Wednesday, April 3, 2024, Alex Eaton-Salners

OK, I don't really understand the theme today. Two letters are circled in each theme answer, and the same two letters are missing from the first three theme clues, but the fourth clue has three missing letters. In the answers with two circled letters, the same letter appears again uncircled, and in the fourth, it doesn't. Soooo... I don't know what to tell you. Anybody see anything especially clever about this?

I liked learning that CONCRETE is the "Second-most-used substance in the world, after water." Well, I like that I now know that fact, I'm sorry that it's true. CATAPULT is fun, and ESTUARY is a good word. And it's refreshing to have reference to a TYPEB personality, as we seem to much more frequently see references to its opposite.

"Not fantastic" is a fantastic clue for REAL. Hands up if you wanted "so-so." And on the QMC side, "Metal worker?" is a nice one for ROBOT. Heh. And "Animal crackers?" for EGGS? Very nice.

I thought of HOES immediately for "Things hung upside down in some toolsheds," but in our tool shed, other implements are also hung upside down - rakes, pruning shears, and shovels. Just fyi.

Some good clues but a bewildering theme. Anybody got any answers?

- Horace