![]() It was great fun to solve this and be constantly surprised and delighted by words I uncovered all the way through, not just at the theme answers. And this puzzle certainly delivers on great answers: OFRENDA, DIRTBIKE, RINGTONE, LATINE, HABANEROS, I could go on. It’s super asymmetric, which allows for a bunch of strong answers since the constructors don’t have to worry about finding a match for them – it’s a bit of a tradeoff that comes with moving away from a conventional grid. Where this puzzle shines is in the rest of the grid. Great title to go with the theme! The theme answers are solid if not *spectacular* – I like them all, but none of them made me say “OOH” or anything. Theme: Each theme answer starts with a word meaning “to fashion” (as in “create”). What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard the word NONAGE, which is clued as and which Google tells me means “immaturity or youth.” OK, if you say so.Įmily Sharp & Kunal Nabar & Brooke Husic’s USA Today Crossword, “Fashion Forward” - Sophia’s recap So happy to see EZRA Jack Keats in this puzzle! I loved “The Snowy Day” when I was a kid, and I loved reading it to my daughter.I presume this is the football game kind of bowl. I liked the struggle and the reward of this puzzle. It doesn’t bother me that we have two actual beans (vegetables? legumes?) and one person. And the we have the LIMA bean previously noted at 33d.28a looked like DELIVERY and the VAN is in 19d, making a NAVY bean.20a is written in Spanish to tell us that the answer is in Spanish, and that means it’s BARCELONA ESPANA.Peter’s grid shows all three “beans” more clearly than mine.įireball, July 20, 2022, Billy Bratton, “Spring Seeding,” solution grid The clue is and I had DIPLOMAL which should DIPLOMA MILL. I knew I was looking for three beans somewhere, and I’d gotten enough of the SW to see what was happening at 48a. I finally got down to the revealer, understood what I was looking for, and went back and figured out the theme answers. The cluing is FB-tough on its own, which increased the challenge (not complaining!). I still had a bunch of big blank spots as I hopped around the grid trying to get a foothold (that’s foreshadowing there). I was right about the trickery even though I had that answer wrong. This was fun to chew on and very satisfying to finally figure out.Įarly on, I tried to fill in an answer that was too long and figured there must be a rebus or some other trickery afoot. It took me a long time to figure out what was going on in this puzzle, and once I did I was delighted. Panorama of the beach as viewed from the ruins of Aberystwyth Castle, Walesīilly Bratton’s Fireball Crossword, “Spring Seeding” – Jenni’s write-up Nice theme, solid construction, and excellent cluing. “Litter” could refer to baby pigs or actual trash in a figurative STY. How many of us put in RECEIVE first and then end up with RINE at 58d? I know I did. ![]() She ended up going to Macalester College in Minnesota, but we had a memorable little holiday in that beautiful seaside city. We were living in England at the time, and my daughter was scouting out colleges, so we went to visit Aberystwyth University. Hey hey! Shout out to Aberystwyth where we spent a few days around one New Year’s Eve. CLOONEY played Danny Ocean in a few movies. Also spelled barque, it’s a sailing ship with three or more masts. I was not aware of this usage of the word “bark” as a kind of a ship. I was thinking rain the whole time and then didn’t stop to re-think it after filling in the crosses. As my 14-year-old said while looking over my shoulders, “How do you know what that is? I don’t even know what that is.” That shows you how dated the term is no one uses it anymore. I expect some solvers might complain about PWN. Speaking of which, highlights include George CLOONEY, MT SINAI, and a SALTINE cracker. I don’t see that it’s strictly necessary for the theme to work, but it made for a nice change of pace, and the fill was solid. I also like the left-right symmetry employed here. That said, I don’t think I would have found the the theme without those asterisks, so…a perfect balance. Having to figure it out led to a satisfying aha moment. I especially liked the stealth aspect of the theme.
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