A fun holiday-themed puzzle today featuring common phrases re-clued to be appropriate for witches. My favorite was Computer help for a witch? (SPELLCHECK), but Educational institution for witches? (CHARMSCHOOL) had its own appeal.
Mr. Kaskel also managed to scare up some nice theme-related fill including
EERIE, HAGS, EVIL, and maybe even ALARM and PARA had they been clued differently. Hell even made an appearance, although only on the clue side (24D). I've seen the movie "The Ghost and Mrs. MUIR," but I know that title best from the TV series version that my sister and I watched regularly when we were young.
This being a Monday, the puzzle was thin on tricks, but other treats included PERT, HEARHEAR, and PARSE. And, you'd think it was Huygen's BIRTHDAY today with so many answers he's bound to enjoy like TOPLESS, KEG, and REDS.
Both DEKE(S) and CSPOT(S) make it in for the second day in a row. On my watch, OWIE is still in the lead with three consecutive appearances.
We take our puzzles the way we might be forced to accept a witch, WARTSANDALL. In this grid the warts are few, but ACERS "Super tennis servers" at 48A gave me a fright.
Happy Halloween!
~Frannie.
3:28
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree about ACERS. Oof. Otherwise this was a good deal of fun.
4:59
ReplyDeleteJust squeaked in under 5:00. I, too, watched only the TV show, never having seen the movie. I did enjoy the puzzle, Frannie. Oddly, though, even though I went to college at one time, I needed all crosses for Lit CRIT. Colum probably got INCUS off of one (or fewer) cross.