D-Grade

Delightful

Best puzzle of the deca(y)de! ;)

Lovely! I thought maybe there was something to get about the answer. DK. Thanks, Wendy!

Nice and Easy (Just Like a Sunday Morning.)

Thanks, Wendy

Thank you, Wendy. This was a fun one!

A+ for your D-Grade, Wendy. Extra credit for working on SSSunday too! Thanks!

Loved it...thanks Wendy!

Very nice! Thanks, Wendy!

geo odie owen-y ... i tried... merlin fails +1

i think there's a mistake in the puzzle - a better fit for 76a is wendy

Thanks for the Sunday fun, Wendy!

This one is an A+! Perfect for a rainy Sunday morning. Thanks Wendy

Grade A!

Fell down a few rabbit holes, like adding “D” to the pairs (SA-D, FE-D = Eaten, hmmm) then Chemical Elements (“degrade..”: iron, silver, neon, platinum, hmmm..) - and then went back to the grid… aha! Fun one, thank you!

What fun! Toothsome and wholesome.

But seriously, I need to get the "IN GRID ORDER OF THE ALTERNATIVES" tatooed to my forehead.

When I saw D-Grade I heard DEGRADE in my mind and with 5 letters went to DECAY. I put that thought aside and I solved the GRID, eventually hitting on the SOUNDEX qualities of the themers. But I have to admit I played with SAFE AGNEPT trying to get it to be a word until I thought "what if I add D?" Luckily I tried NED first and when that worked I tried again. Of course no others would...then I remembered PTA and SAC. Nice clean fill and fun AHA! Thanks Wendy for keeping me from a D-Cent into D-Spare!

Fun, thanks!

Just as fun the second time around. :) In fact it took me a a beat to remember how it worked, so I really did get to solve it twice. Great stuff, thanks.

Had to reveal puzzle to fill in 53 (as a people group of Nigeria, A-something-O never googled for me, nor did the engineering school RPI appear on the “best engineering schools list” results that I googled. Oh well… the meta part was gettable, and clever!

I had SAFE AGNEPT too. And that was after it took me a couple of passes to see the da*n asterisks! Super multi-step puzzle, Wendy!

Great puzzle, thank you!

I got an F. Missed the asterisk by “any”. That’s one reason I try not to use my phone. Haha. Nice puzzle! Thanks.

Very nice, enjoyed this- thanks Wendy!

Thanks Wendy for alerting me to the SSS. Enjoyable solve with no rabbit holes other than being tripped up a bit by missing the asterisk on 1A (though I had was pretty sure that C was the fifth letter by symmetry because SAC was the central clue, especially since DECAY could have been a sixth themer. Finding the asterisk sealed the deal.

Very clever to try to distract us with PENN, PITTs, UCLA, RPI, ...

It takes a lot longer to solve when you don't remember that some of the clues were starred and just stare at the grid, even when you've done something similar yourself -- a simple one-stepper not nearly as Gaffneyesque --- just a couple of months ago (SSS 9/17). Thanks.

Great puzzle, Wendy - thank you!

Great puzzle......as usual. Thanks Wendy

Your meta skill is not decaying - keep up the fantastic work!!

Straightforward. Slight Natick at the junction of 52a and 53d