Chuck Herrold

Haven't commented in ages, but I have to detail what did me in on this one. My answers seem logical, so flyspecking did not help: BARE for Unvarnished BATH for Way to go (Bathroom; go. Makes sense to me, but I suppose that would have been clued: Way to go?) AGH for "Good grief!" (That didn't look right, bur I discovered that AGH is a word. According to Wiktionary: An exclamation of mild horror, disgust or frustration. That sort of fits, doesn't it?) I think I should get credit for this solution 😉 And maybe I will return to the forum and rejoin the rest of you lovely folks

Nice graphic on solving. Merry Christmas, everyone.

So much I didn't know: BERET (in this context), BRAT (ditto), ELIE (Mystal), OTAKU, ALASKA ROLL, IN BAD, ESSIE, Petrichor. But that's what the crosses are for. Overall it was a fairly easy solve, and there were some fun clues, e.g. Lab report?, Track that fans flip for?, Nose-in-the-air type?, Head of France, Org. that tests the waters, and Feet in a meter. I got the theme from 17A, but it took me a while to appreciate FIRST MATE and GOOD BUDDY. Well done, Parker.

Easy enough, but I didn't understand the theme until I read Caitlin's explanation--and I'm a musician. I hate when that happens, like not figuring out the last category in Connections. Good one.

My reaction was the same as Deb's. Maybe no frowns, but a knit brow to be sure. I was ignorant of the term SPIKE POLYGRAPH but nothing else fit. and it now makes sense. Urban artist? with KEITH made me think of Keith Haring, but I knew that wasn't it. After reading the explanation, the light bulb went on. Clever and enjoyable.

I solved easily enough without understanding what the circled numbers were all about, and had to scratch my head a bit even after reading Wordplay. Not that I imagined SWEET SIXTEEN had anything to do with a baseball bat, but nothing else fit. I don't know skateboarding terms, so CATCH TWENTY-TWO seemed as good as anything else, and AREA FIFTY-ONE? Well, I get it now. It's a bit like solving Connexions while getting the last category only by process of elimination, as was my experience with that game today. So ... clever and worthy of admiration, but I'm not hugely enthusiastic.