Jon Onstot
Peculiar, MO
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Peculiar, MO
Four obscure (to me, admittedly) proper names in the northeast corner alone? C'mon!
BZZT? Really?
Wow. Just wow. Hardest Saturday I've in, well, ever. But I'm becoming forgetful in my old age. This was no only not in my wheelhouse, it wasn't even in my zip code. So many words I’ve never encountered in a puzzle, and a couple of words I've never encountered in life. Thankfully, I'm the only one who knows how many words I had to look up, and I ain't tellin'. Humbled but not discouraged.
@Francis Fledge is most certainly a word.
@Spmm I read it to mean the point where the minute hand sweeps past the top of the clock, which it does every hour. So the clue is valid.
“Acrobat's display” was a misdirection I couldn't overcome. Bravo to the constructor. A worthy Friday puzzle.
To those who have complained about the (gasp!) vulgar use of a certain bathroom appliance, I might remind them that Thomas Crapper provided the world a much more civilized place to do their business, for which we should be eternally grateful. And he unwittingly invented an ideal location to read a magazine in peace.
LYNDA, not Linda FLYNT, not Flint Y oh Y didn't I remember their proper spellings?
After my initial pass, I thought, “No way!”. So I did what any good crossword cheater would do: I glanced at the answer sheet *just*long enough to read the answer for 1A. And that was enough to jump start my brain. Only one lookup, so I consider it a win.
Being of a certain age, CHARLIXCX did me in. That NW corner was a real bear.
It was all going so well. I breezed through all but the NW corner, but then hit a roadblock. 7D was my downfall; I first tried AKNIFEEDGE, then RAZORSEDGE, then conceded defeat and peeked. p.s. I cast an emphatic NO vote for the new route to Wordplay and comments. Most annoying!
@Dave K. As a research chemist (Ret.), this was definitely n my wheelhouse!
@RandallP Perhaps it should be renamed to the EDA - Environmental Destruction Agency.
Great puzzle! I was sorely intimidated after my first run-through but managed to slog my way through with no lookups. And I had to chuckle at IS PEPSI OK, as I heard those exact words from my server today at lunch!
I must take issue with the answer for 1D. The by-the-wind sailor, aka velella velella, is anything but a BLOB. It has a highly structured body with a hard chitin-like “sail” that is used to propel it across the ocean surface. I've encountered these creatures many times along Ocean Beach in San Francisco and am always amazed at their neon blue coloration. Blob indeed!
@Marty PEARL BUCK PEARL JAM PEARL HARBOR PEARL ONION And the down words immediately below the PEARL endings are: HAMM BABE PORKY WILBUR
@Helen Wright while I was slogging through this trivia-heavy puzzle, I said a silent prayer for all the non-Yankees trying to make sense of it.
Overall, an enjoyable puzzle, but crossing PERETTI with TAIO was my downfall, neither of whom I was aware of.
Crossing ZARA with SAL and INUK with ULTA did me in. Natick hell, those two.
Once I figured out the theme, it was all water under the bridge. A pleasant puzzle for this retired chemist!
Definitely not in my wheelhouse today, with obscure (to me) proper names and trivia. In the future, I’ll be on the lookout for this constructor, and not in a good way.
Possibly the easiest Friday puzzle I've ever played. One highlight: the clueing for 17A, “Going against the grain?” That one gave me a chuckle.
@Sam Perhaps your unease was due to the near lack of wordplay and misdirects. Just a straightforward Q&A.
So many people complaining that they were flummoxed until they got to the revealer. Pro tip: go to the revealer first.
@Phil I was skeptical about this too, until I remembered a species here in the states with the comical name, “Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker”.
I parsed the revealer about halfway through but it was no help because I misread it to mean the answers were the spoonerisms, not the clues. Doh! [Facepalm]
Unusually straightforward clueing for a Thursday. I sailed through it almost without pause (rare for me); the nay speed bump was in the SE, where it took a few tries to parse the anagrams. Overall, enjoyable but not terribly puzzling.
@Chris CTA, or Chicago Transit Authority, would be a gimme for anyone of an age who was a fan of the rock group Chicago, and for anyone who knocks about in the Midwest.
As a chemist (Ret.), I was familiar with SPARGE, although for a much different application than the one described in the clue. In my realm, sparging is a process in which a gas (usually an inert gas such as argon) is passed through a liquid to force the removal of other gases dissolved in the liquid.
@Andrzej Symmetry is a fundamental basis for optical spectroscopy, such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Raman Spectroscopy. There is even a formal nomenclature for describing the various symmetry operations. My chemistry is rusty, but if I'm not mistaken today's puzzle has C2v symmetry, which means it has one 2-fold rotational axis and two mirror planes. A water molecule also has C2v symmetry.
@redweather A sheepish grin signifies “Aw shucks”.
@Sam Lyons While defending a favored a song from my youth, I recall having said, “It was an oldie but a goodie.”
Like a few others, I think the solve should only have allowed down rebus entries, as the revealer clearly asks for the squared number. As for those who complained that it didn’t accept digits, well, that just wouldn’t result in a reasonable answer to the clue, would it?
@Carrie That cross tripped me up as well.
@Steve Same here, exactly. I felt like I truly pulled a win out of my… hat this time.
@Megan Yesterday, I commented to my wife that Dick Van Dyke now looks exactly like Mr. Dawes Sr. No makeup required!
@LW I can assure you that pretty much everyone in Missouri has heard of the Osage tribe.
@Nancy The clue refers to a flight of beers, not an airline flight.
@Tim V. You are not alone. They were book Greek to me also.
@Bill James Bond's preferred cocktail was a “Vodka martini - shaken, not stirred.”
@Jacqui J Your link took me to an ad for a dental retainer cleaner.
@Lewis I thought the answer to “Did some school reporting” was SNORKELED.
@Erin EOE I believe that EOE and EEO may be used interchangeably, although I think that EOE is the official designation now.
@MP Rogers I’d like to say that I experienced FILLINBLISS, but the crossing of “The U of UX” and “Psychologist Solomon”, a single square, foiled me. That said, I enjoyed the puzzle immensely.
@Chris One might accidentally type a “y” instead of an “o” when trying to write TOTS, thus ending up with TOYS instead. Toys for tots.
Brilliant puzzle, but I got tripped up on a technicality, i.e., how to fill in the circled squares. It never occurred to me to leave them blank, or worse, to enter them as rebuses.
@pjfin It's classier than the alternative. 😁
@Rob I was tripped up on those same two crossings.
@Keaton I believe it's a phonetic variation of “emotional wrecks”.
@Francis God's typewriter?