PANOPLY CROSSWORD SERIES
PANOPLY CROSSWORD TV

The theme was aesthetically pleasing, even though there was no special trick involved in figuring it out. Really appreciated that the baseball clue involved the rules of the game, rather than some long-retired player I'd never heard of. Also PROJECT RUNWAY, but I got it by searching on 'Tim Gunn,' so I feel like I should get some credit for that. Had to Google SODDY (not so great with the Nobelists), ASTIN (the '80s were my TV-free decade), and Grandparents' Day month (no excuse).

PANOPLY CROSSWORD TV

It seems like just a few years ago that we were watching TV in a 3:4 ASPECT RATIO, and most of the men in my life (including my brother, spouse, son, and numerous ex-boyfriends) have been D&D players at some point in their lives. This puzzle played to my pop culture strengths: I wore KEDS as a child, read 'Atlas Shrugged as a teen, saw 'Elf' with my children.

Disagree that there's anything obscure about QUIRRELL he's the villain of the first book and movie. I finished this in just over 20 minutes, probably my fastest time ever for a Saturday. Nothing to geek out over, unless you geek out over Harry Potter (as some do), but with a clean grid, fresh fill, and fiendishly riddlish clues (now Tom RIDDLE, I know), this shows great promise. Anyway, this is all very good, very suitably Saturday. SODDY seems pretty shoddy to me-he's the QUIRRELL of Nobel laureates-but again, crosses ended up fair, so вЂ¦ I think I'm supposed to be 'excited' to 'learn new things,' or something like that. Only by running the alphabet and finally getting POLL did I finally settle on POWERS / SODDY. Eventually figured out DIET SODA, then SEP., and then got all the big stuff up there, including the lovely and (for a nice change of pace) old-fashioned / quaint-sounding UNWIELDY and PANOPLY.ДЄll that was left was the obscure D&D clue ( 29D: Dungeons & Dragons attributes) (no idea how 'attributes' was being used there had -WERS, considered only TOWERS) and the even more obscure (to my mind) radiochemistry clue ( 32A: Nobelist Frederick _, pioneer in radiochemistry) (had S-DDY). since 10/11/75), I had nothing at the bottom part of that NE corner either. And besides the 'S' in SNL ( 32D: TV inits. I had ASPECT RATIO and AGRA and ENTRE, but couldn't get much more to fly up there for a little while. 'delays'), one of at least two possible (wrong) clue interpretations I can think of there. Speaking of held up, 8D: Holds up ( LASTS) really held me up, largely because I read it as having the sense in which I am using it in this sentence (i.e. It was the NE corner that really held me up. Got HTTPS right away and closed in on the SW corner from both sides, then ran through the SE corner in a flash (having just come back from ASANA practice earlier in the evening). After that, the bottom part of the grid got a whole lot easier.

Helped me change SANTA to CLAUS (37A: Asner's 'Elf' role)-bit of a cheap trick, that. I was grateful for the easy answer, though.

PANOPLY CROSSWORD SERIES

' PROJECT RUNWAY' was a gimme, but with another dull clue ( 33A: Fashion series since 2004).

I see that 'Life's Good' is a phrase with the initials 'L.G.' but I doubt that helps anyone remember the connection between slogan and company. All the crosses are fair, though, and in fact the fact that the final letter seemed to have to be an 'L' really helped me see LG ELECTRONICS more quickly than I would've otherwise- is a terrible clue or, rather, 'Life's Good' is a terrible slogan. It's original, but it'll be meaningless to lots of people. I think my slightly diminished enthusiasm comes from the Harry Potter answer, QUIRRELL (14A: Professor who tries to kill Harry Potter) -a name I don't really remember, and I've read them all (looks like he's from the first book вЂ¦ OK then). But it's nonetheless an above-average themeless. I found this one less awe-inspiring and slightly more laborious than I typically find his independent puzzles (which you can experience on a mostly weekly basis at his website, ' Glutton for Pun'). It has all the hallmarks of an Agard puzzle-hard, modern, trickily clued. Solid, aggressively contemporary offering from Mr.

Panoply crossword