Thursday, November 15, 2018, Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen

27:22

A rebus puzzle theme today where the letters IOU are squeezed into one square making MICROLOANS. Ha! My favorite is OU[IOU]I because of the crazy way the rebus cuts across the two OUIs. Also, it's paired with another favorite, the humorous DUB[IOU]SHONOR (Making a "Top Party Schools" list, e.g.). LOL. I saw the need for a rebus when I got to the clue "Sundry" at 49D and I already had the V from SVEN (Reindeer in "Frozen") in the top square. Once I had that one, the IOUs seemed to crop up everywhere - a lot like bills. :)

I had the most trouble in the north west. I couldn't figure out "Real lifesaver" (HERO). I kept wanting something like CPR. I also considered "lime" but, of course in that case, Lifesaver(TM) would have had to be capitalized. Our dear readers will not be surprised to learn that I didn't immediately know Matty ALOU, but, believe it or not, that crossword darling that he is, that answer finally helped me break into that corner. The word ELUTE is completely new to me. I looked it up and the clue is apt; it appears to be a somewhat technical word associated with chromatography.

I don't know that I've see the answer TOAT (Precisely) in this form before. Tee is usually spelled out, isn't it? It sure looks funny when considered as a single word, but according to Wiktionary, toat means "the handle of a joiner's plane." Who knew?

I also enjoyed the clue-answer pair "Bounce" (PEP). The answer to "Choice of juice?" had a nice twist (ACDC), and I liked "What you might call a Friend" (THEE). I'm always happy to see a reference to NOAM Chomsky.

We're in debt to Ms. Guizzo and Mr. Chen for another solid puzzle.

~Frannie.