I pulled out 17A Sympathetic response to dissent: IHEARYOU probably because that’s Sam Ezersky’s refrain every time someone sends a reasonable request to include a word in the Spelling Bee. Like DUDETTE, HORCHATA, ALEE, MOLAL, RAABIDFUN.
Does he ever change? No.
No theme for this Saturday puzzle. Why didn’t Ezersky make a theme?! He should have made a theme.
He’d probably respond: “I hear you.”
Finished this one in 25:05.
I pulled out 15A Like cranks: GROUCHY because I’ve found that the only crossword thing worse than a puzzle edited by Will Shortz is a puzzle edited by Will Shortz and written by Sam Ezersky. The NYT Spelling Bee has a lot of nonsense, and when Sam writes a crossword puzzle, it’s not much different. A lot of the words were weird, and the tougher answers weren’t rewarding.
The best part was that there was no theme for this Saturday puzzle.
Finished this one in 24:23.
| Day | This Wk | Best | Average | 4-Wk Avg | Streak |
| Monday | 7:41 | 3:49 | 9:23 | 5:39 | 80 |
| Tuesday | 7:10 | 5:22 | 13:11 | 8:60 | 4 |
| Wednesday | 15:52 | 7:38 | 17:03 | 17:42 | 21 |
| Thursday | 24:11 | 12:12 | 28:20 | 22:15 | 7 |
| Friday | 18:52 | 10:29 | 30:58 | 17:36 | 21 |
| Saturday | 24:23 | 20:11 | 32:48 | 24:25 | 20 |
| Sunday | 15:11 | 52:41 | 40:33 | 7 |