Monday, March 11, 2024, Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi

A fun and appetizing theme today featuring THEHUNGERGAMES, or various games with food items in their names: APPLESTOAPPLES, PICKLEBALL, CORNHOLE, and CANDYCRUSH. As a youth, my favorite would have been Candy Crush, but I've soured a bit as I've aged and I now tend to favor pickles. I haven't yet tried pickle ball itself, but I like the sound of it. 

I thought the puzzle fell slightly to the harder side of Mondays. A number of the clues brought to mind multiple possible answers (kilo/GRAM ; pond/LAKE ; Bess/ELLY) which caused me to put those entries on hold and likely contributed to a slower solve time (6:05) for me. From what I know about solve times though, I'm sure others out there instantly grokked the answers and breezed right through. 

Clue/Answer pairs I particularly liked were "Hat's edge" (BRIM), "Ozs. and ozs." (LBS), and "Full of hot air" (ALLTALK). For references of interest we have Jean-Luc PICARD, a favorite captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. There was a lot of good fill, too, including KIOSKS, TINKERS, SCATHE, and BROGUE. 

Has any visitor ever actually used a SITEMAP to navigate an internet resource? 

~Frannie.