Saturday, May 14, 2022

Saturday, May 14, 2022, Ada Nicolle

A relatively quick Saturday for this solver (17:30) - no ERROR or SHORTFALL today with which to ASTONISH or entertain YALL. I imagine our speedy solvers went through this one like a hot knife through butter. 

Clueing was a bit uneven - difficulty-wise - at least for this solver, with some early-week level clues mixed with craftier fare. Unlike many Saturday solves, my first pass through the clues produced several solid entries like INFINITYPOOL, SCALES, STUB, OLDELPASO, and the fun SPACEWESTERN, not to mention the section-connecting gimmies like AWL ("Piercing tool"), SIC ("[not our typo]"), "Make a quick visit, with 'in'" (POP), and of course, SILLYSTRING ("Children's toy that's sprayed from a can") - HAH!

52D: SHOAL

The more challenging clues like "Stagger" for (ASTONISH), "Practice" for PLY, "Exhaust" for TIRE, and "Put out" for DOUSE featured a shade more ambiguity. Trickiest of all for this solver were two nice non-QMCs: "Icy detachment" (BERG)
 and "Stand for something" (EASEL). 

I felt a sort of pleasant computer-y vibe as I solved thanks to STUB ("Incomplete Wikipedia entry"), SCREENCAP, ERROR ("Bug"), and TROLL - although no one likes a troll, IRL. :(

With that, another week comes to a close. I entrust you, dear Readers, to the capable hands of esteemed co-blogger, Colum Amory, from whose words of wisdom about puzzles you are more likely to PROFIT. :) ADIOS muchachas y muchachos. 

~Frannie.

1 comment:

  1. Kelly Clark

    Any puzzle with SILLY STRING in it is a winner for me. Thanks for the week, Frannie!

    ReplyDelete