I found today's puzzle less satisfying than the other two in The Turn this week, but still enjoyable. Our faithful readers might be able to GUESSAT my reasons for dissatisfaction today.
Or maybe I'll just come right flat out and say it: we essentially have five minimally connected mini-puzzles in the grid. Each corner is segregated from the middle with only 2 single squares to allow for flow. What this means is a segmented solve, where you often have to essentially start out fresh in a new section in order to make progress, and it might not translate into assistance where you were having difficulty before.
On the other hand, some of my difficulties today were self-inflicted, so I should probably check myself before stepping up on to that soapbox. The first was a typo, where I put two Us in a row for GUuSSAT. The second was trying the far more common ALKaNE rather than ALKENE. Which made GREATRECESSION very difficult to see because both mistakes were in the same row!
The upside to the segmentation is that the fill is more sparkly. I love TRIXRABBIT crossing NETFLIXSPECIAL (and if you haven't seen Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette," you are sorely missing out - it's a masterpiece).
I love the NW corner, with THESCREAM (great reference to "Home Alone") and HEXAHEDRA. We just played a board game for the first time in our household called Betrayal at House on the Hill, which uses 8 of those cubes. I very much liked 6D: Image problem? (REBUS). Nicely put!
Similarly, the SE corner benefits from isolation, with ICALLEDIT and TEXASTECH, as well as the excellent Rachel DRATCH.
On to Sunday!
- Colum
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