To resurrect a tired old trope... today's puzzle was conventional....NOT! Per my usual modus operandi, I worked my way through the grid without much regard to what the theme was going to turn out to be. 4:25 later, I started reviewing the answers, and I confess it took me a while to figure out what was going on, as I was looking in the wrong place. Keying mostly on YESANDNO ("Not exactly..."), I scanned the longer answers for variants on YES and NO, for homophones, for translations, anything ... but finally it jumped out at me - not in the grid but in the CLUES! Every single Across clue starts with "Not"! What a clever device, and it must have taken Ms. Hoelzer forever to put it together.
The solve itself was pretty straightforward with not too much in the way of trickery. I entered PORN instead of SMUT for "'Not safe for work' stuff", which was a quickly remedied setback. In the QMC department, "Possessive type?" (DEMON) was very good. I didn't love "Not up for a proposal?" (KNEELED). Maybe I'm just a KNELT kind of guy!
All in all I'd say a bit on the easy side for a Wednesday. But full marks for the super-imaginative cluing!
That's all I got. "See" ya tomorrow!
-philbo
I noticed the “nots” immediately - as of the second Across clue. Maybe that’s why I’ll never be a really fast solver - I spend too much time looking at the clues. :) Except on that point - and on one other - our solvsperiences were the same. I also looked at ‘porn’ first, then SMUT, and my favorite C/AP was “Possessive type?” / DEMON. The other difference? I did NOT solve the puzzle in 4:25. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat Frannie said! :-)
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