My RABBITHOLE today was in the north west - again. What is it with me and that top left? Upon review, I note that three of the four trickiest clues, not to mention an unknown-to-me fact, were up in there. I had to REVISE my ideas about the meaning of both "Draw" and "outlet" at 17A where I had SiLt instead of the excellent SALE for quite some time. And how about "End of a flight, maybe" (ATTIC), "Draft holder" (STEIN), and the fabulous piece de resistance: "Not fancy at all" (LOATHE) which just about caused my PERSONALITY to DOTHESPLITS. Even as I entered an "L" in the blank square over OATHE - only because ELMS seemed a likely candidate for the name of a Newport, RI National Historic Landmark - I was in doubt. Then suddenly, light dawned over marble head, as my mom used to say, and I had an OHOH moment.
And, speaking of slow on the uptake, I was duped again by the old self-referential trick in "Cannes duo" (ENS). When will I learn?
Fortunately, there were a few things that I was SHO of, and that resulted in a pretty good time for a Saturday puzzle - for me. With so many solves under my belt, NEMEANLION is now a gimme. CHLORINEGAS came to me pretty quickly (not literally, fortunately), thanks to a recent viewing of the Peter Jackson film, "They Shall Not Grow Old" - along with a concurrent deep immersion into transcription of archived documents from WWI as a side project. Like I need more projects.
Other content I enjoyed included "Bore" (STOOD), "Wallop" (SOCK), "Food processor" (ENZYME), and "Fitting toy for a child?" (LEGO) - APT!
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| Wide-field view of the Summer Triangle and Milky Way |
~Frannie.
21:51
ReplyDeleteFast solve for me for a Saturday, too, even though I, like Frannie, had a holdup in the NW. I tried "weed" to no avail where ROOT belongs, "amps" where SALE belongs and nothing anywhere else up there. Those missteps really caused a major slowdown. Once I figured out THENHL and ZEN, ERSATZ came and then things started falling. I loved the cross of TANG and ONIONROLLS for the piquant pairing. I tried REVamp for a short time where REVISE goes. The rest of the puzzle, though I can imagine some people having difficulty, went smoothly for me since I've become more familiar with the type of cluing that happens on a Saturday. I quickly changed "meme" to OHOH, and having already entered VENTI at 30D (thanks to my knowledge of "Le Nozze di Figaro"), I took a chance with LEOV even though I didn't know of that particular emperor. Anyway, nice Saturday, and excellent review!
9:24
ReplyDeleteI liked this one! The much-maligned NW corner was excellent! ERSATZ, LOATHE, MOLTEN, and the well-clued ATTIC. Very nice! But really, everywhere you look, there's great material - POLARITY, NESTLE, GLINTS, TRANSIENCE, ZYDECO, ENZYME... I'll take the very occasional IMAGED and DENEB for this kind of fill.
Loved it!
14:32
ReplyDeleteReally nice times, everyone! I too finished in the NW. I love the grid here, especially the pair of long downs crossing the trio of stepwise 11-letter answers across.