Saturday, February 10, 2024, Zhouqin Burnikel

A fun tribute to the YEAROFTHEDRAGON, which begins today. 愿你幸福、繁荣!
May you all be happy and prosperous.

I like the left-right symmetry. The puzzle has a pleasing look, which is nice to see when I first open up a grid. Fairly chunky areas of white and good flow between areas. I don't always mention the shape of a grid, but I almost always notice it.

It had some hard spots, but overall it went faster than yesterday's for me. In the NW, ARYA ("Game of Thrones" character whose name means "noble" in Sanskrit), SHEPARD (Sara who wrote the "Pretty Little Liars" books), and ELOTE (Grilled corn-on-the-cob dish, in Mexican cuisine) were "all crosses" entries. And there still has not been an OKISEE moment for "Pentagon figures" (AREAS). Is that just because it is possible to figure out the area of a pentagon? or is there something more that I am not getting. Please tell me it's the latter and explain it to me.

Frannie and I both felt that it should have been "wracked" instead of RACKED for "Like some brains and pool balls," or, rather, that pool balls are racked and brains are wracked. The two words are, per Merriam-Webster, etymologically distinct: wrack meaning "to utterly ruin" and rack meaning (in the case of brains, not pool balls) "to cause to suffer torture, pain, anguish, or ruin." Soooo... kinda close actually. And since I guess you do not "utterly ruin" your brain, but instead "cause it to suffer," rack should probably be the choice of the more literal among us. Whoever they may be. 

ISECOND (Cry after a motion) was a good one, "House speaker's place" (STEREO) was clever, and "Treat often eaten with a small wooden spoon" (GELATO) (They're often plastic these days) was tasty, but "Play ground?" for THEATER was a bit recherché, no? 

My "Personal number?" (AGE) labels me as a GENXER, and I think I would make a good CATDAD, but alas, all felines are reduced to allergens in my household. Perhaps I should consider a dragon...

- Horace