BLATHER REVIEW

Freestyle 13

So anyway, I was over at BEQ central on Friday solving the Friday Bonus Puzzle and reading the interview with guest constructor Tim Croce. Tim wrote:

But quad stacks? That's where I draw the line. Soon as I saw the partial "O' TEA" in a quad stack I solved, that was it for me. Don't wanna even try anymore.

So, of course, I figured I'd try a quint stack, placed in the center of the grid.

After about an hour of entertaining that silly idea I decided, instead, to pick three 15-letter answers that were on my list of words and phrases that aren't in Matt Ginsberg's clue database, and to see if I can make them work. The only non-random criteria was that the first three letters had to allow a coherent Down answer.

My first three choices didn't pan out. But I replaced one of them with another and I was off and running. The result of that Friday afternoon grid-building is, for the most part, this puzzle. (I tweaked a few areas on Saturday, and clued it on Sunday.)

There are two entries in here that are not only fresh, but that I've never heard nor seen before. One is one word, the other is two words. But they're legit. And they're not Latin or otherwise foreign. I tried to make the clues mediumishly challenging, but even one of the 15s might be a tough nut to crack for latter-day Xers and millenials (and maybe even some geezers).

Across Lite:
Click to solve.

Posted by Tuning Spork at February 20, 2012 07:52 AM | TrackBack