Thursday, August 21, 2025, Simeon Seigel

I have been dealing with a family issue for the past few weeks, and have not blogged, but today I will, because I thought this was a very clever puzzle.

The revealer WHATGOESUP (Start of a popular saying about gravity ... or a hint to completing the answers to the starred clues) went in easily, but it wasn't until after I finished the puzzle that I realized what was going on. Let's take 19-Across "*Wildlife parks" as an example. The answer appears to be GAMER, but the true answer is "Game reserves," and to find that, you have to go to the R of GAMER, then go up and down, using the letters of 9-Down, SERVES to complete it. Pretty slick.

And this trick works for all six of the theme answers, which are all valid entries on their own. Very impressive.

I was not familiar with the game ZORK, despite playing video games in the very beginning of the video game era. "Fictional character with a famous opening line" (ALIBABA) was funny, and I thought it was convenient that "faucet" fits in where SPIGOT is correct for "Tap." Tricky.

Just a really good Thursday, I thought.

Horace