Howdy out there in Crossword-land! Philbo here, back for another week of blogging - and what do I get right out of the gate, but a rare themeless Sunday puzzle authored by Erik Agard, who absolutely slayed at this year's ACPT! And a chunky puzzle it is, with a paucity of black squares, two grid-spanning double-stacks at top and bottom and a big fat block of intersecting long answers occupying the centre of the grid. Somewhat intimidating out of the box!
I needn't have worried, though. Thanks to really fair cluing and nothing terribly obscure, this turned into a pleasant, gentle solve on my sun bench, with family helping out with a clue or two. At the top of that chunky centre block, LIFESPAN was my way in ("Up to 150 years, for a tortioise" - what else could it have been?). I worked my way downwards to the very amusing and excellently-clued BEESTING ("Honey boo-boo?" - who can forget that reality show from a decade+ ago?).
Aside from entering AWOKEN instead of ARISEN for "Up for the day", my only real problem was with the very first grid-spanning clue "Swimmer's invitation" (COMEONINTHEWATERSFINE) - I had it ending with WARM, and then NICE, until the crossers finally came to the rescue, one of which was another great QMC - "12 letters?" (XII), and another - AFROMAN - a rapper of whom I've never heard. Much messy scribbling in the NE corner!
I feel like I'm not able to do this puzzle proper justice here - there are just too many satisfying moments, especially in the longer clues, to enumerate. There's no "trick" or gimmick to explain - just a solid, satisfying experience top to bottom. If you're reading this, I hope you can relate to what I'm saying.
Just one little nit at the bottom. I'm pretty sure there should be an extra 'D' in "ODS bodkins!" as a bygone oath, although the the search I did on alternate spellings was, admittedly, somewhat cursory (see what I did there?).
Off to enjoy the sunny day, tempered somewhat by the fact that the western end of my country is on fire right now :( Back atcha tomorrow!
-philbo
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