When I got to the revealer today - "Sharing in a symbol of commitment ... or what four rows in this puzzle are doing to form new phrases," I was all TL:DR and I moved on without spending any time at all trying to figure out what that meant. Eventually, after plowing my way through the NE and finishing the entire thing, I went back and said to myself, "Horset rainers?" What's that? "Trave lagency?" Huh?
The extra trick, which took me an extra beat today, was that we had to look beyond the black squares and the spacing to come up with "horse trainers" and "travel agency." Ahhh. Much better.
So, a few more missteps from me were wanting to put in "sloth" for "America's first vice, so to speak" (ADAMS), and "statie" for "Vehicle with a spotlight and municipal plates, most likely" (COPCAR). Heh.
On the other hand, I knew that "Cat, vis-à-vis milk" would be LAPPER, but I kinda wished it wouldn't be.
HORNET and "Vespa" are both great words. And it's fun that HORNET sits just below STABS. And I enjoyed "Reacted purposefully when handed 'the ball'" (RANWITHIT).
Some rather boring stuff - ELIA Kazan, HARPO Productions, OCHER, TOON, CABO, USSR, TOON, STELLA... not my favorite Thursday.
- Horace
It's fine. I agree, not the best Thursday ever. I always have such high hopes for this day of the week!
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