a common utterance. I don't know if it comes from a kids' book, TV show/movie, or video game, but I hear it all the time! I fervently hope people know what a cooper is; I teach my students this when we study colonial history. Finally, the only bird I'd consider obscure would be the snipe; once you get cooper, hawk is easy if you've gotten the theme. I have nothing but love for this clever puzzle!

@H.E., the puzzle was not AI generated. AI was used to generate a list of names. That's not even close to the same thing. Your feathers are ruffled for no good reason.

@Weak, a solve is a solve! You stuck it out; the time it took is irrelevant! Congrats!

@Dc, maybe you need to find a new hobby or another source of puzzles? That's a pretty extreme and non-specific declaration. I don't think I'd stick with something that gave me zero joy. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@LJADZ, I always have to look back when the "obscure proper nouns" complaint rears its cranky head. So today, as is often the case, none were obscure to me. I always forget the guy's name who played Freddie Mercury but it always comes to me in the crosses. In any case, all of today's dreaded proper nouns were easily discovered through crosses. It's Monday, after all.

@Michael, wow. Just wow. I get it; you didn't like the puzzle. But why do you think anyone wants to hear your peevish rant? I personally found this puzzle fair, fun, and just challenging enough. If you expect to just race through filling in easy, trite answers, what is the point of a crossword? I do crosswords to keep my brain alert and to learn new words, history, and trivia. Why do you do them?

@Asky, "onetime" and "one time" don't mean the same thing. The first means that at some point, he WAS the PM. The second means he served once.

@Sam, tell us how you really feel! 🙄 Your comment is unhelpful at best. What about it did you find cryptic? I found it both clever and delightful, and I beat my Tuesday average handily. I didn't find it stupid or cryptic.

@Heidi, spot on commentary! I get tired of crabby folks who want the puzzles to remain "the way they should be", whatever that means. I'm an older solver (64), and I love the new things I learn from today's puzzles. The fact that I haven't heard of something or someone doesn't make it irrelevant or worse, an awful puzzle as one commenter flung out there today. Kudos to Owen for an amazing debut. I look forward to many more puzzles from this amazing young adult!

@Laura, was it easy? Yes. Was it fun? Double yes. Just go with the flow and enjoy it!

@O. S., what is your objection to emend? It's commonly used exactly as clued. Also, while I get that "open-ended" is more common usage, this made perfect sense to me when I filled it in.

@LB, how many times does it have to be said that puzzles are edited and scheduled well in advance? And honestly, there are often references, clues, and answers that are distasteful to someone for some reason. As long as the clues and answers aren't racist or otherwise derogatory to a group of people or a culture, we all need to ignore our own personal little annoyances and move on. (And no, I don't own one of those cars, nor do I like the person in question, but it doesn't hurt or bother me that it appears in the puzzle.)

@LP, I remembered Raisa, but agree it's a bit obscure. Samovar isn't that unusual a word, and psilocybin has been in the news quite a bit recently. Of course I have no idea how old you are; maybe Gorbachev was before your time. But I can say that as an older gal (65 soon!) I am often tripped up by intersecting pop culture entries and rapper names. I don't consider that a reason to complain about the puzzle; I try, often in vain, to remember some of the answers for future puzzles. I guess my point is, enjoy the learning curve and look to tomorrow!

@JohnWM, I've always thought of that part of rhubarb as the stalk; that briefly held up my solve!

@Chris, I've heard both carb load and carbo load. I've said "on a par with" all my life. "What's the skinny" is more than a little familiar to me. To be so cranky over sayings YOU don't use lends a level of defensiveness to your post, which I'm pretty sure wasn't your intent. I don't know how old you are, but in these puzzles the slang can run a wide gamut of decades or even centuries. Being in my seventh decade gives me a definite edge sometimes, in terms of exposure, but I'm often challenged/stymied by current slang. I do not assert that those sayings aren't legit simply because I'm unfamiliar with them.

@Desert Dweller, I see this puzzle as the polar opposite of lazy. It takes a clever mind to conceive of a theme such as this, and then implement it in an engaging way. I solved without understanding the theme; the crosses were more than ample for that. I read the column to decipher the theme; it doesn't bother me to solve and not fully get the theme. I'm glad to have the column to explain when (thankfully, not often) I'm lost. Your comment is rude, btw.

@RTF, or don't read the column until you've solved. The column itself contains clues and spoilers. I love the pictures. Sometimes it's hard to see picture's relation to the puzzle.

@A Scared Doctor and Medical Researcher, scary times indeed. I'm currently grateful that my daughter elected NOT to pursue a proffered post-doc at the NIH. She isn't going into academia, so she's in an internship in Switzerland (where she earned her PhD in medical neuroscience), which she hopes will lead to a job on the clinical side of things. She was welcomed at the NIH for a brief lab stint to learn some research techniques that she took back to her Swiss lab. I share your concern for our current situation, which will surely get worse before it gets better.