Super cool grid design! Those black pyramids lend an 8-ball feel, and the clasping arms from the sides are so evocative. Check out our ...
read moreSuper cool grid design! Those black pyramids lend an 8-ball feel, and the clasping arms from the sides are so evocative. Check out our Grid Art page for more.
[Turnovers on a football field, maybe?] is a great way to kick off (ha) a Saturday puzzle. The question mark tells you that it's not FUMBLES or INTERCEPTIONS, but what could it be? Such a mischievous way to hint at cheerleaders doing CARTWHEELS down the sideline! HOME REMEDIES isn't as fun, especially given the straightforward clue, but DOUBLE DOG DARES is playground-level fun.
I wasn't as enthralled by the opposite stack. EPICENTERS had the start of a clever clue, but [Places to find faults] doesn't misdirect much. Tough to figure out something sharper … perhaps [Focus of a fault-finding mission?] That doesn't work either, but it would be fun to brainstorm. Riffing on "shake" might be fruitful, too.
Robert wasn't kidding about a 62-word grid. Here, he pinched up the top and the bottom to make them more tractable, but that makes the middle much tougher. I'm not up on my cabinet members, but SUSAN RICE certainly has cred. VASO is a perilous crosser, but it's hard to imagine SU?ANRICE filled in with anything but an S. ATWT isn't great, and PANAMAS is an odd way to refer to panama hats, but it all works reasonably well.
Even after uncovering HANG GLIDERS, it still took me a while to figure out the clue. "At the bar" … because HANG GLIDERS hang onto a bar? It's tenuous, but it does work. And "a few drafts" is clever. All in all, it's almost brilliant.
Generally a smooth solve, with a couple of places to find faults.