Barbara Barnes
Crofton, MD
FABULOUS puzzle. Extra-delightful intro (Joel) and comments (Caitlin). Caitlin: i’m guessing there’s not a solver alive who has not added 70A to their list of all-time favorites. The answer would be a worthy name for your Complaint Department. Special ongoing thanks to Sam Ezersky— as an older annuitant I depend on thezersky puzzles to keep my mind flexible. Solving Dis: “annuitant” is not in Spelling Bee’s Word List. Very best regards and wishes.
One of my favorites!! Not only were the theme answers plentiful and amazing (lyricaljets was CERTAINLY my favorite; twoparticleharmony second ) but the rest of the fill seemed unusual and fresh. So fun!! Thanks constructors!
@Mike. welcome to my (retired dayless world!! Congrats!!
Fine fine puzzle. Very original! Thanks!!!
@Dan. My name has five As too!!! ( my middle name is Anne)
Can’t help observing (doubt im the only one) that the first word of the clue for 45D—“antepenultimate”— was one of the switcheroo clues in Sam Ezersky’s puzzle last Sunday- switched to “penultimate ante” - that got a lot of comment, including several folks who were unfamiliar with “antepenultimate”. I hope they liked seeing it here!
@Barbara Barnes. After a first pass through all i usually make my way through the puzzle in one more or less continuous sweep working and chaining through top to bottom or maybe from a corner in sort of a triangle. Today was very different: worked through the middle of the puzzle using mostly crosses to recover the theme, then worked the top and bottom mostly using the themes to recover the crosses. That made it extra fun for me.
Or maybe just call that complaint department “70A”.
@Geoffrey King i remember an old joke about scrod. Actually i can’t remember the joke, just the punchline, which was something like “never heard that particular pluperfect subjunctive before.”
@Dan W Actually old “old school” crossword style (60 years ago when i started solving @ all regularly ) was the obscure trivia style. Isn’t Wil Shortz often credited as prime mover of the wordplay style? Thanks again, Wil!
@kkseattle ezactly!!!
@Eva H. When i don’t like a puzzle, that makes me like it because it’s showing me something i underappreciate.
@Hillary Rettig mine too though i didn’t remember the joke just most of the punchline. Somebody did give the whole joke here.
@Bob T. This might be true (I do hope so): Many home-schooling families were using the Saxon Company’s Math Curriculum. A local reporter was doing an article on home-schooling and reported they were teaching sex and math.
@Jeb Jones You are not alone.
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