Patrick John Duggan author page

★ When I was a junior in high school, I made the California state orchestra as a cellist. Not by pure musical talent, mind you, but by a dogged persistence at perfecting each microsection of my tryout piece and subsequent technical flim-flammery to join said snippets up.

Needless to say, my live tryout upon arrival placed me in the back half of the cellos, where I preceded to be that guy who miscounted a long rest section and squeaked a note — a quarter-tone low, at that — when it was supposed to be dead quiet. One of the bassists leaned over and hissed, SMOOTH MOVE, EXLAX.

Thankfully, the rest of my movements that weekend weren't as flatulent.

Also, thankfully, I can look back on it now and laugh at today's fantastic marquee entry.

I get nervous when a themeless features two 15s and not many other long entries. Sure, it's possible to squeeze juice out of 7-letter slots, but it's hard, since those mid-lengths are tilted toward boring, one-word entries like …

Dang, Patrick did such an amazing job of utilizing these slots that it's tough to pick out even one that's more neutral than an asset! Even something humdrum like ATHEIST got elevated with a zingy punster's clue. [One in a state of disbelief], as in not believing in God = genius.

And there were so many of these delicious bites of wordplay joy! I lost count after half a dozen, choosing to forget about quantification and instead soak up the fun. My favorite was TIP JARS being "open to change." They're literally open to change, as in nickels and dimes. Spectacular!

I did stumble on LET SERVE, occupying one of the precious 8-letter slots. I had NET SERVE, which felt reasonable, but LET SERVE is indeed a technical tennis term. It's not something I'd strive to include in a themeless, though, since I usually hear announcers simply say "let."

Such top-notch use of all those mid-length slots, both in grid entries and their clues. It would have been the POW! even without the hilarious headliner. Smooth move indeed, Patrick!

Funny that Patrick called BEER KOOZIE super-recognizable — it was the one entry I didn't recognize. Not by name, at least (Googling jogged my memory).

I was much more enamored with PATROL CARS. It's a fine entry, but the [Copper container?] clue elevates it sky-high. I initially thought this might be a mini-theme echoing back to BEER KOOZIE, hinting at COPPER MUG for a Moscow Mule. Thankfully, the telltale question mark made me think twice. That's COPPER, as in slang for a police officer.

GAY MECCA didn't ring a bell, but it's a fantastic entry that allowed Patrick's voice to shine through. It's two recognizable words, making it easy to recognize as correct, and it's such an interesting juxtaposition, given the problems some religions have around LGBTQ+. Great way to pique my interest in reading up on Fire Island.

Not as much juice as I seek out of a themeless, only 10 long entries (8+ letters), with some of them not stellar. SEA EAGLE is much less interesting than EQUAL PAY, for example.

However, there are a half-dozen genius-level clues, which helped make up for it. I enjoyed the repurposing of "lift one's spirits" for IMBIBE, and [C, for one] made no sense for ARC. That is, until I finally thought about the shape of the letter C!

Similarly, I had to think long and hard about why [Shrimp in a shell] might fit TACO. Glad I didn't gloss over it, because it's such a magical way to misdirect from delicious shrimp TACOs.