ArchStanton
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I finished, and was scratching my head on the phrase “GO BLET”? Did some googling on what BLET means, and got a lot of stuff on locomotives and law enforcement. Huh. I then tried googling the phrase together, and I’m pretty sure the ipad made a loud Duh! sound as it showed me all the GOBLETS… Sometimes missing the clue is more fun than finding it.
This was awesome, the QBERT stair on the lower right is a pro touch. Also, I greatly appreciate 26D abbreviating “yrs.” as guide for OED, I feel like the abbreviation cue is not always so well remembered and smoothly inserted. This felt like someone really, really knew what they were doing.
Some of the clues skewed a bit more to dad joke groans than clever, and as many have pointed out “headscarf” without the space is disingenuous, but overall I’m enjoying the more difficult puzzles the last few weeks!
This is one of my favorites. So creative and the trick really served the puzzle.
I liked it, it was great! My one quibble would be the natick for URIE and IMARET, both are non-English loan words and not the best cross.
I enjoyed this one a lot. Lots of new trivia for me. I have never heard the words “BOARDIES” or “OCELO” before, and I have a math degree and have never heard of “GALOIS”. I also have never heard of a “BLOW OUT BAR”, I’ll have to look that one up.
@Eric Hougland the main reason TSAR beats CZAR for the pre-Bolshevik rulers is TSAR is directly from the Russian loan word, CZAR is a later Americanized spelling.
@Greg Anderson you are correct, “tsar” is preferred when referring to the Russian monarchy, and “czar” is an Americanized spelling reserved primarily for an authority. Since it is a borrowed word, technically you can spell it however, but as it is frequently and commonly used in the NYT crosswords with the conventions above, it is used imprecisely if not inaccurately here in this puzzle.
@ArchStanton I am wrong, URIE is apparently an English name, apologies for the error.
@Steve L I’ve seen compounds similarly a few time, but I think the clue should always have the courage to commit!
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