Friday, September 14, 2018, John Guzzetta

Untimed, DNEF

 Mr. Guzzetta and I were largely on the same WAVELENGHTHS today, except for one square in the south east. I’ve never heard of DAX Shepard (of “Parenthood,” apparently), and it wasn’t a personal name that I could guess, I guess. I tried to HUNTANDPECK through the alphabet, and thought a good guess might be DAn, but although I didn’t know the answer to 47D: "Classic Jaguars,"  either, I was pretty sure it wasn’t nKES, if you see what I mean. So, I asked Horace to tell me what was wanted in that square, which caused the DNEF (Did Not Exactly Finish) you see above. And, no one likes a CHEATER, so to be completely honest, the puzzle was not exactly untimed; I tried to do it last night when it came in at 10PM, but I feel asleep with the puzzle open, so the timer continued to tick as I dozed, which is no reflection on the WORTH of Mr. Guzzetta’s puzzle, it was just that kind of a day.

I liked all the ten-and eleven-letter answers in the puzzle, and the sort of pinwheel shape of the grid. I especially liked the three in the bottom right (HUNTANDPECK, ITSAMIRACLE, and THATSGENIUS), but the international trio of SWISSCHARD, ABBA’s song HONEYHONEY, and Mazurka’s TRIPLETIME meter in the south west were also upstanding entries.

Shameless plug for my niece's Etsy shop

“Offensive line” (BARB) was a nice twist especially since the puzzle also included the clue and answer at 36D: "Grounds for a 15-yard penalty" (LATEHIT) which is actually football related.

I especially enjoyed “Distant stars?” HASBEENS. Ha! ROTISSERIE for Spit spot is also nice. Somewhat to my surprise, I dropped THU right in for 9D: "Night that ‘Friends’ aired: Abbr." I never watched the show, but somehow I knew the answer. IMAGINETHAT!

Let us all remember, dear readers, that pride goeth before a all. “End of a count?” totally rooked me today. I had the correct answer (ESS) thanks to the downs, but I could not figure out why. I FILA little SHEEPISH about it, but there you go.

~Frannie.