PARLOR TRICK
The name of this puzzle, and the dimple-cheeked smiley face in the middle of the grid filled me with high hopes as I dropped in "Bon APPETIT!" to get started. As I progressed, however, I noticed the unchecked letters, realized they would spell "pachinko," and suddenly the puzzle got a lot less interesting. The constructors are assuming that Americans know what pachinko is, and they know how to play and win, and THATSABIGIF!
Once I started down the negative path, it was easy enough to find more targets. Like what the heck is ATP (Organic energy compound, for short)? And who says TOEBEAN (Pink pad on a paw, in slang) and why? "In slang." OK. ISITON (Question regarding a mic) is poor. And me, I learned to use exclamation points, not "marks." And isn't a toad is more often associated with a WART (Bump on a frog)? And what the heck is MACS (Bubs)!
But there were some bright spots - GLOWUP (Age beautifully, informally) is cute. ORWELL is always a positive. "It's blown in the winds" was a fun clue for OBOE. "Event for moving vehicles" was tricky for CARSALE. I had "car race" in there for a bit. It took me a minute to see how RODS worked with "The cast lots." Heh. And looking up the ATACAMA desert after I finished led me to this sculpture that I didn't know existed. And it's always nice to learn about stuff like that.
Frannie takes over tomorrow. See you in a few weeks.
- Horace
*SIGH* FWTE today, one careless and one with SHALALE not SHALALA (who knew? And a TESTER, generic as the role is, could surely be useful in a brewery), and one just dumb and careless. Can't be having that next month!!!
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it - fun and amusing. I call that game PLINKO.
So my 11:15 was wasted and didn't count. On to next week!
FWOE...TOE BEAR for TOE BEAN. The N is unchecked and I didn't know the game at all so that didn't help me. Loved the clue for OBOE.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the week, Horace!