Friday, November 26, 2021

Friday, November 26, 2021, Kate Hawkins

Interesting solve for me today. Several answers were in my mental memory banks, but it felt like they were waaaay in the back, if you see what I mean. I could almost feel them working their way out of the deepest filing cabinet drawers of my mind. Specifically, "Onetime chain that offered Free Battery Club memberships" (RADIOSHACK), "Best-selling heavy metal band named for a torture device" (IRONMAIDEN) - in my case, it was the torture device element of the clue that clicked, "Duo in an ellipse" (FOCI), "___ Yaga (folklore villain)" (BABA), and, very luckily for me, the name "Aimee SEMPLE McPherson because otherwise, I would still be working on the mid-southeast corner of the puzzle. I didn't immediately know the missing part of her name, it came out one letter at a time, almost like my mind was using a Ouija board. I had some of the other Across answers in the upper block including AREA and ALA (natch), but I couldn't catch on to any of the clever clues in that corner "The art of politics?" (PROPAGANDA), "Entitled sort" (LEGALOWNER), or "Desire of a quick study?" (EASYA) until I had the start letters from SEMPLE. 
23A: RESIN

Other clever clues included:
"Experts in English?" (POOLSHARKS) - nice.
"#1 dad?" (ADAM) - ha!
"Register" (TILL) - anyone else enter TeLL first?
"Stay good" (KEEP)
"Bit of a character" (TRAIT)

Fill-wise, there were these gems: BESOT, LAVISH, ABIDES, and NUMB - I've always liked that word, for some reason.

In the lower southeast block, possibly due to a personal distaste for the entire crustacean family, PRAWN for  "Cocktail tidbit" was a real stretch. And, unfortunately, as far as I could tell,  STRIKEPAY and ANNE Archer weren't in my data banks at all, but the real cause may be the ERRORPRONE nature of my personal wet ware.

~Frannie.

1 comment:

  1. Delightful puzzle! DON'T BE A STRANGER was worth the price of admission alone. But all the words -- and their clues -- were wonderful.

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