The revealer today is BODYOFKNOWLEDGE (What the answers to the starred clues are, collectively?), and it refers to the following entries:
SHARPTEETH - *Aids for biting
KEENEYE - *Attribute for spotting what others miss
WISEASS - *Cheeky sort
SMARTMOUTH - *One given to insolence
The thinking is that the first parts of all the theme answers - sharp, keen, wise, smart - are synonyms for knowledge, and the second parts are all parts of the body. OK. And three of the phrases are in fairly common usage. SHARPTEETH is just kind of a random thing, and the last two - WISEASS and SMARTMOUTH - are synonyms themselves, and these things muddy the waters a bit for me, but still, it works on one level, and it's Tuesday, so let's move on.
When I do an early week puzzle, I will often try to get the first three Across answers and then move immediately to the Downs that run off of them. This worked well today until I got to 5D - "Spot to keep a passport while traveling." I had the H, and so I entered Hippocket without a second thought. It took several crosses to get me to realize that they actually wanted HOTELSAFE, which is pretty much the polar opposite of my original answer. For the record, I have never put my passport in a hotel safe. I leave for more passport travel in a little over a week, and I will update you if I end up doing so.
Best clues today: "A little sun?" (DWARFSTAR) and "Number not representable by Roman numerals" (ZERO).
Overall, I liked it.
- Horace
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