Monday morning

My favorite of the Monday puzzles is Karen Tracey's NYS. Easy, yes (you know it's easy when there are some entries you complete without looking at the clues), but packed wall to wall with 5- to 8-letter entries that we don't see that often. Everything a Monday puzzle should be: fresh, breezy, fun, interesting. If you don't mind a puzzle that doesn't fight you, check it out.

I also enjoyed Randy Sowell's NYT, which fell faster than the three puzzles I did this morning. I'm always delighted if I can squeeze in under the 3-minute mark, but then there's Tyler Hinman, who typically finishes Monday's puzzle in less than 2 minutes (1:49 this week). The only thing that gives me (and everyone else) hope for Stamford is that Tyler needed a couple more minutes than Al Sanders to complete the A finals puzzle (technically, Al didn't complete it, but we all know he could have filled in those squares in a matter of seconds). It would be hard to nudge Tyler away from the top of the points ranking, but you never know how things'll shake out in the finals. There's half a chance Tyler will not sweep the entire decade...