Almost seventy squares of fill in today's puzzle. That seems like an awful lot, but judicious use of black squares make it so no Down word has to pass through more than two of the theme answers, and that keeps the fill reasonably decent. I was introduced to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC (New Deal program in which workers planted more than 3.5 billion trees, in brief)) (sigh...), I learned the word DEMISED (Transferred at death), and I question PANIN (Get a closer shot) as a valid term. But those are small things, and there were plenty of good Down answers too.
WARLOCK (Dark wizard), BUFFOON (Goofball), and EPISTLE (Romans, e.g.) are all STRONG. ORACLE (Clairvoyant), SCOURS (Cleans vigorously), and ASIAGO (Parmesan shelfmate) are all strong in the non-fill Acrosses. And who doesn't like HEARTS? Might be my favorite card game of all.
The heavy theme was well done. Solid Wednesday.
- Horace
I learned that a meaning of JACKED is "having very well-developed muscles." (My dictionary gives a usage example: "a dude so jacked you have to wonder if he's freebasing creatine." Nice puzzle, good reveal.
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