A fairly smooth solve today - my first blogged themeless! I was basically able to work top to bottom, with a couple of temporary impediments (DOESADEAL instead of CUTSADEAL, and SCULPTURE instead of SCRIPTURE, the latter being clued as "What's the Word?" - and I thought to myself, OK, never heard of that sculpture before..)
A little slowdown in the NE corner, as I did not know the TRANSLATOR Jorge Luis Borges; thankfully, the crossers came to the rescue. And a couple of American geographical references (OHIO and IDAHO) which wound up being no big impediment to this Canuck solver
Favourite clues along the way:
- NYSE just because I was on the old trading floor not three weeks ago;
- IBN al-Haytham because I love most anything physics-related;
- OCTOPI which are "armed to the gills" and, IMO, too sentient to belong on anybody's plate
Who among us owned one of these at one point in their lives? I did not, though I feel like I totally could have when I was in high school
Executive summary: nice puzzle, somewhat easy for a Friday (easier than Thursday's, I thought). 6:50 when the dust settled.
-philbo
8:51 here, almost seven minutes faster than yesterday!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree about OCTOPI. I used to say I didn't want to eat anything smarter than me, but the more I learn about other animals, and even plants (!), the more hungry I think I will be...
OHIO and IDAHO were drop-ins, but ask me which province Lake Louise is in, or something about the Maritimes, and I will probably need crosses.
I liked DATEDUP, because I have definitely gotten away with that in my life. (Hi Frannie!) :).
Oh, so THAT'S what DATED UP means...thanks, Horace! I'm with you guys...this was almost a breeze compared to yesterday. Love the clues, especially for SCRIPTURE and STATUS QUO. A complete guess with the help of the cross words for CALCULATOR WATCH...must've missed that one in my youth.
ReplyDeleteSuper breezy Friday, as noted by Philbo and commenters. I finished in 5:37, a rare time that I'm faster than my Canadian co-blogger. Only slowdown came when I tried to put Asada in for ADOBO, only to find that CARNEASADA went in the other direction!
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