Greetings all. I'm here to explain to you the connections and loopholes, or ins and outs of today's puzzle. Not that they need much explaining. The two revealers, clued as "Where work piles up" [IN]BOX and "Where finished work goes" [OUT]BOX tip us off to the fact that each theme answer has a literal [IN] and [OUT] box rebus square. Apt! Well, they tip us off to that fact once we get to the south easternmost part of the puzzle. I don't know if this happened to any of you, dear readers, but I entered FOUNTAINOFYOUTH (Goal for Ponce de Leon) right out of the gate, which, amazingly, fits in the same number of squares as the correct answer THEFOUNTA[IN]OFYO[OUT]H. Who'dda thunk? It's funny what fits when you don't realize there's a rebus. The same thing happened to me at 33D where I entered "blankly" for "One way to stare" instead of the correct answer [IN]TENTLY. My favorite theme answer was FROTH[IN]GATTHEM[OUT]H (Incensed). It's crazy good. :)
INS:
"Give the silent treatment?" (MIME) - what happens if you give a mime the silent treatment?
"Um, don't look now, but ..." (AHEM) - I enjoyed the scene this clue conjured up.
"The end of mathematics?" (QED) - I bet Huygens liked this one, if he is still out there puzzling.
"Middle of a puzzle?" (ZEES) - this self referential clue didn't fool me for a minute.
"Cash cache, for short" (ATM) - fun clue for an old chestnut.
And my personal favorite:
"John of Cambridge" (LOO) - ha!
OUTS:
URSI, LLCS, PSY, and AKC didn't AMAZE, but I do appreciate the fact that Mr. Eaton-Salners kept his clue for SHH librarian-free!
7:37
ReplyDeleteAnd a pangram to boot! I love the theme, even though we have to put up with LXX in that SE corner. My favorite was TH[IN][OUT] for the unexpected bonus theme answer. I figured out the rebus at the crossing of SN[OUT]S and ...THEM[OUT]H.
8:43
ReplyDeleteLoved this one! I noticed the Scrabbleyness right away, but never went back to verify pangramness. It's got to be one of the most enjoyable pangrams ever. Well, except maybe for URSI. That's pretty weak. :)
But really, it was fun. Nice review, Frannie!
QED was nice in that I confidently wrote in "ess" off the clue. So a mismisdirect if we want to call it that.
ReplyDeleteBut my funniest false step was when I put in gEES for the partners of haws. Still sort of wish that had been correct. But only because I've gone to the trouble of learning this piece of crosswordese and so it only seems fair that I'd get to use it.
Hilarious about QED, and that's some nice, deep crosswordese with gee and haw. I once knew which was left and which was right, or thought I did, until I learned that it's (sometimes) opposite in England!
Delete