The clues in today's puzzle ranged from those that took me ONESECOND to others that YOUNEVERKNOW - in this case YOU meaning me. C/APs in the AUNATUREL category for this solver included the fill-in-the-blank "Jai ___" (ALAI), "French egg" (OEUF), and, thanks to my recent Harry Potter re-read, NEVILLE Longbottom, to name just a few. Cases where I drew a blank include "Goal-oriented final match, in brief?" (MLSCUP) and "Anna of 'Mom'" (FARIS). I wouldn't have known ATARI ("Immediate threat to capture, in a game of Go") if it hadn't appeared somewhat recently in another puzzle (March 31, 2022).
Tricky, but where I did HASANIDEA were "Film site" (IMDB), "Classic pop" for CREAMSODA, and "Exemplar of stick-to-itiveness" for SUPERGLUE - the application of the term stick-to-itiveness to a product didn't hold together for me. One that I had trouble with, but that I'm guessing Horace enjoyed was "'Platoon,' but not 'Dunkirk'" (IAMB), as he has LASERED in on all things poetry of late.
I entered ASADa for "Roasted: Sp." because we see it in the feminine form all the time, but that A added to my difficulties in figuring out PROSE for the somewhat trixy "Essay writing, e.g.," where I expected a verb not a noun.
I was amused by the C/AP "'Hey, hold your horses!'" for EASYTIGER, but my favorite clue today was "Mentions, casually" for SEZ. Heh. I also enjoyed DRINKITIN and ALACK. Interesting to learn that JAPAN makes almost half of the world's zippers. Who knew?
Although I didn't set any RECORDS today, my 16:36 finish is fast for me, perhaps due to the puzzle's higher ratio of gimmies to gotchas than is usual for a Friday.
~Frannie.
22:16 for me. But I enjoyed every bit of it! Too bad I stubbornly -- and with no logic -- held on to the erroneous "grape" SODA instead of the far more appropriate CREAM SODA, which I love. Also loved the clues, especially the one for SUPER GLUE. And some beautifully entries, as well. And, no, I didn't know that factoid about JAPAN!
ReplyDeleteI love CREAMSODA too, Kelly! But it's been ages since I had one...
ReplyDeleteI tried to get Frannie to use the word "trochee" ("Dunkirk") in the review, but no dice. And yes, I've been taking a poetry class lately and it's taking a lot of my brainpower. Which is maybe why I'm commenting on this puzzle on the following Wednesday. Sigh.