That time of the week has arrived - my favourite two NYT crosswords, back to back! Today's grid looked very promising, with stacks of long clues both horizontal and vertical; and true to expectation, it was a fun solve, though perhaps a titch on the easy side for a Friday. And being a Friday, there's no theme to describe - so here are a few of my favourites among the many top-notch clues in the puzzle.
I liked the meta-ness of PRE ("Lead-in to face or fix"). But my favourite clue of the week so far has to be the magnificent, impenetrable "Greenish black rock?", for which I needed most of the crossers to winkle out CLEANCOAL. Brilliant!! And how about the two down "'Give me one moment...'" clues side by side?! BERIGHTBACK and HANGONASEC - excellent cluing!
Didn't love the awkwardly pluralized CAMOS ("Paintball outfits, informally"). But just before it is the delightfully misleading "Apple device": IPHONE? IMAC? Nope: CORER!
In today's instalment of Downfall o' the Day: I'd never heard of BESTCOAST as Californians refer to their own state, nor was I familiar with "'Shockingly refreshing' soda" SIERRAMIST, and so I had them in the grid as BENTCOAST (hey, the coastline IS kinda bent, is it not?) and SIERRAMINT (well, plausible, right?). Only upon review did I notice and correct that intersecting 'N' to an 'S'.
A really well-put-together crossword. Saturday's xword will be hard pressed to match this!
-philbo
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