Saturday, November 11, 2023, Blake Slonecker

And so we reach the end of the week. If, as we do, you start on a Sunday. And it's a nicely challenging grid for our toughest puzzle of the week. It took me nearly twice as long as yesterday's, and you can see why on opening the puzzle. The grid is made up of very large blocks of white squares, with a sort of four-leaf clover shape to it. And there's very little to sweep you from one section to another, even once you've completed a corner.

I thought the NW corner was going to be straightforward. I entered STARING first, supported by HAGRID, TINED, and ANIL. BARKLEY was a gimme, but then the rest didn't go anywhere. Although I got some answers in the NE (CHARS, PIGLET), this section was a no-go at first also.

I really got going with the SE corner, where GENEWILDER was almost too easy, along with REDNOSE. I put "idolize" in at 46A: Put on a pedestal (ADMIRED). Later I was amused to see that IDOLIZE was actually in the grid, one over from the previous answer. I like that the clue is ambiguous as to tense of its verb! In any case, 40D: Pot (GRASS) put me right, and I filled in the rest of the corner.

SANDMAN

The SW corner fell next. 38D: Eye piece (RETINA) was a clever clue, as I was looking for some sort of aid to seeing, rather than a biological part of the organ. Another nice pairing of clues came at 50A, with "The Love SONGS of W.E.B. Du Bois" and 51A: Like the "s" in debris (but not Du Bois) (ASONANT). From this, and a Google search, I discovered that he pronounced his name as if it rhymed with "voice."

From here, I backtracked up the eastern side of the puzzle to complete the NE. It's a nice crossing of CONARTISTS and DRUGTRIALS (no hidden bias here), and 24A: Tip at a hair salon? (SPLITEND) is a fun QMC. Finally, with the ___YRS at 7D, I was able to complete the NW corner at the end. 4D: Safety, often (TACKLER) clicked, and I should have known OCTAVIA off of the clue.

Well, it's been a good week. I turn it over to Horace for tomorrow. Enjoy the late fall weather!

- Colum