Today's grid is filled with rounds of delicious cheeses evenly distributed within longer words like FREETRADE (FETA), DEADCALM (EDAM), BURLIVES (BRIE), and BILGEPUMP (BLEU), making a real CHEESE SPREAD. My favorite is bilgepump, a spot some might think apt for a moldy old dairy product like blue cheese. Apt!
What, dear readers, do my solve time and Limburger have in common? They both stink. Last week, I almost broke the 5 minute mark, whereas today, in my attempt to speed through the puzzle, erroneous synonyms or close matches regularly BEFELL me. I entered EATat instead of EATON (Use as a dinner table), beCALMed instead of DEADCALM, and 'value' instead of MERIT, to name just three examples, which made it more of a SLOG than it might have been. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy the puzzle, just that it took me longer than it should have. SOBE it.
I loved all three of these conversational clues today:
"Well, obviously" (NODUH)
"Oh, puh-leeze!" (SPAREME)
"Start working" (GETBUSY)
I liked that the longer answers in the north east and south west symmetrical spots were kind of opposites: STOODASIDE and EMBARKEDON. Also, looking over the puzzle for the review, I notice that we have both WED and AWED. What a difference an A makes. :) I thought it was nice that HEX crossed CRONE, but are we allowed to say crone these days?
We don't normally admire a partial, but who can argue with "Slangy ending for 'any'" (HOO)? And the tired old AARP is revitalized with its excellent clue "Grp. making after-work plans?" - ha!
~Frannie.
Don't feel bad about the time, this one was tough for me too (11:14 compared with a typical Monday being more like 7 or 8).
ReplyDeleteLove the way the circled squares are SPREAD out.
Thr review talks about wrong answers, the one which amused me the most was that I had Cashew before CELERY. I mean, even as I wrote it in I was thinking, gee, how would the flavor of cashews fit with apples and mayonnaise? But apparently I couldn't resist something which was the correct number of letters and started with C. Fortunately, didn't take too long to fix that one (and remember all those walnuts I've had in Waldorf salad).