I learned other things from several informative clues elsewhere in the puzzle including "Instrument played by indie rock's Sufjan Stevens" (OBOE), "Bird that had no natural predators until humans arrived" (DODO), and that papaya seeds "can act as a substitute for black peppercorns". Who knew? And speaking of PAPAYAS, as I wrote up the review, I noticed that the puzzle provides plenty to EAT: PARM, OREO, FATS, PLUM, EDYS, and EDAM, although I might not necessarily choose to eat them in that order.
I liked "Yarn" for TALE. POP is a good word, as is "Hornswoggle". I also noticed, that TEE precedes PGA in the grid. Apt!
~Frannie.
I basically had the same reaction to this one (I too even looked up Nast on Wikipedia! I did not, however, go so far as to look up any of Sufjan Stevens's OBOE stylings on youtube. Maybe I should.): it's a nice, educational puzzle. Not much else of great note. Not too many YUKs. Hornswoggle is, indeed, an interesting word. I'll have to try to work that into conversation sometime. You'd think there'd be a good derivation story behind a word like that, but my unabridged Random House says "origin uncertain."
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