Today I knew just enough answers right off the clues, like APPS, ONICE, REUBEN, ACELA, FREEBIE and JANUS, to get a toehold in each section, and then I kept chipping away at the grid, until I was able to complete the puzzle in just under 25 minutes - a respectable Friday time for this solver. I'm always torn between YEARNINGS to increase my solving SPEEDS and just taking my time on an activity I enjoy. I am always happiest when I avoid FWOE-based FIASCOS.
Anyhoo, to get more ONTOPIC, I liked ITSSOYOU, URBANE and, of course, NERDY. "Running apparel?" for HOSE was clever, as was "Parts of a restaurant's overhead?" (TOQUE) - funny to see 'toque' crossed with TORQUE - you go from cap to whap with the addition of one letter. :) "Lets, say" was a tricky clue for REDOS. I also liked DRIFT for "Meaning" and found "Having the same number of karats , e.g." (ASPURE) delightfully OUTOFLEFTFIELD. And speaking of the unexpected, how about the asymmetrical nature of the grid? I didn't notice it until I was reviewing the puzzle for the review.
I found CADENT for "Rhythmic" a little odd. and while I did get INSIDEBASEBALL for "Esoterica" I didn't really "get" it, if you see what I mean. My only rocky spot, was the answer ROCKIE. Our dear readers know that I am not strong in the sports category, especially when it comes to the names of sports arenas. Additionally, I wasn't sure how to spell AGUILERA, nor was I 100% on Ab ESSE for "absent, in Latin," so my no FWOE goal was briefly INPERIL, but upon mature consideration of the various options (AGUeLERA, ESSi), I settled on the REAL answer. NICEJOB!
~Frannie.
Interesting to see an asymmetric grid! How frequent an occurrence is that? CADENT was new to me also, as was INSIDEBASEBALL. I made a complete hash of the lower-right but once I came to terms with BAE as "Sweetie", the ship righted itself and I was in at 11:18.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new reader of this blog and enjoy it. I'm wondering what "FWOE" stands for. I've never seen that acronym. Also, the headline of this post should say Friday instead of Saturday.
ReplyDeleteHi Bryan, Thanks for the correction. We took the day off, and instantly, Friday no longer existed for us. :)
ReplyDeleteFWOE is our shorthand for "Finished With One Error." You can read more about that acronym, and a few others we use, in our "Featured Post" "Glossary specific to this blog," in the right sidebar.
Thanks for reading!
Isn't the grid symmetrical? If one were to fold it over on a line from the NE corner to the SW corner, everybody lines up, no? Unless Frannie just means that there isn't the exact same "pattern" top-to-bottom or side-to-side. Anyway, I had the same thought with AGUILERA, thinking that the "i" could be an "e," but ROCKIE made sense since it had to do with Coors, after all. Nice to see TURING in there, but I needed many crosses for STARCRAFT since I don't play video games. 22:48
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