Saturday, October 27, 2018, Bryon Walden

38:47

A topsy turvy week, puzzle-difficulty-wise for this solver. I had much more trouble midweek than with Friday and Saturday. Maybe I have NOTALENT for trick puzzles. :)

Mr. Walden gives us some great fill today from SCHLUBBY and KNAVE to POTASH and ECOCIDAL. I also liked the clue answer pairs "Being"/ENTITY and "Clocked"/BRAINED.

There were also some fun clues:
Ads that get a lot of traffic? (BILLBOARDS) - apt!
Do a double take? (REFILM) - reel nice.
Miss, e.g. (TITLE) - this one's a hit!
Transferrer of stock? (LADLE) - a pun in pour taste? :)
Cabbage for canning? (SEVERANCE) - this one really paid off!
Take in the paper (OPED) - which I first mis-parsed as the poetic 'ope'd' but just now realize is the much more clever answer OP ED. Ha!
Hardwear? (ARMOR) - this one suited me just fine.
Signs of rush hour (HONKS) - a tricky aural answer to the normally visual "signs"

I got slowed down in the north east at the clue "Skunks." At first, believe it or not dear readers, I knew the sports clue in that corner. I remembered TOMWATSON from when we used to watch golf. But, then I got into a MIRE with "Skunks." My first thought was for the cribbage definition, as in when one player wins with a margin of 31 points or more. I already had ATS at the end of it, so I thought, oh, it'll be something beATS. Nope. It was a more straightforward answer: POLECATS - talk about PETODORS!

Nice that both jungle and APEDOM could fit the answer squares for "Tarzan's realm," however, I rejected jungle out of hand as being too easy for a Saturday.

Learning that "Paragon" can mean an unflawed diamond weighing at least 100 carats or a very large spherical pearl (GEM), having SCORED a sports answer, and having solved the two big puzzles of the week, both in under 40 minutes, makes me feel like a real ENIAC. :)

~Frannie.