Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Tuesday, January 12, 2021, Ross Trudeau

THISTOOSHALLPASS. Yes, Mr. Trudeau, I suppose so. 

A puzzle for our time. So like a KIDNEYSTONE have been the current presidential term, the pandemic, and the primitive, profane, and profligate performance of a poison plague at the Capitol. ITSALOT, but persist we must, remembering that in the long arc of devouring time, one year, even four years, is but a BRIEFMOMENT

ALLEY OOP

Still, when the scale is shortened to three score years and ten, four or five years become more significant. And my own time with you being limited by convention to but a few paragraphs, you'd probably rather I stuck to the script, offering TART commentary on this or that puzzle SPEC, rather than hear me say ITOLDYOU after having HARPEDON things we'd all prefer to forget. "Just DONT!" I hear you sigh. 

So I shall WALK the walk. See me SETTLING into my role as I PECK my OWN TOP entries ERE you go your WAY. STARRY nights, CRINKLES in a linen shirt, CAROLINA in my mind ... these things CALM the mood. Even PARD helps by reminding us of poetry ("Away! away! for I will fly to thee, / Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, / But on the viewless wings of Poesy"). Keats was probably using "pards" as an abbreviation of "leopards," but I'll take what I can get.

Sure, "Fungus-filled, maybe" (MILDEWY) isn't my ideal way of starting a puzzle, but overall, I think there was more PLUS than minus. And it's hard to argue with such an apt puzzle.

ECCE review.

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. I started out with MoLD... up there in the NW, since mold is a fungus as far as I remember, but that didn't help with ISIAH, which I did not know from the clue, but I do remember the name. Seemed fine for a Tuesday. I've never had a KIDNEYSTONE, and because I hear they're quite painful, I don't wish to. I needed a few crosses for MOONFISH, and don't think that the EPA actually has any labs; they contract out as far as I know, so I don't know about EPALAB. Maybe they do for simple things, but they probably want to be able to have someone else be accountable for lab results. QUESTS is good, and nicely clued. Loved seeing ARYA in there, which I knew immediately, of course, since she was my favorite. 7:47

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  2. I needed all the crosses for ARYA but got ISIAH easily. The latter is just because I was following Michigan basketball when he played there. I guess he had a pro career after that.

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