Didn't we just see a puzzle with a similar twist somewhat recently? If I were a different kind of blogger, I might go back and try to locate it, but being the sort of blogger I am - at least tonight - I'll leave that kind of work to you, dear Reader.
In any event, what we have here is some misshapen (because they're made with squares, after all) wheels of letters that spell out round things. Well, except in the first theme answer, where the round part is at the end of the answer, and "MERRY" goes around in a circle. Odd. Although it kind of works if you read it as a command. Heh. Wait! That's what they all do! OK, I like this one better all of a sudden.
On the plus side, the fill has some very nice bits. POWERNAP (8D: Revitalizing snooze) is very nice, TEATOWELS (34D: Dish-drying cloths) is fun because it makes one think of Frannie's obsession with same, even though she very rarely dries any dishes with one. Not because she doesn't do dishes (she doesn't, much), but because when she does, she prefers to let them air dry. SEEDLESS (39D: Like some rye) is exactly what my rye was tonight (thank goodness!), but I'm not sure that I had mine in quite the same form that they were talking about...
Then there's some stuff like OSTEAL (21A: Bone-related), IRENEE (60A: The "I" in E. I. du Pont) (Who?), STE, ROES, TINO, TITO, OCH, RIA, OHS, and a few partials...
It's a fun trick, but the puzzle doesn't exactly sparkle. At least not in my opinion. Perhaps you enjoyed it more.
- Horace
10:43
ReplyDeleteI got the "Puzzle Completely Filled" message when I put in the "G" of OGLES, but I knew right where my error was, and I'll take the completion. My error was at the GESTE/IRENEE cross, which is a terrible cross. I'd put an "a" in there as a guess, but I knew that GESTE was something I'd heard before, so I immediately put an "E" in and got the "Congratulations" box. I agree that the puzzle didn't sparkle, but I liked a few things: STALAG, ANTILOG...well, I guess I like two things. At first I liked the rye reference, until I saw that it was SEEDLESS, and I thought that there was entirely too much clue for the ORR answer. I guess I like WELTS, too; not in reality, but as a word. We just watched "Twelve Years A Slave" and welts were no good in that movie.
6:44
ReplyDeleteMEGOROUND for the win. Much better than ASTHEWTURNS. I mean, whoever heard of a W turning around? ROLLINGST just doesn't make any sense. I do like SPINNINGWHE, but I think the last word was meant to be spelled "wheeeee".
Too soon?
lol
Delete