Monday, September 4, 2023

Monday, September 4 2023, Tom Pepper and Zhouqin Burnikel

Hello and happy Labour Day everyone!  I'm back after a lengthy hiatus from the crosswording world.  Apt to climb back into the saddle with today's alpinist crossword, in which the theme answers end in mountain climbing obstacles, in plausibly ascending order.  I guess our climber is ascending the east face of the mountain!  

I blame rustiness for my very first entry in 1D - "ITSONME" instead of ITWASME as a sheepish mea culpa, which bogged down the entire NW corner, and led to a hunt-and-peck kind of solve for me, instead of my more usual flow down the grid.  Really not much that stood out, upon review.  Looking for extra-clever or misleading clues, and not finding much of anything.  I think for 5D, I might have clued LOO as "Elton's john?" instead of "John for Elton John"...  As a Canuck, I had never heard of OAS ("Western treaty group") but that was no impediment thanks to the straightforward crossers.

Maybe it's just me (of course it's just me!!) but I didn't love this puzzle.  I get my kicks from a bit of cleverness and I thought it was in short supply today.

-philbo

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