0:09:45
The Turn continues in fine fashion today with this lovely themeless from Ms. Ellerin. But before I go any further, I want to put in a plug for the Boswords Fall Themeless League. Every Monday night at 9:00 there will be a new themeless puzzle - well, three, really, of different difficulties - to solve. I'm hoping Frannie and I might enter in the "Pairs" division, but she might want to compete on her own. We actually haven't discussed it yet. Anyway, I just put it out there. But hurry - the deadline to enter is this Sunday, 10/4! It seems like it might be fun, and we all need a little more of that these days, right?
So speaking of fun, that's what I thought this puzzle was. (Smooth segue, right? right? ...) How can you not love the AXIOMATIC/ZENMASTER stack? Or the side-by-side MAINCOURSE and the excellently-clued BINGONIGHT (Event with a room full of people making a row). We've got QUIDPROQUO (One hand washing the other, so to speak), JAILBREAK (Modify so as to bypass a device's restrictions, in hacker lingo), LIVESTREAM, SCUTTLE (Deliberately sink), COCKPIT (Place for an ace) (no, "sleeve" didn't fit), and although it was incorrectly clued (it should have been something like "Bulleit and Whistlepig") I still liked seeing RYES ("Seeded" or "unseeded" grocery choices) at the bottom.
OOH that's a lot of good material, pinned at the sides with just a little bit of YOM, ISH, and ARA, but really, those are entries that I'd LETBE. Really, they're all fine. It's all fine. Everything's fine.
Did you hear that the president has the covid? That's big news.
So anyway, this was lovely. I'm going to go look at the ocean now. Hope to see you all at the Boswords next Monday.
- Horace
14:00
ReplyDeleteYes, nice puzzle, and it seems to be a pangram (remember I check when there are a few odd letters?). Didn't we just have one of those? I tried THIRDwoRld off of the clue and having gotten THIRD__R__ with crosses (at 28D), but the proper answer, THIRDPARTY was better in that it's accurate. AXIOMATIC is my favorite longISH answer, but that's nice trivia on JAILBREAK.
Enjoyed it very much -- and thought the cluing was outstanding, overall. Terrific Friday fun!
ReplyDelete8:09
ReplyDeleteExcellent themeless. YOM is pretty timely, with Yom Kippur just past. I liked 35A: It's hard to fight (URGE). Because that's what I'm feeling about now, the urge to crow "Told ya so!!!"