So many good puzzles, so little time

Philip Thomson's NYT: Marjorie Berg's Monday puzzle accentuated the positive, while this puzzle's theme is "there's no..." whatever. Fun puzzle with nice fill like ON THE SLY and SO THERE, and some funny clues like "Lousy eggs?" for NITS. And it gave me probably my best Wednesday NYT finishing time, so that's another plus.

Ben Tausig's Inkwell: "Dinner with the Family" had a hilarious mafia-supper theme—at least MOBSTER BISQUE cracked me up. The puzzle had much to commend itself: PSHAW, ELK clued as "male with a rack," "Thirteen, in NYC" for PBS, KOD ("decked"), "Glass on the radio" for IRA (my best friend used to run into him at her neighborhood gym here in Chicago), "milk container" as a clue for UDDER, "In gear?" for CLAD, "old items" for EXES, and oh yeah, it's also a pangram, just for fun.

Robert H. Wolfe's Wednesday NYS: "It's All Greek to Me" showed me just how many Greek letters I can't identify on sight! I liked seeing WOTAN and ORECK vacuums crossed by GO SOLO and TECHNO, and ELIE clued as "Tahari of fashion" (Elie Tahari, of course, designed that beautiful dress Halle Berry wore when she won her Oscar).

Gary Steinmehl's Tuesday NYS: "We're Back" added US to the theme entries—to best effect in DEADLY SINUS.

Joy M. Andrews' Monday NYS: "Diplomatic Conclusions" was stuffed with seldom-seen fill like OLD IRISH, FILE CLERK, GOOSE EGGS, BiG FISH, and BAEDEKER. I'm not a huge fan of Condoleezza Rice, but turn her into BASMATI RICE in the theme, and I'm all for it.

Updated: Hey, even if you don't normally do the CrosSynergy puzzles, you might like today's outing from Randall Hartman, "Things are Looking Up." Fun theme!

Tausig 5:01
Tues NYS 4:32
Wed NYS 4:24
Mon NYS 3:42
LAT 3:42
CS 3:40
NYT 2:45