Sunday, December 3, 2023, Tracy Bennett

FREESTYLING

Hey folks! Great to be back. A fun week of reviews from Philbo in the rearview mirror, it's time to recognize that 2023 is almost over. Can you believe how quickly it went by? It's been a year of lasts for me as I am leaving my longtime employment with Albany Medical Center for a new chapter in New Jersey. 

Meanwhile, given yesterday's poor performance on the Saturday themeless, I was pleased to have a jumbo-sized themeless for Sunday. I could tell when it opened on my iPad that it was going to have no theme, with all of those wide open white chunks of real estate. I am impressed that there are only a few answers I have any issue with. Here they are: EONIAN, RATINE, MULCTS. And even then, that last one is a great looking word.

Meanwhile, so much fun with WHATELSEISNEW starting us off. Other great answers include WACKADOODLE, REMINDMEAGAIN, HELLSCAPE, and TAKEAPOWDER. 

ORAN, Algeria

14A: That makes two of us! (CLONING) is a fun clue. It doesn't exactly fit into the FIC (false imperative clue) category, but the exclamation point is a new sort of question mark. It tells us that something is up, and I like it.

32A is a major spoiler alert. If you want to keep The Stepford Wives surprising, skip this answer.

I am also a fan of all of the 8-letter answers which are phrases of two 4-letter words. Such as ALOOGOBI (an eternal favorite), CARLORFF (I really don't know any of his music outside of Carmina Burana), and NINEHOLE.

62A: Month that goes by fast? (RAMADAN) is a really good clue. Certainly not February. With all apologies to my daughter, whose birthday is in that month, it is one of the longest months of the year, belying its 28 day rule.

Finally, we all should be using the term CALUMNY more frequently. What a wonderful term.

- Colum