Friday, July 15, 2022, Matthew Stock and Nam Jin Yoon

HIALL! I'm aFRAY I'm a little late with the review again today, but I hope you can still enjoy DISS puzzle discussion. There's some good STEPH in here! At first, I made great headway on the right half of the grid, but not so much on the left. For a short time, I wondered if I'd be able to DUET. Eventually, I did finish, but with a FWO2E. TUSK TUSK.

As our long-time Readers will know, I've never heard of a PUPUSA or a Buck ONEIL (ONEIL Buck?), which engendered a SLEW of problems in the southwest. I managed to convince myself that "Modern meeting invite" was eINK (I blame all the party-themed answers in the top half of the puzzle that got me more into the SOCIALITE MOOED than the correct business frame of reference) and that "Streaming channel?" was SeaICE. CUTE, non? What won't the brain come up with in a pinch! I don't need to tell you that these LUNA ideas DOMED me to FWĒlure. When I didn't get my congratulatory message, I knew TOTEMS where to look for the problem. For the RETRY, I took a lot of that section out and then I was able to figure out the correct LINK and SLUICE, after which I did get my congratulations. SLURPEE!

I liked "Be as good as" for RIVAL. I also admired the misdirection in "Neck lines" for FRETS and fell for it at first with "Fencing needs" for POSTS. Of course, I tried 'eppeS' but then realized that was TUTU easy for a Friday. I enjoyed the new-to-me expression "Niminy-piminy" for PRIM. Who knew? A couple  of other PEARLs include "Relatively new addition to Thanksgiving?" (INLAW) and "One might be measured in pounds" (RESCUEDOG) - ha!

Hmm, WHATELSEISLEFT? Oh yeah, if I had a dollar for every time Horace has had to say to me no, YOUROTHERRIGHT, I'd be rich! 

~Frannie.