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I got mine in 6 minutes in NJ. Eighth grade Spelling bee non-winners might relate to this theme.

Fun theme, I know you didn't like it so much, but I rather liked this one. A bit on the easy side, but overall not too bad.

I really enjoy your weekend solves. It gives me encouragement that these puzzles are solvable! Also like your commentary at the end going over clues you appreciate. Keep up the great work!

Yes, Bushranger is an Australian term, and Ned Kelly is (probably) the most famous of the lot... If you're at all curious, have a quick look at the Wiki for him, pretty fascinating fellow.

Relevant: th-cam.com/video/E1atbVu662s/w-d-xo.html

Overall, pretty good puzzle and not crazy difficult, although there were a few odd ones in there. Good enough for a Friday. :)

Happy Holidays! Get well soon!

get well soon!❤

16:49 - About the surname "Nyad" being very appropriate for a swimming legend - that name is a homophone for "Naiad" -> in classical mythology, naiad's are water nymphs

Brutally difficult, well done on grinding through it. i particularly enjoyed the bonsai tree for "it's a little shady" :)

Not a bad puzzle, and much easier than I thought it was going to be given all long fills. It really just fell into place quite easily.

I don't think the screen/shares was supposed to be a t/v one, given it says it only refers to 3 other places... Having said that, it would have been much more satisfying fill if it would've also been a rebus, preferably another t/v one, but anyway. Other than that, not too bad of a puzzle. And sorry about your streak, that must've been a rough one. :(

How did you come up with MSTEAMS?

lost my 10 day streak :(

A 69 streak landing on triskaidekaphobia day.... What are the odds of that? :)

Rather interesting theme execution, I quite liked it. Also, happy birthday! :)

That was the easiest Friday that I can remember!

Not a bad puzzle, especially if you exclude a couple of the downward long fills. Also, the two Bond films you were trying to come up with were "A View to a Kill" and "License to Kill". :)

Nice enough puzzle, decent theme. And adding the difficulty/enjoyability rating in the description is a lovely idea. :)

That was a terrible puzzle.

22:45 - You actually don't need to move your webcam to show the clues on the right side - the clue that you're currently on is also displayed above the puzzle (blue background). Hopefully saving you a few clicks here & there. :)

Tough one today, lots of names I didn't know. Still, a well executed theme, and a decent puzzle. Hope you are enjoying/enjoyed your Thanksgiving.. :)

I totally agree: this puzzle had some bad answers:. NOTELET and STEADED as you pointed out, for example, but also EENY. MALL was clued poorly, as you said, and ABED is a crossword-only word that shouldn't be in the NYT puzzles.

You missed the title (/revealer) of the puzzle: "Shape up or ship out"

Pretty good puzzle, large but not too difficult, and a reasonably clever theme construction to boot. Nice for a Sunday.

Yes, "Don't be evil" was their motto. Now, they don't even *pretend* which side they're on... Anyway, bad thoughts aside, any puzzle that can work "mere mortal" in is automatically a good one. :)

Taoiseach, is evidently a term for the P.M. of Ireland

21:58 - I would have to say a score of 2 would be more apt to be called genius; a score of 1 is really just lucky, not smart... Anyway. Lovely puzzle, nice and challenging, just what we want on a Saturday.

Well done. "OISEAAU?"

Really tough puzzle today, lots of foreign words and several names I didn't know, but we got there in the end. Oiseau (pronounced wah-so) is French for bird, so the clue of canard (French for duck) makes sense. :)

Tough puzzle, but a very lovely theme, I rather enjoyed this one.

Well done. Took me forever!

Salem's Lot is a Stephen King novel (and probably a movie too, but I'm not sure if it's one of the ones that was done or not). Either way, it was quite popular, that's why you've heard that name before.

26:59 - Pretty tough puzzle for that early in the morning. Plenty of math related clues, definitely have to have a few coffees in you to nail this one. :)

To clarify, yes, the show was called Diff'rent Strokes. Why the e was cut out in favour of an apostrophe is completely beyond me, but that is how they did it. Perhaps they thought it would be cool or clever...

Very good puzzle today. Nice theme, not very many bad fills (a few, but that's probably unavoidable). Kudos to the setter. :)

I didn’t get a third of the way through this one! Nice job.

In a word... brutal. I'm impressed you stuck with it, and actually posted the video showing the full struggle. And no, we wouldn't abandon you in your time of need. :)

That was fast!

I had completely forgotten Charlie's last name, so when that realization clicked and the clue made perfect sense, that was fantastic. Well done to the constructor for pulling that one off. :)

I might be mixing things up (it's been a very long time after all), but I *think* the Elvira show you're thinking of was called Tales from the Crypt, or something not far from that? It's also possible there was another show, and the two were only coincidentally related? I can't remember anymore.

Don’t curse the darkness, light a light.

22:12 - Close. It's C sharp sharp. Of course, no one would likely ever write it that way (unless the composer was going for something very, very odd, but normally, no chance). Officially, a C sharp and a D flat are just two ways to write the exact same note, so if you raise (sharpen) a C sharp/D flat, you get to D natural, or simply D.

What does your dad know about lighting anyway?!

Brutal theme, but sort of interesting. The clueing was a bit on the weak side, and I don't know if the theme's strength was really enough to carry this one. Probably not. I also might be a bit bitter because I failed this one. I got screwed on the left side because I thought the Greek letter it wanted was iota, not zeta. Curse my highly limited knowledge of modern music, in that I've heard of a singer called Sia, but not one named Sza, so I took that as confirmation iota was right), then I just couldn't make that section work out properly. Oopsy. :)

The puzzle was called Triple Feature, so while I've only ever seen 2 of the films (Alien and Misery), thankfully I had at least heard of all of the rest of them, which made the solve a bit easier than it otherwise would've been.

As a gen z watcher, the Bella Hadid - Bella Thorne bit made me cackle a bit. Bella Hadid is a fashion model! Keep up the good work! 😄

Very nice to work through such a tough puzzle. Must admit I didn't think it'd be ESPN that tripped you up, as I know you like watching sports. Guess just not on that network. :)

Nice & smooth. I got screwed up twice on the right hand side, first because I, like everyone under the age of about 90, had no idea what VP Garner's middle name was... Then (and this one saddens me), because when I think of a 6 letter Star Trek character, I think immediately of Scotty and Chekov, but somehow completely forgot about Sulu. Shame on me. :)

Not a bad puzzle. A bit dull, but a clever and well put-together theme. Can't be upset with that.