Greetings all, from crisp cool Toronto-land! After solving today's puzzle, I am struck with an urge to go stretch my legs (not that my legs need stretching, as those who know me will attest). The trick today is, seven Down answers have been lengthened by an INCH - literally, by the insertion of 'INCH', transforming common phrases into punnily-clued silliness - and even more literally for me, on my computer screen, those extra 4 squares are almost exactly an INCH long. I like this multi-level cleverness, though some of the results are quite seriously contorted. I won't list them all out today, but here's an example:
LATESTCRAZES - perfectly fine, common phrase - becomes LATINCHESTCRAZES, clued "Reasons that South American furniture stores have super-long lines?"
I mean, really. We're venturing far out into dad-joke land here. Not that I mind. I dwell in the domain of Dad Jokes, the more contrived the better. It might be a bit much for some, though. (Comments?) A neat and appropriate twist, having the theme answers all being Down.
As far as the solve went - as usual, I left the theme till the very end, spidering down from NW to SE and working out from there. I wasn't sure the very first clue "Sweeties" was going to be BAES, so left it at first, but sure enough... Didn't love SNEERY for "Visibly scornful" - a bit of a hack, there. Moving diagonally down, I was fully misled by "Release, as a trailer", thinking it had to do with the movies, so the eventual unveiling of UNHITCH was a pleasant "aha". I needed all the crossers for UTAHUTES ("Brigham Young football rival") - nice construction there, and in the neighbourhood of the most difficult section for me. I don't visit Natick very often, but the crossing of "Classic name in wafers" and "The ____ Honors (annual picture book awards)" was just about the end of me, even with NE_CO and _ARLE in place. Fortunately, I twigged to "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and filled in NECCO and CARLE. NECCO must be an American thing, or I don't get out shopping enough (or I'm in the wrong aisles). This is the sort of thing that just kills at the ACPT.
Other stuff - SANDALTANS ("Reasons to wear socks post-vacation") was a new one . Oooo...kay. ICOSAGON ("20-sided shape") was neat. Nice to see that word get some air time, instead of its sexier, higher-dimension sibling ICOSAHEDRON... "One who doesn't have a prayer?" (ATHEIST) - super subtle editorializing maybe? I'd never heard of YEET ("Hurl with gusto, in Gen Z slang") - guess I'm one or two Gens too old. And my favourite of the day, just next to that one - "One might improve a pupil's performance" (MONOCLE). Are monocles a thing any more? At all?
Found this a bit tougher than the usual Sunday fare. Sometimes there's a slight wavelength difference, I find. All in all, though, fun and no serious gripes.
See you tomorrow!
-philbo
Yeah... NECCO was a candy company based in Massachusetts, and they were most famous for NECCO Wafers. I think they went out of business, but the name was bought or something.
ReplyDeleteAnd YEET... grrrr... I learned this word a few weeks ago through the Urban Dictionary "Word of the Day" listserv that I'm on. Only to forget it at the worst time - during a Boswords puzzle! It is, so far, the only mistake I've made in the Fall Themeless tournament. Ugh.
Anyway, you called out most of the questionable stuff. Overall, though, an amusing enough theme.