Fictio Legis
Elitist Haven, MA
Nope. Could not work out the theme. Solved it anyway. I feel bad, maybe author’s effort wasted.
Nice to see Will Shortz on the byline, but will miss Deb!
Several chances to get Naticked. But it worked out.
A delight! Just the thing for this evening.
A true Natick in this one, two obscure locations. Running the alphabet to finish isn’t my favorite way to wrap up. It was not pretty, as they say, but sometimes that’s what it takes.
Love that ALY and ALIG are both in there, and that this was not considered out of bounds by the fussy puzzle editors. Nice touch.
Personal Best for a Sunday. Also had fun!
AENEAS is the son of Venus, because it's a Roman epic, written in Latin. Aphrodite is the OG, the Greek. (I am reliably informed by my spouse.)
Northwest quadrant: gah! Saturday level stuff. But I persisted, and ... success. Happy New Year!
Wonderful debut! Hope to see more from this constructor!
Delightful! Keep collaborating!
Was so sure American referred to cheesE. PLASMA did not come till the end. ILLBEDAmNED. Also Tee HEE mystified me. Had VEE. Also plugged in YOU for a few seconds *thinking it was the next in the sequence of words that sound like letters*. Yeah, it got desperate for a while, but I did eventually triumph, woo hoo. I would not call it fun, but satisfying and fair.
New PB, pairs well with yesterday’s excessively long time. Also more entertaining than yesterday.
Beautifully done. I like the BB parallel to the LL, and crossing LIMA and LIME. Nice touches.
Ok that was cool. Congrats on the debut, Nathan!
Well iCE is a delivery that would be hard to return, but I guess not impossible! I like ACE as an answer better. Nicely done.
I stuck with BARBEqUE *and NIqAD (?!?)* for far too long. KABOB I also found a very odd spelling. Spoiled slightly an otherwise very fun ride.
Delightful! Like a musical theme.
New Personal Best! And totally fun while doing it!
A delightful romp. And I love the Xword proposal.
@Joshua Seriously! The Games people should consider the button you suggest! I have been watching UK TV shows (As Time Goes By, Prime Suspect, Call the Midwife, etc. etc.) for many, many years now, and still find there are references I don't get in almost every episode. So, I would be lost if I tried a UK puzzle and it had any "UK Trivia". And would wish for a button to solve those bits for me.
Had gONEZO until DONEZO. I didn’t feel like it was the right spelling but I also couldn’t figure out the roll on the ground clue, alas.
A delight. Should have run on May the Fourth. Yeah. That was the only theme(-ishness) that I detected.
That felt like an achievement! [Khan tract?] Wow.
Left to my own devices … I did it. Brain stretching.
SPY and ESPIED in the same puzzle?
@Joseph [SMOG] also had me thinking of L.A.
ALIAS, to me (and to the retired Latin teacher beside me), seems to literally mean "at another" or "otherwise" or the like. The time part is implied, and therefore not LITERALLY present in ALIAS. Or am I been TOO literal? Googling seems to reveal ALIAS is a shortened version of "alias dictus", a phrase that also doesn't involve time. Tempus would be the word for time.
@Linda Jo IF I GURED. Same here. Made me laugh when I realized. IF I GURED could become a secret code to describe those times “When you got it, but you don’t GET it.” I used MISLED (deliberately mispronounced MY-zuld) as short hand for a long time (to describe a similar ailment) because of a friend who believed he had encountered a word new to him and asked publicly what it meant. It was not his proudest moment, but the classroom erupted in laughter and the My Zuld moment was etched in memory.
@NESB is Still thinking Ghosting seems like it qualifies but as a subset of “ways someone can mess with you.”
@G L Ha ha. Speaking of twee, I had tweE where CUTE belonged, for a while. I had doubts but at least it fit.
@Roger Referring to an easier puzzle, or hoping that the anniversary of Jan. 6 (Mr. Malice/Stupidity’s new favorite day) won’t feature any madness?
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