It's Thursday and we have a rebus - and a variable rebus at that. In today's puzzle, variable rebii illustrate the way one might PLAYHIDEANDSEEK by starting with [IT]COUPLE in the top left corner and moving from [COLD]SHOWER to BE[COOL] to [WARM]UP and RED[HOT] (to name only the acrosses) until LEANON[ME] is caught in the bottom right. The progress from cold to hot was well done and built drama and excitement. I found it quite entertaining.
Elsewhere in the puzzle answers ranged from JAW dropping ease to EDILE dysfunction, but in most cases, the mix of clues made it all OKIE. The only place I really got slowed down was in the midwest where a perfect storm of clues requiring knowledge of world geography (BENIN (country bordering Togo)), the order of books in the Bible (NEH (Book after Ezra)), and rappers ([COOL]IO) made it difficult for this solver to find the answers she was looking for.
Other clues that deserve to be called out are "Dollar alternative" (AVIS) - anyone else start with 'euro' there? - "One may be bronze or golden" (AGE), and my favorite of the day "A long way to go?" (LIMO). Ha!
I also enjoyed SUBTLER, CURARE, PARSNIP, and GRETEL.
There's probably more to say, but I'm NAGANO lie, sometimes the review just flows, other times [IT]SAJOB.
~Frannie.
13:50
ReplyDeleteEveryone loves a rebus day! BE[COOL] always brings to mind the great "Pulp Fiction" scene in the diner when it is revisited near the end of the movie, and it's lucky that it appeared, because like Frannie, I was stymied by [COOL]IO. TEHEES makes another appearance, albeit plural this time. And always nice to be reminded of ONELOVE. CURARE is unknown to me, and its cross with BENIN was vexing, but there weren't too many other big problems in this one. Shout out to MAG(z)!
8:55
ReplyDeleteEmily Carroll's name is usually one of the good crossword OMENS. I don't know when I last got to PLAYHIDEANDSEEK, but I don't remember it ever being this much fun. :)
Boy, I guess you can find it, as a "less common variant," but I take issue with DISS. The word is DIS, as in DISrespect, of course. It's also of generational and subcultural origins. Seems to me that anyone spelling it DISS is trying to act a lot more, er, savage, than they really are.
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ReplyDeleteBrilliance, although there were definitely some tradeoffs, such as EDILE. But I'll accept that sort of thing for the purposes of the theme.
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