Wednesday, May 8, 2024

OHFUDGE is today's theme revealer ("What you might cry upon recognizing this puzzle's ingredient list?") and an apt start to this late review - I forgot that I had to write it until now. Derp. One of the reasons I forgot involved some of the ingredients of fudge that are found at the start of the five theme answers, although in my case the butter in BUTTERFINGERS, the sugar in SUGARSNAPPEAS, and the vanilla in VANILLAICE were used to make cookies. Mmmm, cookies. We're having a cooler, rainy day around here and baking cookies was a way to brighten things up a bit. Puzzle-wise, I'm not really sure why the squares that contained the ingredient words were shaded. I think we've had plenty of themes with significant starting or ending words that weren't highlighted. Maybe they are supposed to represent fudge squares, if that's a thing? I'm not much of an expert on fudge myself. Too sweet for this sour puss. :) 

I have never heard of ARCTICS before ("Waterproof overshoes). Is that a brand name, maybe, or a regional option? In the long lost days of my youth, people around here called them 'rubbers.' That fit, but I realized I was on the wrong track when I got to 3D: "Cartoon frames" which I knew had to be CELS. To be honest, I was doubtful about 'rubbers' to begin with as the 'shoe protectant' meaning of that word has  given way to another kind of protectant. I blame the above train of thought for my concern upon reading 36A: "Cry from under a sheet, perhaps." I left that one empty until the Down answers spelled it out for me (BOO). 

Fun C/APs today included OOF for "Gut-punch response," "That's a terrible hiding spot" for ISEEYOU, and "Oak-to-be" for ACORN. The QMC "Superconductor?" for MAESTRO was amusing. And on the subject of QMCs, I was not fooled by "Capital of Georgia?" (GEE), but it is only Wednesday. 

Fill-wise, I enjoyed the interesting SOPOR ("Abnormally deep sleep"), NEMESES (I have a few!), and INERT. At 18A: I considered 'russian' for "Catherine the Great, for one" only to realize the answer was the more fabulous TSARINA. OTH, I've never been a big fan of the word PREGGO or 'preggers' for that matter. But the idea of having a grid filled with only words a person liked is pie in the sky. 

~Frannie.