Friday, October 23, 2026, Katie Hoody

Katie Hoody appears to be able to generate excellent puzzles with the regularity of a METRONOME :). I wish I could say I SPED through the grid, but according to the app I solve on, I completed the puzzle two minutes slower than my average. I was held up at the end by a Natick, at the cross between 2D: "Emma ___, protagonist of 'A Woman of Substance'" and 18A: "American court org." I had to run the alphabet on that square and wait to hear the completion jingle, which didn't happen until I got to the letter T, finally revealing HARTE and USTA. 

My lack of knowledge of American court org acronyms aside, the rest was NITRO. There were several super dupers including "Annual appraisal statement" (WHATAYEAR) - ha! - "Boundaries between areas with different amounts of coverage" (TANLINES), "Kind of joint associated with smoking, informally" (BBQ), "They can help one get a leg up, informally" (QUADS), and "Track event won by the fastest four legs" (HORSERACE) and if you told me that the constructor did not know that relayRACE also fit perfectly in that spot, I would say, ITSALLALIE. :)

QMCs took a back seat to the above today, but there were still two good ones : "What all the buzz is about?" (WASPNEST) and "Cellphone hot line?" (SEXT). I also enjoyed the economy of the C/AP "A.M. cupfuls" for OJS. CHIEF for "Most imporant" was admirable in that the answer didn't end in a guessable EST.

It was a nice call back to THOSE days with "Three-time Olympic figure skating champion" Sonja HENIE. I also enjoyed the accurate and amusing DATINGTIP "'Let go of unrealistic expectations, e.g." Ha. Fill-wise,  my expectations were met with CLAD, SLANTRHYME, AFTERGLOW, and NIXES. 

Besides the Natick mentioned above, my only other trouble spot was parsing the clever-but-confusing-to-me clue "With whom one pools pounds for quarters" for FLATMATE. It put a real spanner in the works, but I was chuffed when I figured it out. :) 

~Frannie.