Wednesday, August 2, 2023, Barbara Lin

Today's theme answers are flippin' good fun! I'm not quite sure how to describe them and there's no revealer to crib from, but essentially, the first two syllables a word or pair of words reappear at the end of the answer in reverse order for a entertaining result matching the clue. For example, "Become a leading citizen of North Dakota?" is GOFARINFARGO. Heh. I also very much enjoyed "Starting with an X in the corner, say?" for TICTACTOETACTIC. LOL. All in all, a wicket good turn style, IMHO. 

The fun doesn't stop with the amusing theme answers. I thought the clueing was top notch throughout. Here are some of my particular favorites in the non-QMC category:

"Unit in a duel" (PACE)

"Starters" (ATEAM)

"Ewe got it!" (WOOL) 

"Shelled out" (PAID)

But, my favorite clues of the day were both QMCs. I keep flipflopping about which one I prefer, but both are very good:

"End of the London Blitz?" (ZED) 

"Bread boxes?" (ATMS) 

Besides the theme answers there was also great fill like MEWL, MOLLIFY, OUTDOORSY, and STANK.

I'll turn it over to you, now, dear Readers. Let me know what you think. 

~Frannie.