Happy New Year! Here’s a puzzle. It is decidedly not Tough as Nails — in fact, the stated reason it was rejected from one venue, and I think the unstated reason it was rejected from another, is that the theme is too easy to figure out. I mean…I think if I were solving it, I’d still have fun? You tell me. (No, seriously! If you hate it, I want to know, because I do trust my own instincts but would like to know when I shouldn’t.)
New Year’s surprise
Crosswords and Trivia by Stella Zawistowski 
Hi Stella, That was waaaaaay too easy for a Stella puzzle. Not fun once you get it.
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Cute. Probably easiest solve of yours.
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I enjoyed this, Stella. Once the nature of the theme entries became clear, yes, those were easy to fill, but that didn’t detract from the cleverness of the idea and the clueing (IMO).
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I thought this was delightful, personally! And of course you deserve kudos for getting 47-Down in a Tough as “Nails” grid 😀
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Not gonna lie – this didn’t do it for me. Your tough puzzles are uniformly amazing, but this one was meh.
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I enjoyed it. A fun silly NY day puzzle 🙂
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