Mr. Polin starts off this puzzle squarely in my wheelhouse with METADATA (Information about other information). DEFANG (9A: Make harmless, as a snake) went right in and I was off to the races. That is, until I put the moron in OXYMORON by spelling it with an "i". Derp. TiRESE as a cross was no help, as I've never heard of Mr/s. Gibson.
For the theme we are treated to a bouquet of expressions featuring names of flowers, including SHRINKINGVIOLET and GILDTHELILY that together make for some "High-flown speech or writing" or FLOWERYLANGUAGE. I thought it a nice arrangement.
I liked MOSHES, EXHORT, SLUG and SNUG. Looking at TEASET after I finished the puzzle, I thought it could be an old past participle of tease. :)
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| LOKI then and now |
"Long in the tooth" (OLD) and "Grow long in the tooth" (AGE)
"Stare slack-jawed" (GAWP) and "Slack-jawed feeling" (AWE)
That's the NYTX for you: keeping things FRESHASADAISY.
~Frannie.
This puzzle left me feeling FRESHASADAISY. And that's largely because of a Monday-esque 7:31 but also enjoyed the flowers, the tea, the satyrs dancing about. I mean, I'm not sure I can defend what seem like some obscure names and chestnuts like OONA, ACTI, and NEE, but I had a STELLAR experience and I'm sticking to that. I suppose ELISHA is such an obscure name, but the elevator-themed pairing with FLOOR was nice.
ReplyDelete4:11 - faster than yesterday. I'm not exactly sure why Monday's puzzle felt so much harder than usual. But this was very nice. I loved METADATA and the rest of the NW corner.
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