The toughest corner for this solver in today's puzzle was the northeast. Thanks to the capitalization of Bucks in the clue "Star Bucks, say" at 1A: I had a feeling we were looking for something sporty, but with the M in fourth position from MANSPLAIN ("Unnecessarily spell out, in a way,"), I kept thinking the answer would be something starting with 'team.' Not so. Instead, we got the tricksy NBAMVPS -well tricksy for me anyway. In direct contrast to thinking I had a clue about the clue at 1A, I had no idea about what to make of the clue at 17A: "A famous one is often connected with a school." If I hadn't eventually guessed NIP for "Chilly quality," at 1D, I don't know how, or when I would have guessed PAINTER - I might still be ATSEA!
Aside from the slow down in that corner, most of the rest of the puzzle seemed to be in my wheelhouse. I zipped along smiling, chuckling, and even LOLing, as I encountered all the entertaining clues and answers. Of the many good ones, here are my top favorites:
"It may be added to the mix" (CHEX)
"Bath occupant, say" (BRIT)
"Melon seeds?" (IDEAS)
"It's usually around 9/10 of a pound (THEEURO)
"Arms repositories? (SLEEVES)
I enjoyed "Trap" for PIEHOLE, and I love the expression DOTHEMATH. I also thought the stack of X's 39D: "Adult and then some" (XXXRATED) looked cool.
Well, dear Readers, it's Friday evening, and if the orb at the end of my WATCHCHAIN is anything to go by, IMLATE. Until tomorrow, then. If we get another puzzle as good as this one tomorrow, it'll have been a PEACHYKEEN week.
~Frannie.
For "Sum of the first three prime numbers", my coworker put down SIX. Must have been convincing because it fits nicely. But I had to comment, "1 is not prime!" It's TEN.
ReplyDeletePeople often mistakenly mistake one as a prime, but those are people that don't love to DOTHEMATH as some of us do. Any HOO, like Frannie, NBAMVPS was slow in coming for this solver as well, but the solve went smoothly enough for a Friday and I clocked in at 12:57, which is PEACHYKEEN.
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