Manny Nosowsky's NYT was so much fun. One of those treasures in which you feel smart when you fill in each answer, rather than either struggling or feeling "this is too easy." My favorite clue was 43A, "like 90, compared to 85" (HOTTER). "Half a train" for CHOO, "terrible twos, e.g." for PHASE, and "water beds" for AQUIFERS also pleased me. And of course, Manny had a trademark medical entry in RENAL. This one's my favorite puzzle of the week so far.

In Gary Steinmehl's NYS, I liked seeing ETCETERAS, but rebus puzzles have fallen out of favor with me. If I were doing rebus puzzles on paper, drawing little doohickeys would be fun, but doing them in Across Lite? Not so appealing. I remember my first rebus crossword, in an issue of Games magazine when I was a kid. It was probably in the very early '80s, and I made use of that girly collection of felt-tip pens in assorted colors to fill in key squares with spots of the appropriate color. Um, does anyone else remember that puzzle?

This is an unusual Thursday (and yes, I realize it's still Wednesday night, people): the LA Times puzzle (by Ed Early) took me longer than the NYT. That doesn't typically happen.

Updated to add another puzzle:

Ben Tausig sent out another of his puzzles Wednesday evening. "Flat Features" is his Village Voice debut, and it's sprinkled with NYC-specific clues. Now, there were a slew of clues I loved, but I won't spoil them all because I want y'all to start doing these puzzles yourselves. (If you didn't already sign up to receive them from Ben via e-mail, I could forward this one to you.) For now, I'll just list the many clues I liked: 27A, 38A, 39A, 10D, 11D, 36D, and 44D. This puzzle made me crack a smile more times than Manny's did.

NYS 4:49
Tausig 4:17
LAT 4:02
NYT 3:56
CS 3:49