Hello out there in Crossword-Land! Philbo here, taking a crack at this blogging scene. By way of a quick introduction - I am a middle-aged Canadian (Torontonian, more precisely) who's been solving crosswords since I was a teenager. I like mental challenges and clever things like wordplay, so I have a soft spot for themed puzzles. I am a fairly speedy solver, not so speedy as to not be humbled by the ACPT. I am actually better at cryptics than traditional xwords, though it's really a bit of apples and oranges. I met Frannie + Horace + Colum quite by chance - by randomly choosing a virtual table at the online ACPT two years ago, and there they were! Very welcoming they were to my serendipitious drop-in, and they are now my crosswording besties.
But enough Philbo back-story. The Monday crossword! A gentle introduction for me, with a neat theme that revealed itself upon post-completion inspection (how I roll is, I tend to ignore the theme clues till the very end) - things without words - a clever bit of irony as a crossword theme!
SILENTTREATMENT (Cold shoulder) - a common weapon in the childhood Sibling Wars, as I vaguely recall
EMOJIKEYBOARD (Texter's options...) - I still use about 0.01% of the emoji universe (a generational thing I suppose)
ELEVATORMUSIC (Easy-listening background tunes) - this was my fave as I don't think I'd fully twigged that that sort of music is always without vocals!
Aside from that, I liked SPEEDDATES and also SAP - I was at a sugarbush this very weekend and so it was quite apropos :) I didn't love EELY, or GOOS, which I'd put in as COOS, the subsequent typo-hunt for which turned my 2:30 into a 3:00 flat.
Bear with me folks. I will get better at this. I may even figure out how to put images into this thing! :)
-philbo
Hi, Philbo. Absolutely love this puzzle! Sweet theme, wonderful fill. All I could ask for in a Monday puzzle. (As an irrelevant aside, I was reminded of an incident where I was chastised by my fellow passengers for singing to the ELEVATOR MUSIC.) :-)
ReplyDeleteExcellent intro and review, Philbo - written like a real PRO. :) Additional UPSIDES for this solver were ICECUBES, EDAM, AND ODETOJOY, plus, I finished the puzzle in 5:23 - not an actual ACME for me, but not the POTTS, either.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the fold, Philbo! Nice debut!
ReplyDeleteHey Philbo! Great to see your byline!
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