Today's "Snoozefest" was anything but for this solver. The veritable TIZZY of ZEES kept me AGAZE. Several times, the sheer number of zees made me LOL. After I grokked the situation, I used it to my advantage. If I happened to get stuck for a minute, I would ZEROIN on words that had Z's in them like FAZES for "Rattles" and RAZES for "Levels."
My system was generally a success, but it failed me in the northeasterly area of the grid. The level of RAZZLEDAZZLE in that corner befuddled me and I ended up with a DNF. The combination of "Spanish composer Isaac" (ALBENIZ), "Kilt-wearing Greek infantryman" (EVZONE), and a misunderstanding of the span of the palindrome in the clue "Northern California town once home to the palindromic ___ Bakery" knocked me on my azz. I was sure MANIA ("Frenzy") and GULLIVER ("Literary traveler to Lilliput and Brobdingnag") were correct, but they resulted in "arera" for the palindromic bakery answer - or so I thought - but I couldn't make that answer work with anything else over there. As I'm sure you know by now, dear readers, the palindrome extended to include the word "bakery" making the correct answer YREKA- d'ough!
Two others I failed to breeze through were "Like May through August, unlike the other months of the year" (RLESS) - did not see that coming - and "Stocking stuffer" for which I guessed TOe instead of TOY.
The puzzle was bedazzled with clever and amusing zingers including:
"Far-right state" (MAINE)
"Something stretched out in yoga class" (MAT)
"Violated a code of silence" (SANG)
"Something stretched out in yoga class" (MAT)
"Violated a code of silence" (SANG)
"Diamond who went platinum" (NEIL) - ha!
"Key for getting out, not in" (ESC)
"They're taken out in alleys" (PINS)
"Center of L.A., once" (SHAQ)
RESINY ("Like varnished wood") is a bit bizarre, as is the pluralization of EZRAS, but otherwise not much ARROZ to trouble me.
And finally, I'd like thank Colum for filling in for me last week with a HEPTAcular set of puzzle reviews. I'm sure he would have been able to shed some light on the unusual grid pattern. All I can say is that it ADZ a kind of interesting FUZZYWUZZY effect to the whole, non?
~Frannie.
Fun Z-puzzle! I too had a lot of difficulty with YREKA, especially as I was really stuck on DEANERY. The reason for that is that I thought it was Diocese at first, but never changed the I to the E in ZELDA. Once I spotted that, I figured it out finally.
ReplyDeleteI loved this! For me it was a gradual realization of what was going on as I worked my way down the grid (per my usual methodology, to only put answers in if they connect to prior answers). I hit the same snags as you guys - YREKA was a head-slapping "aha", DEANERY tried to be DIOCESE, and also ANIMATO wanted to be AGITATO. I got thru in 12:51, about as fast as I think I could ever do one of these Sunday beasts.
ReplyDeleteExcellent review, Frannie. I LOLZed a lotz! :)
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