We have to add in a note that it’s OK to take a break from solving. We admit we had to. In case you hadn’t heard, we bought Wordle, so our team got a little busy. When Jackie came back to Wednesdays, she felt a little stuck and needed to restart with Mondays and Tuesdays. Life gets in the way; don’t be afraid to work your way back up and massage your brain to get back into the solving groove if you need to.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, practice more Wednesday puzzles than you think you might need. Got the hang of it? Buckle up for Thursdays.

Here are five Wednesdays that Tracy Bennett, crossword editor, recommends:

July 8, 2020

Aug. 4, 2021

Sept. 1, 2021

Feb. 16, 2022

Dec. 23, 2020

Yes, Thursday is the most difficult themed puzzle published by The Times every week. But you’ll have it conquered in no time with a little practice and prep work. Reminder: Puzzles on Mondays through Thursdays contain themes, which are often found in the puzzle’s longest answers or when groups of entries have something in common.

We’ve already covered some of the more complex clue types that show up in midweek and late-week puzzles, but we’ll go over a few difficult theme types here. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will cover a handful of the more devious ones:

And, of course, no list of complex themes would be complete without mention of the dreaded rebus. A rebus element is one in which several letters are put into one square. Here’s how to do it.

Puzzles that feature a rebus are relatively uncommon, but they are an important part of the crossword puzzle ecosystem. They can usually be spotted when an answer is a phrase that doesn’t seem to fit in the number of squares an entry takes up. For the record, Jackie hates any puzzle that contains a rebus. Isaac thinks they’re fun, but the two of us agree on one thing: They’re very tricky.

One question that can come up when we talk to new Thursday solvers is, “If Thursday is the most difficult themed puzzle of the week, does that make it the most difficult puzzle of the week overall?” A hard theme can make a puzzle harder than a puzzle without one, in some cases. For Isaac, it can take him longer to solve a hard Thursday than a Friday some weeks, but on average, Friday will be harder. We’ll get into what makes themeless puzzles so tricky in Part 3.