Sparrow
Madison, WI
Madison, WI
@Raj T For me that made it a stronger design and better puzzle. I wasn’t being told which answers might be implicated in the trickery, and figuring that out for myself was powerful.
Only a gimme for me thanks to the excellently named interrobang (‽) and a sideline in geeking out about typography
I couldn’t resist adding a bonus round to the bonus round (bottom of the constructor notes) to see if I could play Mark’s game of clueing setups like these. Here’s my pair of clues and resulting fill for the first and second: 1. Garden-variety desserts → (C)A(R)R(O)T(C)A(K)E(S) 2. 1, oddly → LIES 3. Oil replacement → (P)L(A)I(N)Y(O)G(U)R(T) 4. 3, oddly → MISEENPLACE
I entered it on my first pass through the empty grid, and thought, “that can’t be right but what else could it be?” I was tickled when it held through the crosses. So, me?
@Sarah This one was a gimme for me, with two <18yo gamers in the house, so now you have me curious about this as an age divide vs divides across platforms or other splits.
A lot of us got MUGged by URN. Right there with you.
@Matt Merriam-Webster is happy enough with them as synonyms. I had to think of it as a verb rather than a noun before it felt more right to me. To ENDEAVOR / To STRUGGLE both have a sense in common usage of trying harder, perhaps having to overcome something. I sometimes hear ENDEAVOR (noun) used colloquially with less hardship.
@Steve Daniel - Thank you - I couldn’t remember why I wanted it to be BEAK so badly
@Mike - It’s good we’ve been taut to respect arch humor. Otherwise you’d be way off target. As it is you’re the apple of our eye.
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