Hand up (I think for the second time) for TABLA to be included in the Spelling Bee answer key.
Boxing Match remains a fun challenge. Having gained proficiency at it, that usually means a new type of number/logic puzzle will appear soon!
I had misspoke for 11 across and still think the clue points in that direction. Please help me understand.
FUR is a PELT, so MISS PELT.
Thanks, Steve.
Just starting out with Cryptics here.
Can someone please explain OAFISH, ITDEPENDS, and NEAREASTERN to me?
Love = O. The A is given in the text of the clue. To chum is to FISH.
Liquid denotes fluidity or uncertainty, as in a fluid situation, so it's the straight definition. "Possibly" tells you to anagram DIDNTSEEP.
NEAREASTERN seemed confusing to me, too. "From the Fertile Crescent" = Near Eastern. As for the cryptic elements, NE = New England. AREA = quarters (as in living area). STERN = back. But I didn't see AREA until typing this reply just now. I'd been thinking ASTERN = BACK, leaving me to puzzle where the ARE came from. So I think AREA/STERN is the correct parse. I does seem a little weak, though.
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Thank you. And I thought I had already rationalized that ITDEPENDS was because of the adult diapers, which don't seep liquid!
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Actually, for IT DEPENDS, my reading was that 'liquid' was the anagram indicator for DIDNT SEEP, and 'possibly' was the definition.
EHARMONY was my last fill, and I almost gave up on it before the aha moment dawned. I was able to dismiss the irritating thought that it should have been rendered 1-7 instead of 8, by assuming (correctly, it turned out) that eharmony is unhyphenated at the website. Similarly, I thought that 24D should have been rendered 2'2 instead of 4, but that probably would have made it too easy to solve. Very enjoyable puzzle, on the whole.
Fastening is strapping.
Accessories are trappings.
Trappings bottom to top is strapping.
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Thanks, Phil.
I missed it.
My misreading was more convoluted:
Fastening PARTS (accessories -- bottom to top, -- to ING,
I ended up one P short,
This was a tough Cryptic, but well worth the effort.
The one clue that I wasn’t happy with is 15D. If I understand it correctly, one of the two P’s is unaccounted for.
I thought the answer would read from bottom to top.
Oh well, As I do these more and more, I'm finding them more enjoyable.
BON VOYAGE, DEB!
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Double or Nothing is my absolute favorite among the “middle” puzzles of A Little Variety.
[SPOILER ALERT]
This time, I got an “anchor” immediately in the very first square, EX of EXCISE/EXPIRE.
But I would question the definition for PIUS.
It sounds like a word meaning “holy”? But doesn’t “pious”
mean “devout” rather than “holy”?
The only one I had to search for was CILANTRO, because I had never heard of it and RENTER was a very tricky answer.