Happy FRIDAY the Thirteenth! I'll let you in on a little something about me - my mother was born on a Friday the 13th! And I grew up in a house numbered 13. And, what's more, my family has another little cottage, and all the time that I was growing up it was #12, but then maybe twenty years ago now, the gubmint needed to change all the numbers because they were on the wrong side of the street for "advanced 911" or whatever ("advanced" HA!), so they changed everybody's house numbers, and our 12 became another 13! So it's always been a bit of a lucky number for us. And my favorite (Hi Sue!) sister was born on a 13, too! Hers was a Sunday, but still.
So anyway... today we get a rare Friday theme, centered around this lucky day. 13-Down is FRIDAY, we find STEPS on a "crack" in the NW, a broken mirror in the middle, a BLACKCAT crossing a PATH in the SW, and the word "walks" walks under a "ladder" in the SE. Very nice. And I did not notice it at all while I was solving, despite the shading. Sigh. Sometimes I think I'm not a very good solver at all.
I think that especially when I am fooled over and over and over and over again by a CLUE like "Can opener?" (LETTERC). OMG! ICH bin such an OAF! Why can't I ever see these things coming! :) And another thing that slowed me down was confidently entering "ringo" for "Beatle who wrote and sang "Don't Pass Me By" (STARR). And I had "pier" for "Jetty" (QUAY) for waaay too long.
Overall, the cluing was very good today, I thought. "Last sign" (PISCES) - seems so obvious once you know it! "Carnival music" (SAMBA). Oh, carnival, not carnival! Heh."Travel across the pond, perhaps" (SKATE). Yow.
On the other hand, there's only so many ways you can clue RETHATCH (Fix, as the roof of a hut). And TAWS (Fancy marbles) was a lovely throwback to puzzles of yore. And hey, I named one of my poems ATSEA last semester. Not that any of you want to hear about that.
Me, I liked this one a lot.
- Horace
Clever and fun theme that I did make use of to complete the southeast corner and to confirm the unfamiliar (to me) RORQUAL in the middle. I was kerflummoxed at the NBA star/love interest cross, but with a lucky guess of the letter T, I successfully completed the puzzle in 18:02.
ReplyDeleteI liked it, too! Such an unexpected treat! I mean, I love a themeless but still, once in a while...and I, too, loved seeing TAWS in the grid. Frannie, you beat me...I clocked in a 19:36.
ReplyDeleteSuch a fun Friday the 13th puzzle! I really had fun solving. Like Frannie, I needed all the crosses for RORQUAL.
ReplyDeleteSure, this was a fun one that I solved in 13:03! Too bad it didn't take me ten seconds longer. RORQUAL? WTH? I entered ringo at first, too, but if I hadn't, looking on the bright side, I'd have been in the 12s.
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