This puzzle features some literal PRIMEREALESTATE: THREEMILEISLAND, SEVENHILLSOFROME, and the THIRTEENCOLONIES. It's nice because it works on two levels. :)
My time was a little slow again today. I have gotten past being duped by "sign of summer," (generally leo), but I was tripped up this time by "Sign of autumn" (LIBRA) - same clue, different season. DUMB. I was also stumped for too long by "12/31". I was thinking more along the lines of 'nyeve.' DAFT. The real answer, RATIO, is much better and works as bonus theme material. My final sticking point was the northwest - too many options for some and too few known answers for others. I don't know many Doors songs and I've never seen "Apocalypse Now." I didn't think of either ATEIT for "Fell on one's face big-time" or BITEME, for "Buzz off!" which seems a bit on the harsh side of possible synonyms, IMO.
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| Photo by Tom Lingner |
DICEY, MELEE, and NETTLE.
I don't really like the word "Dearie" or its two answers in this puzzle (BABE and PET), but that's only 2 out of 75 answers that I wasn't UPON. You do the math.
~Frannie.
6:48
ReplyDeleteFun theme! I had the most trouble with the middle north section. I also fell for the "sign of" clue, even though we'd just had it the other day with "Pisces." And PBR was not apparent to me at all, until I ran the alphabet for _ABE. Excellent photo by this so-called Tom Lingner.
6:29
ReplyDeleteI think Tom's BABE was in the ACTUAL shot, but that was before the EDITS. Apparently the RATIO was off...
12:52
ReplyDeleteIt seems that I took a little longer than usual for a Wednesday, also, even though the theme was right up my alley. I tried pEAs for a pot pie ingredient, mostly because I don't take a MEAT, and I needed a few crosses for CORALRED, but really, I'm not sure what the ACTUAL reason for my relative slowness was. I guess that NETTLE isn't all that well known a term to me, so that may have slowed me a bit in the SE, and I, like Frannie, thought BITEME was a bit harsh, so I hesitated with that one, too. Maybe I'll go OPEN a PABST and consider the causes more deeply.
Well if I was going to have some MEAT in honor of today's puzzle, I'd go directly for LEVERET. That answer and a few of its crosses aside, the Northwest was the toughest for me. Although it was a satisfying kind of tough in the sense that once I got it, the answers made sense, seemed guessable, even clever. Well, with the possible exception of BITEME which I'm not sure would pass my breakfast test if I were a constructor. But since I did not conatruct this puzzle, I'll just appreciate that it was constructed by someone evidently in their PRIME.
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