Monday, December 26, 2022, Kurt Weller

Today's theme answers are common expressions that can all be read as parts of CLOCKWORK: MAKEAFACE, SWITCHGEARS, CHANGEHANDS. Although the puzzle contains only these three elements, there is probably more to it than that. :)

While I felt like I was making good time through the puzzle, I didn't even get close to the 5 minute mark today, clocking in at 6:12. A couple of items that chewed clock were "House of mirrors at a carnival, for one" - the answer was MAZE, but I started with 'ride' - "Like old-fashioned railroad crossing signs" (XSHAPED) - I wasn't expecting that initial X - and "Venom neutralizer, e.g." (ANTITOXIN) - I had to wait for the X in OXEN to point me in the right direction - but the one that almost cleaned my clock was remembering how to spell MNEMONIC. Heh. 

Two nice groupings were the COE College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa answer just above "Campus quarters" (DORM), and TRIPE at one o'clock and GRIPE at seven in the grid. I also enjoyed "Put a patch on, say" (MEND) and "97.5% of a penny" (ZINC). Fill-wise I liked BOOM, PITH, and SCRUM. 

 

Two C/APs that didn't tick any boxes for me today were Super-ULTRA, and AWOLS as a plural. 

OK, time's up. Gotta punch in. :)

~Frannie.