Friday, December 22, 2023, Brooke Husic and Brendan Emmett Quigley

Well, dear Readers, this was a fabulously fun Friday. I had the classic experience of running once through the clues and getting very little - some of it wrong after being led down the garden path by tricky clues. But, after spending time studying the clues and remembering the basic tenets of crossword puzzles, I eventually enjoyed the rapture of success.

I thought I'd had a divine inspiration for 1A when I entered 'bible' for "Numbers can be read in this." I even had a corresponding answer for 1D: "Bigeye, for one" where, with apologies to fish savants, I confidently entered 'bass." However, after UNO, DOSTRES Down went less well: I couldn't find any reasonable answers with the genesis letters I had. In the end, I cast out my original answer and decided on an Exodus from that section for a time. 

Another obstacle to my personal enlightenment centered on 19A: "Emphatic suffix" - that is until I ate from the tree of knowledge in the form of the answer to its companion clue, "19-Across, to a Brit," which was ARSE. When I realized that meant the answer to 19A was ASS, I LOL'd. 

Elsewhere, I made my way a little more easily, but not without some personal trials brought about by clever cluing designed to misdirect. Some of the best were "Bed cover" (SOIL), "Big break" (SCHISM), "Telenovela profession" (TEAMO) - so good!, "Knock hard" (PAN) - also great!, and "One working on a keynote" (PIANOTUNER) - ha. There were also a number of fine QMC's, including "Make it up?" for RISE - did not see that comin!, "Little bit of make-up?" (ATOM) - ha - and, maybe the best of the day: "Letters that might make a long story short?" for TMI. Simply divine. :)

The constructors offered up some fine fill as well. I enjoyed NEWSWORTHY, LIONSHARE, THANKMELATER, and a personal ROI, ALIENSHIP ("Rama is one, in Arthur C. Clarke's sci-fi novel, 'Rendezvous With Rama"). 

In sum, a muy BONITA puzzle that seemed to threaten the martyrdom of a DNF, but that with perseverance and right thinking led to an under 30-minute Friday time for this solver. Heaven. 

~Frannie.