Today's puzzle is a real treet! The revealer, UPATREE, can be taken to literally describe the theme answers if you insert a colon and a space thus: UP: A TREE. Each set of circled letters spells the name of a tree from bottom to top, with the occasional hop over a vacant lot/fence post or two. The theme actually gave me a boost in the north west. Just about every other clue in that corner was unknown to me. Of course I know the song "Who Let the Dogs Out," but I didn't know the name of the group that sings it!, so getting an assist from the [MAGNOLIA], [ELM], and [ASPEN] in that section allowed me to branch out into some unfilled areas. Also, the clue "Tolkien tree creature" (ENT) crosses the revealer. To top it all off, the black squares form the shape of a tree.
I enjoyed "Preserve, as documents" (ARCHIVE) for personal reasons. "Deets and dope" was a fun clue for INFO. "Military trim?" for CREWCUT was good. I first tried 'epaulet.' I guess that wouldn't need a question mark, would it? But the top of the heap today was "Part of B&B." I was duped for too long. I was sure it had to be beD, confirmed, as I thought by the very nice corresponding down "Move elsewhere in a hurry" (DECAMP), but it was the surprising AND. Ha!
I almost FWOE'd in the north east. I can never remember if the African antelope is ELeND or ELAND, and the key of Chopin's "Aeolian Harp" etude has always eluded me. But, I hit just the right note when I guessed A.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this puzzle leaves nothing to be desired.
~Frannie.
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