RNR

“Does, maybe” (distinct from DOGE, for sure) is a keeper. So clever. But what cost me a lot of time was my refusal to consider that “revs (up)” might not be the right answer for “amps (up).” To use yesterday’s clue, I was so cocksure. I’m a relative newbie.* This is (only) my fourth or fifth Friday solve. I tend to find Fridays (not the tv cops but the puzzle days) more challenging than Saturdays. *how to tell an old newbie from an old oldie? In my case, when the concern is one of completion, not timing. A metaphor for other things as well, I suppose.

May I humbly tho’ gleefully let thee know That after toilsome years that total four On me today a divine glow My first streak of seven, love it to the core.

I got stumped early on and spent 2.5 hours on this. Started at 10 pm last night, and didn’t see the Cinderella reference, because, you guessed it, I’d already turned into a pumpkin by then. But this my first 10-day streak.

I’m nowhere as good as most of you here, but I will say that 9:59 PM each Wednesday is what I deliciously look forward to every week. As far as Thursday puzzles go, I’d rank today’s in the 50th percentile. A lot of fun, and I finally got it after some 90 minutes of lovely labor. But boy there’ve been doozies.

The literal antonyms of each word of today’s theme also likely captures the larger zeitgeist in the US today, unfortunately.

Can you help: What does Loin on the chopping block (74A) mean? My fav today was “plant with bugs,” for which I had SOY for the longest time. OOPs

The most exciting 10 minutes for me every week: Wednesdays 9:50 PM till 10 PM, right before the Thursday puzzle hits. Over the years, I have seen some really doozy Thursday puzzles, and anticipation that this next one will be as amazing is my eternal hope. Judged from that perspective, today’s puzzle was about 85°C. Please take this with a huge grain of salt, because this author has never been successful in creating a puzzle himself. Though he’s tried.:)