Saturday, November 27, 2021, Trenton Charlson

A pinwheel of fun material today from the OLDTIMEY YELLOWPAGES (1886) to the more modern XERISCAPING (coined in 1981, according to the Wikipedia) with a lot of good stuff in between. I was surprised to find I had finished the puzzle in just under 22 minutes because the solve didn't seem particularly OOZIER than usual. I had the most trouble with what turned out to be my favorite clue: "Spot early on?" PUP - ha! It didn't help that the final Down cross was itself a little trixsy: "Rather inclined" (STEEP) - clever!

My other misstep was to misread "Collage application." I couldn't figure out how PASTE applied to a 'College' application. Derp. On the upside, thanks to all the Pearl S. Buck books I've read, I know about SUNTZU and SAMPANs. Interesting to see COINSLOT today ("It welcomes change"). Horace and I went to the bank yesterday and on the door was posted a sign claiming there is a nationwide coin shortage. What's up with that? Are they being used for crafts? Is everyone hoarding them for end days?

PIANOLAS

In other mysteries, I liked how the two grid-spanning entries - UNDERCOVERAGENT and THECOASTISCLEAR - kinda go together in an sneaky way. I also enjoyed "Act the cynic, maybe" (SCOFF), "Felt off" (AILED), "Realizes" (NETS), and "Vice principle" (SIN) - apt!

I would be remiss in my REVUE duties if I failed to mention the plentiful bits and bobs strewn about such as OSU, ESE, PREZ, ETTE, IPA, and CPA, but the BAILOUT here was the clever clueing, especially for latter three ("Kitchen extension", "Draft letters", "Book reviewer?"). You can't ASP for more than that. 

~Frannie.