0:43:50
Well, at first, I thought this was a silly idea, because once you get the trick, the two sides can be solved almost simultaneously, but we got mired, as you maybe did too, in the SE. I thought that I was so clever by entering "nothing" in for 65A, but it didn't work out the way I thought it should. Finally, Frannie said "It's like it shouldn't even exist at all," and bingo, we were done. I tried getting the puzzle to "check" with empty boxes, but that didn't work, so I put in Xs, and that did.
Overall, the last little gimmick saved this one for me. It's a nice Halloween-y theme, but as stated already, it played a little easy. And there's been so much backward stuff lately. None, none, none, and then all the time. I'm not complaining, but it just seems a little odd.
15A: Not yet delivered (INUTERO) was a nice way to clue that, and I don't think I've ever heard the term 23A: Clusterfist (MISER) before, so that was interesting. Also, I love seeing JSBACH (35A: "St. Matthew Passion" composer, for short) in the grid. Ahhh... Bach...
Lastly, is MITTENS really a 10D: Nickname for a 2012 presidential candidate? I thought that was just our pet name for him!
- Horace.
Unknown time, but <1:00 for sure.
ReplyDeleteI'd not heard "MITTENS" outside of the immediate family. The SE did, indeed, have me stymied until I realized that no matter how I looked at it, DRACULA worked in the SW, and there were no such things as IMSA, SNOWL, PASTEU, etc. The only way it made sense was with empty boxes, so there you go. Favorite clue, maybe? 47A Green touches? (PUTTS).