Monday, February 21, 2022

Puzzle #168: Forging Links

Sunday-sized joint this week (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Say what you will about Sundays, but they do allow for the only good answer to the clue [Playground retort].


5 comments:

  1. Wonderful puzzle to solve. The playground retort came instantly. I must be ten years old.

    I wonder about 94-A: élan suggests to me style, flair, panache, while zeal suggests fervor, ardent devotion. I know that Wordnik defines élan as “ardor or zeal inspired by passion or enthusiasm.” Merriam-Webster has “vigorous spirit or enthusiasm,” though one its illustrative sentences doesn’t seem to fit at all: "With the white-tablecloth elan of a high-end steakhouse, Fogo de Chão is nevertheless fine with your shorts, your hat and your baby stroller.” That sounds to me like a characterization of the restaurant’s tony style, unrelated to vigor or enthusiasm. But whatever. This was a wonderful puzzle to solve.

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    1. I think you're right - there is more of a suggestion of panache than ardency to the word, at least in the usages I've encountered. The perils of relying overmuch on dictionaries!

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  2. Fun puzzle with some beautiful long entries. I think 95A is factually incorrect, but that's just picking nits.

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    1. Ooh, good catch! I clued this puzzle ages ago, so it must have changed since then.

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