Saturday, August 29, 2026, Rafael Musa and Kate Chin Park

Although I entered the answer to 1 Across as easy as ABCS, most of the rest of my solve was SORANDOM. I can't count the number of times I had to run the alphabet to generate ideas for what an answer might be. Fortunately, the system worked, and aside from the occasional USERERROR, I figured out the twisty or tricky answers, which very often elicited a pleasing 'aha' moment. My last entry was at the cross between CHENG ("Romanization of the common Chinese surname 程") and "Work, as a joke." My brain, it PARSES 'work' as a noun not a verb, and it continues to do so for the entire puzzle. I only made sense of it after the puzzle was complete. 

Other misinterpretation PITTs I fell into include "Ones giving a toast at an outdoor party?" (PATIOHEATERS) - even with the question mark, it took me a bit to arrive at the correct meaning of toast. Another such was "Stepped-on instrument" for SCALE. I was thinking musical rather than gravitational. Another problem was simply not understanding the clue, as in "Green day star, for short" for STPAT. Derp.

I enjoyed the pairing of SUSHIBOAT and ALIENSHIP. C/AP-wise, I liked "Court session, perhaps" for TENNISLESSON, "Naturally concluded" for RANITSCOURSE, "Depicts stylishly" for PAINTS, "It goes on top" for SHIRT, and the tricky-for-me, "Nearly 90" for BPLUS. 

The grid-spanning BULLINACHINASHOP was excellent. Fill-wise, I also enjoyed LOGARITHM, MOHAIR, ERSTWHILE, and the amusing - and slightly OUTRE - BIGASS for "Humongous, slangily." Ha. 

It's the end of my week here at HAFDTNYTCPFCAWCFPT-F, so "A word in closing": THUS.

~Frannie.