I was one square away from a FWOE-free week, but alas, it was not to be. When I finished the puzzle but didn't I didn't get the "Congratulations" message, I said to Horace, INEEDHELP - time is short today! - and had him tell me what the predecessor of RC Cola's Royal Crown Company was. I was pretty sure that was the locus of the problem, but my mind balked at giving up NOtART while simultaneously failing to remember crossword darling NEHI. Derp.
The puzzle started off like a typical Saturday: a first run through the across clues produced very few entries in the grid. The downs were slightly more productive, which, in turn revealed a number of the acrosses. The system works! That is until I hit the south east corner. I did get GAYMARRIAGE and I had a vague notion that one of the "Lethal Weapon" detectives was named RIGGS, but that was it. For a very long time. After a while I realized I had "Pistons great Thomas" back to front - a first name, not a last name was wanted, I dug ISIAH out of the recesses of my mind. The "I" helped me get KILT, which led to TREED, and the rest, as we say is hiSTORY - proving once again that sports ball knowledge is the key to successful crossword puzzle solving. The clue for SEEATTACHED (Common two-word email) troubled me slightly. I don't think I've ever received an email message with just those two words And I've been receiving email for a very long time.
Fill-wise, I like CORSET (not literally), CLARET, EGEST (how vivid!), LOSER, VALISE, SHADOWBOX, DIORAMA, and THEEYE.
There were also some nice good clue/answer pairs:
Rock sample? (DEMOTAPE)
Bud drinker? (BEE)
Like some blankets and arguments (HEATED)
A few entries FELL into the LOWFIBER category today: easy to digest, perhaps, but not very satisfying: TSPS, LYSIS, NCIS, OSX, or DRT (hunh?), but really, overall, pretty NES.
~Frannie.
18:03
ReplyDeleteCrushed this one, and I would have had a 15 were it not for a tiny bit of trouble in the east with NEHI, HEATED and DEMOTAPE. That I'd never heard of BUBBLETEA didn't help much, either, but eventually (quickly) I realized the NEHI thing and everything else fell into place. I tried violET (since I had the ____ET) at first over in the west, but when I realized that ORCA was 30D, CLARET went in quickly. CORSET is a hoot and EGEST icky. I'd never heard of an ORALIST. I didn't love -LYSIS, but I must admit it's one of the better partials that I've seen. I never heard of DRT either, and always make sure that NOPETS is a policy of anywhere that I decide to LIEINBED.