Thursday, January 6, 2022, Andrew Linzer

Well, dear Readers, as you may be able to tell from the lateness of the review, I had a little trouble with this one. I did solve the puzzle, with all rebii in place, but I still don't understand the tripled Across answers. I'm sure one among this esteemed group will enlighten me. Although, looking at it again, I guess the three [ANT] answers could represent an ant colony. But what are three [CROW]s? Oh, yes, they are a murder, aren't they? And that makes the three [LION] answers a pride. Ha! Color me surprised and charmed, now that I get it. :) Perhaps, if I had paid more attention to the theme revealer clue and answer (GROUPTHINK) it might not have taken me so long, but the struggle was real, my friends. :)

I thought the clue "Beseech" was a bit strong for its answer ASK, as is HATETO for "Would really rather not," and "Sleazeball" for CAD. I'm also not 100% convinced that "Lay off" is a good clue for IDLE, but maybe I'm not thinking about it right. See above. :) 

On the other hand, "Water tower?" for TUGBOAT is very clever. And "Boosts, redundantly" (HIKESUP) is fun. The best clue today, though, might be "Time period, or an anagram of one?" (EON). Excellent! Fill-wise, I liked PAVIL[LION], KAYAK, SMITE, BEATNIK, and IMBUED, even if SMITE is getting a little old hat. :)

Funny that over just the SPAN of a few minutes, writing about the puzzle seemed to activate a key AXON and whole theme came together. Cue the [CROW]DNOISE ... and SCENE.

~Frannie.