Author: plusjeremy

Not a fast time, but no problems here, and I never felt concerned that I wouldn’t finish. Many elements here I didn’t quite understand or recognize, and a fair amount of biffing.

Is this puzzle hard? You tell me.

DNF. It took me about 40 minutes to get halfway through this puzzle, painstakingly. I didn’t have the heart to finish it, and something tells me I wouldn’t have been able to if I’d tried.

45:15. Got stuck at around 25 minutes in with the last four clues. Contemplated giving up many times but ground out each letter and finally made it home. Not quite sure whether I should feel satisfied or frustrated!

28:28. Shortly before attempting the puzzle, I was informed by a fellow blogger: “main very easy – you got a sitter for your blog”. My experience differed, to put it mildly.

39:29, reflecting a very slow finish to what was otherwise a fairly normal difficulty, and truly excellent, puzzle. I was rather stuck in the upper-right corner, thanks to some particularly devious wordplay.

48:12, so this is the harder puzzle I’ve been waiting for. Very tricky in places, though I tended to feel dumb rather than smart when the penny finally dropped, almost as if the penny fell right onto my head.

16:48, so my string of easier Fridays continues into the new year! I was able to biff a fair number of these, so I will be unravelling the wordplay as I write this blog.

Of this puzzle’s 30 clues, the top 15 took me about three minutes. The bottom half was another story.

DNF, but about 20 minutes to get to my sticking points: 13 and 23 across. Not a difficult puzzle but nevertheless one I labored over. I am still waiting for and expecting a truly beastly Friday to reckon with!