Thursday, November 9, 2023

Thursday, November 9, 2023, Simeon Siegel

Welcome to The Turn! After the early week more straightforward puzzles, the Thursday grid introduces a new level of tricksiness that makes it one of my favorite days of the week. Today's is no exception.

Opening the puzzle to see nested pairs of parentheses in four of the long across answers made me raise an eyebrow. I had really no idea what to do with these answers for quite some time, and spent some time simply entering answers as they came to me. Then I came to the revealer at 64A: Thoroughly ... or how to read the four Across answers with parentheses in this puzzle (INSIDEOUT). 

The first theme answer I deciphered was at 25A: Result of dropping a tray of coffee drinks? (SPLATTERED), which we can read as "latte platter splattered!" That's fun. The remaining also do not disappoint. CRAFTSMEN is clued as "Workers at the rear of some flat boats?" or "aft rafts craftsmen." "The other PSYCHOTHERAPIST" is the answer for "'Not that shrink!'?" and "ore cores SCORESHEET" is the answer for "Tally of samples at a geology competition?"

Very nicely done, and unexpected. 


Some great clues as well in this tricksy puzzle. My first came at 4A: One with many priors, maybe (ABBOT). I was not fooled! It helped that I had ASTI in place already. I also laughed at 16A: Spoiler alert! It's bacteria! (ECOLI). These clues are so clever and innovative.

How about 20A: Activity that involves shape shifting (TETRIS) - or literally shifting shapes around on the screen! 62A: Love of Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane" (OPERA) - not a romantic interest! Finally, I also liked 42D: Indication to stop playing, perhaps (RESTSIGN). I'm imagining the musician who is taking that "perhaps" to heart. "It's just a suggestion!"

Fun puzzle.

No comments:

Post a Comment