Joe

When life gives you a cheeky Monday you just gotta make LEMMA NAYS.

Love seeing LAVERNE Cox recognized any day, but particularly happy to see her included here in the current environment. We will make it through together!

Today I learned that PERUSE is a contronym and my life will never be the same.

Poor ESCHER, ironically lost in all the comments about confusing construction.

Phew, just got off the bus from Natick. I’ll take my Bacardi neat, please.

This one is an all-time fave. Fun solve with a clever, well constructed theme and rewarding “aha” moment. Scrabbling success!

This was cute and imaginative, and like others I appreciated the lone rebus. I’ll take it a step further and say I’d enjoy constructors throwing in totally random rebus squares occasionally, apropos of nothing.

Old enough to always picture MINESWEEPER when someone mentions MINECRAFT; self-effacing enough to get a kick out of seeing both in this puzzle. Kudos, that was a lot of fun.

WHOOSH had me ROFL.

An enjoyable puzzle. Kept WAiting for the a-ha moment and was not disappointed. Fantastic effORt, Amie!

Today’s puzzle was WHEELie, WHEELie, fun. And many congratulations to Deb! We will miss you.

NATURERESERVES, VEGGIEBACON, and PETA add up to quite the compassionate Wednesday! Thank you. Also a fun and clever solve overall.

So happy to see VEGENAISE, my favorite condiment! Also joining in the chorus of respect and gratitude to Deb. Thank you and wishing you all the best!

So happy to see my favorite author make the crossword. OCTAVIAEBUTLER FTW! Also a fun and satisfying puzzle.

Awesomely clever!

This was a quite a feat of construction! Brilliant theme nested in a complementary grid. I’m sorry some folks had technical issues (I entered PHI exclusively and it worked), but hopefully the genius of this theme isn’t lost in what’s sure to be a deluge of comments. Thanks for a fun solve!

I went down a whole Disney rabbit hole only to find Bugs Bunny at the bottom telling me to start over. STEAMBOAT WILLIE, WALT DISNEY, and signature sound LAUGHTER all fit. MICKEY MOUSE too, when slightly misspelled. Sufferin’ succotash!

I guess “Thursday puzzle” is its own revealer now. It’s all good, there’s really no XQQ for needing more.

Does anyone really use ESPY in conversation, aside from discussing crossword puzzles?

Pulling out the lesser known definition of PERUSE again! (For those who were unaware and missed it a few weeks ago, PERUSE is a contronym.)

It was a treat to see my fondness for crosswords and compassion intersecting at 50D.

Between SEITAN and VEGAN BACON it’s been a good week here for the animals. Love to see it!

Cute theme; felt like a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Wow, this was a tough one. The misquotes were all clever and genuinely funny; it was the fill that killed me.

literal me, looking up the definition of DIR

Oof, still no Thursday Wordplay link. I really want to know if everyone else was as impressed with the Thursday puzzle as I was… great stuff and one of my all time faves! (No disrespect to Wednesday though, which I also enjoyed.)

Mind blown that Lincoln was a contemporary (and fan!!) of Poe. I have always thought of Poe as more recent. And +1 for the Minnesota love. You guys are absolute rock stars.

Good to see 66 across in light of recent news. Let’s hope it continues to be a thing.

By far the corniest theme I’ve ever encountered. Well played.

LEATHERBARS: In my experience these are generally laid-back spaces that have *customary* dress but not *required* dress.

Tuesday on the west side, Saturday on the east.