Variety: Puns and Anagrams

I'm very late to this party. I've been trying to do the PandA's to improve my skill (which was nonexistent) with them. I got most of this one by Monday--at least I filled in most of the blanks, resisting the urge to check letters. Went back to it this morning and managed to fill in everything, without understanding some of it. But when I ran Check I only had 3 wrong letters, so I was thrilled! Reading the column and the comments here explained the rest of my confusion. So maybe I'll keep trying to do these, and maybe someday I'll be able to do the cryptics.

Please explain 23A 60A Thank you.

Can anyone explain the answers to 29D and 42A - which are LUIS and SIT respectively (I think)...

I solved in AcrossLite, but partly followed the recommendation in the notepad and opened the PDF so that I could see the clues that weren't doable in AL. In most cases, I didn't need to see the visual clue, and the substitute one in LA was just fine. Except 63A. I underestood the clue in the PDF version -- pretty straightforward for a PandA -- and entered the answer OK. But I still don't understand the substitute AL clue: e y e l A S H E S. I tried various thoughts with lower-case letters, something about spaces, things that made no sense at all, and I still don't get it. Help?

I don't understand 9D. "Away, ax, away"?

My first P&A essay. Didn't do too badly; irregular jagged edge at upper right corner still bounds some blanks. Is there a URL or link to look up the answers like the main big puzzle has?

So, I got the pun in Finger Feuds (foods), but I'm at a loss to understand 29D and 42A. How would Claudius know Luis? And why would SIT be oddly shifty. Help!

One of the best P and A’s I’ve seen recently. I’ve always found Mel Taub to be the master of this type of puzzle, but Joel knocked this one out of the park. Usually I start in the NW and work my way down, but I found this one was easier when I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

Loved it! So fun to start (getting nowhere) and then come back a few hours later and get it.

enjoyed it! some straightforward others not so much. Liked ESTEEM and ROE!

Fun enough and highly accessible.

TO Caitlin: The clue for 62A online also was ER with a circle around it. It occurred to me that “A serious loss” as part of the clue for ANOREXIA had something to do with anorectics suffering a serious loss of weight.

This time I again decided to take a stab at the PandA, and I managed to get approximately all of the top half, plus most of the lower left corner. For me, that was some kind of a record. [SPOILER ALERT] I used “Check word” quite a few times. Each time it was correct, except when I had TEE for “Rest’s end”. (I figured they meant the last letter in “rest”.) Later on I guessed ORE. After “Revealing” the rest of it, let me ask: Is “thumb wars” some kind of a kids’ game?

Snake Charmer is an imaginative creation, reminiscent of Marching Bands and Whirlpool in that the same sequences of letters are parts of different words. I realized that the S shape was not necessary to the puzzle, so when I made up my own diagram on paper I constructed a “frame” of 38 squares going around the borders of the page. [SPOILER ALERT] The first one I got was LOONEY, but I had to search to see whether it was spelled that way or LOONIE. I had heard of “Jane Eyre”, but never knew that the title character was a governess. LOONEY gave me EYRE. Normally I would have to search for a basketball answer, but James LeBron is famous enough that this time I knew it.