Thursday, December 14, 2023, Esha Datta

It was only a matter of time before YOUREONMUTE got into a puzzle. If you have worked in an office over the past three years, chances are very good that you've both said it and had it said to you. I know I have. Hah! So today, all those "words of saying" (which, in Latin, would introduce indirect speech using a dependent noun clause with an accusative/infinitive construction) (my last class is tonight, and I have been preparing for the final) (ok, I haven't been preparing that much... but I should be, so I'm using this blog post for a little review...) are ignored completely. Unheard, as it were. Let's say them together:

Chili ingredients - BEANSTALK

Three wise men - MAGICHAT (timely!)

Note after la - TIREMARK (Fun, because it sort of gets a two-letter answer into the grid)

Predatory freshwater fish - PIKESPEAK

It's really quite elegant how each theme answer is a two-word phrase on its own, but then it's also a different, less common two-word phrase when parsed as it needs to be for the theme, and the break between words is always different. Really cool theme, nicely done.

So what else? Isn't GOOP Gwyneth Paltrow's company? The answer is yes, and if someone should want to get me the rainbow chard ornament, I wouldn't refuse it. 

And how about 14A: "Prefix with science"? (OMNI) I thought I "knew everything" about the different sciences, but I didn't! Hah! Good one. As for "GPS's guesses" (ETAS), I am starting to think we should stop calling them "guesses." We drove down to see friends a couple days ago, and we left at five pm, drove through rush hour traffic for over an hour (picture something like the photo above, only that road is 128, and every person is a car), and the initial "guess" from the GPS was one minute off. One minute! How does it do it?! 

GOBLIN is good, GRAPHITE, ENCHANT, CHIANTI, ALBEIT... all strong. YEARBOOK (Collection of senior moments?) reminds me, sadly, that I have my 40th reunion coming up. Ugh. It's been an EON (Long, long time). But, well, I'm not sending out an SOS quite yet. I've still got puzzles to solve.

- Horace