NovelaMaven

So this evening I learned that the definition of "reduplicative" is more expansive than I thought. (JIBJAB) And it took me an ungodly amount of time before I realized I was working on a "Tahoe runner." (MAC) But please, dear puzzlers: DON'T RUB IT IN!

It took me a moment, but .... S B M U H T Happy April Fools Day!

So HERE'S THE THING -- I get a little endorphin pop when a formal, starchy clue ("SEGUE INTO A THESIS STATEMENT") transforms to a comfy cliché answer. And just as I was thinking that "OREO" was the new "ASNER," I realized that in a pinch, there's still room for both. A fun Friday puzzle, my fellow WORD NERDS.

So I'm not a fan of roundabouts. So much so, in fact, that I decided to take a Lyft to today's NO KINGS rally in town rather than cope with a particularly daunting cluster between my house and my destination. Things were going swimmingly and then -- cruuunch! My poor driver got sideswiped by another car's ill-timed lane change. No one was hurt. Both cars sustained a bit of damage. It just took several tense minutes to figure it all out. And I did arrive safely at the rally, although a bit later than planned. I applaud the verisimilitude of this puzzle. It recreated the roundabout experience with amazing accuracy. (Seriously, though, very clever puzzle. I'm just an old fogy with a terrible sense of direction.)

Oy vey, what have you done to me? Now I'll be humming the dreidel song all day! :-)

As I breezed through this Saturday puzzle, I got excited. Those magical beans must be working and I really am getting smarter, I thought. But a nagging doubt drew me here to read what the PuzzleMavens had to say. Oh dear. It turns out it's just an unusually EASY Saturday solve. Fun and fresh, yes, but let's just say I won't be submitting a testimonial for magical beans any time soon.

"THE RANOS?" I mutter. What the heck is (are?) The Ranos? "Oh," I, say at last, feeling NUMB and NUMBER. Nice cluing today!

RIBALD is one of my favorite words, and in my opinion, it has been underused. Perhaps, with "an act of congress," it will enjoy a moment ... Great debut, Alex Murphy!

A satisfying and clever Friday solve. I feel compelled to say, however, that my OY's are anything but faux. An OY is a heartfelt expression of despair and one I find myself using with increasing frequency these days.

What fun, Mr. Grillo! And I write that as someone who still remembers sticking those parts into actual spuds :-) So "palindromic family member" you say? The familial cluster of palindromes hadn't occurred to me before: MOM DAD, POP SIS NAN What am I forgetting?

So I'm cruising along, feeling smug after 'getting' the theme, and everything's making sense. I enter the final letter in triumph and BAM -- I get the dreaded message that I'm not quite there yet. I check and double-check what I know to be lucky guesses, but they are all correct. Finally, I see it. I have typed TIT for TAT! Doh!

Puzzle: Are you with me? Me: I gotta be honest here -- not until the very end. Nicely done, Alex Eaton-Salners!

Last night I knew there was a weirdly configured POLTERGEIST in here and it was the key to an otherwise straightforward puzzle. But my tired brain was having none of it. This morning I looked again. All it took was "a rude gesture" and it was feathers all the way down. Flipping awesome, Alex Murphy!

I'm not the speediest of solvers around here, but when this one almost filled itself for me, I came here looking for the "it's so easy, it should have been a Tuesday puzzle" comments to burst my bubble. Egad! Turns out it was challenging. (That's a set-up for a Sunday puzzle with an obvious theme that will somehow elude me and push me into the ignominy of google land. Oh well.)

Such a kind Friday puzzle for a week that has been anything but that. Thank you for the respite, Alina Abidi!

So I gather that the Florida Edge (GULF OF MEXICO) is a remnant of the Before Times. COOLEST part of the puzzle today and a momentary respite from my UNEASE. Nice work, folks!

LIsten, kids. I CAN TAKE IT! I've taken a ride or two on the STRUGGLE BUS even if I couldn't label it that way at the time. And when it comes to the Saturday puzzle, well, I DO WHAT I CAN. So there was plenty to love in this one. But man oh man, lots of name googling for me today, which always leaves me feeling that I had to cheat. Meh.

When I had finished, I thought: This was a HARD C-rossword, phonetically speaking, i.e., all the 'c's' and 'ck's' sounded like 'k.' Then I realized the LICIT wasn't illicit. Crud. So much for that theory. Nice Monday puzzle, guys!

This one was great fun and a nice moment's respite on this somber day. I've been dipping into the puzzle archives here (I'm in 2009 right now) and have often been struck by how dependent or not a particular puzzle is on cultural ephemera. The more fleeting the references, the more challenging the archival puzzle. This particular puzzle, is, I believe, a keeper. Thanks for that!

My goodness, John Kugelman, you actually made me blush. Hint: it wasn't the FBOMB that did it.

One thing that delights me about today's puzzle is that if it had been cued differently, it could have been a delicious Wednesday puzzle. And that, my friends, is no chopped LIVER. Or any other ORGAN for that matter.

Wow, I didn't know that! I LOVE that I didn't know that!

Very clever for a Tuesday! But allow me one quibble. MAPO TOFU -- new to me but sounds yummy -- may well fit in with MT calories, but hardly EMPTY calories. I mean, come on. TOFU?

Aha!