A challenging Saturday for this solver. Several clues led me down the garden path - as intended and expected, of course. Unfortch, most of the clues that stumped me were grouped in the middle block on the left edge. I know the word
GLOMS, but didn't know that it is slang for "Steals" (25A). The curry dish kosha mangho is completely unfamiliar to me, so I didn't know
GOAT was the/a main ingredient (25D). Additionally, I was duped for a long time by the clues "Curling target" (26D) - I was fixated on the sport rather than the hair growth (
LASH) - and "Sticks in water" (28A) - I could think only of 'reeds' which doesn't even fit! Also, the fact that, due to the abbreviation in the clue "A.F.C. South squad" (38A), I tried to force some kind of shortening of Indianapolis into the three squares before COLTS didn't help matters. Eventually, I got the clever
EMOJIS for "Faces of the internet" in the section below, which made it possible for me to figure out
IMSUCHAJERK ("'So sorry, that was totally the wrong thing to say'" (23D)). Once that was in place, light dawned over marble head, so to speak, and I could finally see the correct answers.
There was a SET of fun and trixy clues elsewhere in the grid that *didn't* stump me. I was entertained by "Keep off the court?" (DISBAR), "Busses near Paddington Station?" (SNOGS), and "Event whose organizers are concerned with brand recognition" (RODEO) - ha! My favorite was "Leak proof?" (DRIP). I also enjoyed "Grate stuff" (ASH) and the interestingly clued "Bedizen" (ADORN).
I spotted a mini sci-fi theme including ALIENRACE and HUMANS, plus DATA and BRENT Spiner, and perhaps NERDS. As I reviewed the puzzle, I noticed what I thought seemed like an interesting pair of opposites but that might raise a BROW: TAGTEAMED in the northwest and OPERASOLO in the southeast. Finding ODD patterns is one of my HIDDENTALENTS. 😏
~Frannie.
I got held up by thinking HAIR instead of LASH for [Curling target] and then left it alone. Which, in retrospect, was silly of me since 38 Across [A.F.C. South squad] had to start with THE. Anyway, I really loved POTATO BATTERY -- fond memories of the one school science project I actually had fun with (only I think we used an orange or a lemon). Cluing was all 'round fantastic, wasn't it? Really good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI finished this one pretty quickly for me in 19:44. The mini-sci-fi theme, as pointed out by Frannie, helped quite a bit. I didn't know about the GOAT thing, but the crosses gave that grossness away quickly enough. Also, I don't know RITAORA but once again, the crosses were easy enough. I wanted "avatar" where EMOJIS goes, but it just wasn't plural, no matter how much I wanted it to be. Loved HIGHHORSE and CORNYJOKE.
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