Wow. This is a pretty cool theme. At first, I thought they were giving too much away by putting in all those bridges. And I saw the note, but I averted my eyes, as is my wont. Eventually, though, I saw what was happening. Each bridge serves as a rebus square in the direction of the bridge, but in the other direction, it hides a letter that would complete a body of water that the bridge crosses over. And that letter has to be hidden, because otherwise the real answer wouldn't work. It's really a thing of beauty. We don't usually do this, but I'm going to include the finished grid so you can see it even if you didn't do the puzzle.
It's really a beautiful piece of work.
And so, with all that theme and trickiness, you'd expect quite a lot of junk, but really there's not much. Sure, "Worn TOA frazzle" is odd, and the spelling of UIE (Illegal car maneuver, often) could be debated, but these are small things, and there are plenty of good clues and entries. "Alternative to a cab" (PINOT) (no question mark - nice), "Don Juan" (LADIESMAN), "Siren, for one" (SEDUCER), "Failed web venture, in slang (DOTBOMB) (Hah! That's new to me.), "Biggest club in Vegas?" (ACE). Hah! All very nice.
As many of you know, I don't always like Sunday puzzles, but this is a tour de force. Frannie takes the wheel tomorrow, but before I go I'd like to wish you all a restful holiday season and a happy new year.
- Horace
Yes, absolutely brilliant. I had the same sequence of thoughts as you did. I love that BYGONES is the revealed word, working with the final theme answer, WATERUNDERTHE[BRIDGE].
ReplyDeleteYes! I didn't even mention how BYGONES fits in. Thanks. Sheesh. This is a really impressive puzzle.
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