Today's puzzle starts out casually, with GRABACAB (Forgo Uber or Lyft) (I tried takeACAB first, then the more formal hireACAB) and LADMAG (Maxim, e.g.), and the DUDES thing continues right through the BEERKEGS at the end. Well, I suppose SANS (Without) and PETERROGER (Best-selling author who used an awful lot of commas) are a little more erudite than AMMO, NCAA, and GTOS. And maybe you'll say that my MALEEGO is too fragile, but as for MANBUN... UMNO. JESUS!
But that maybe makes it sound like I didn't like this one. I did! The PGRATINGS vibe of INSTAGRAMFILTER, REDDIT, LARACROFT, and MOANA is balanced out a bit by things like ART ("Science made clear," per Jean Cocteau), PARAGON (Ideal), DANSE (Activity at un bal masqué), and MEDEA (Mythical enchantress). And fun clues abound: "Craft shop item with a seemingly redundant name" (GLUESTICK), "One out?" (PAROLEE), "Second son" (ABEL), and "Foes of Fido, stereotypically" (MAILMEN), to cite four. "One who might get you into hot water?" (CANNIBAL) was reaching a bit too far for me, but perhaps you chuckled more than groaned.
Overall it was a lively, smooth, Friday solve. Lot's of fun.
- Horace
34:52
ReplyDeleteReally long time for a Friday solve. I'd never heard the term LADMAG, but LARACROFT and ABEL were gimmes and the others in the NE weren't much of a problem, either, so I got it by default. When I was looking the puzzle over, I saw DOORDIE and tried to remember what the clue was for that (thinking "door die"), but then I remembered it was "do or die," which is much better. I liked CANNIBAL quite a bit; clever clue and unexpected entry.