Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Wednesday, May 4, 2022, Eric Bornstein

One thing I noticed about this puzzle is that it's not one of those that emphasizes its theme of ATTACHE (attach "E") by eliminating Es throughout the rest of the grid. Admittedly, that would be challenging, but today it seemed like many Down answers, especially, ended with a silent E - CHAPERONE, AVALANCHE, ELLE, DAME, LASE, TITHE - and a couple ended with the flagrant E of the theme - PEYOTE, OLE. Well, really only OLE ended with the accented E. And then there's TEE, ending with two, and EUGENE, which has got to be one of the only man's names with three. 

CAMERA (and lens)

Be that as it may, that added "flagrant E" and the wacky clueing in the theme answers still amused me. Turning "touch types" into TOUCHETYPES (People who acknowledge when they've been verbally bested?) got a snort of amusement out of me. As did GOTDOWNPATE (Managed to stomach a cracker spread?). The other two weren't as strong. GOESONTHELAME (Ruins a shiny fabric, as a pet might?) was a bit outré, and as I'm nearing grandpa age myself, I took some issue with PASSEJUDGEMENT (Bad advice from grandpa?). :)

I thought the fill, even with the preponderance of Es, was good. DEPTH (Profundity) is a lovely word, and SAND got a fun clue in "Castle material." And speaking of fun, LETSPARTY (Bacchanalian cry) balanced out the less fun INCOMETAX in the opposite corner. And speaking of opposites, the low-browed ANAL is countered symmetrically by the high-browed ARIA (Handel's "La giustizia," for one). So there is some justice, I guess. (Despite the news from the nation's highest court yesterday...) (Sorry. Too soon.)

- Horace

9 comments:

  1. Love this one -- the concept, and each entry, had me laughing out loud when I got the reveal.

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    1. Hi Kelly! I was hoping you'd comment today so I could tell you that last night I did a puzzle of yours from April, 1998. What's that? You don't remember exactly which one it was (or perhaps you do!), well, I can tell you that I've been singing a particular show tune all day because of it. It was a Thursday, and it was a fun one! Too bad we weren't reviewing back then! :)

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    2. Oh my goodness -- I just looked it up on Jeff's site. I'd forgotten all about it! Thanks for the memory, Horace o' mine!

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    3. Hey can you post a link to it? Would be great to find out more about what makes this Kelly Clark person tick, ha ha

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    4. Philbo - go to the Archive puzzles in the app, it's April 30, 1998. It'd be more fun to solve it than to just see it solved.

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    5. Thanks for the tip on the "archives." I didn't know! Uh...after 15 minutes and counting? I FWOE. Sheesh! :-)

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    6. all right. Another birthday treat! 6:37 and I had to look at the finished grid before figuring out what was going on. Nice one Kelly! Horace - what led you to that 23-year-old puzzle?

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    7. I've been working my way leisurely through the Archives. Mostly just Thursday, Friday, and Saturday puzzles, but sometimes, if I'm going on a plane, for instance, I'll download an entire month and whip through the early weeks if there's a delay before takeoff or I'm stuck in a terminal or something.

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    8. And I'll thank you to never refer to 1998 as if it were 23 years ago. :)

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