![]() I feel like adding an S to words is the low-hanging fruit of add-a-letter themes, so this didn’t do a lot for me. Theme: The letter S is added to certain words in familiar phrases to wacky effect. Gary Larson and Doug Peterson’s Universal Sunday crossword, “AddS to the Mix”-Jim P’s review GPA A fun, quirky way to start the puzzle as it sounds like “you know”.I find “The Family Circus” a bit dated, but BIL Keane will live forever in crossword puzzles. Crossword constructors must be relieved that there’s a BIL out there with one L. RED QUEEN. I wonder if she makes an appearance in the OPERA by Unsuk Chin.I don’t know how I never saw the connection between the play and the show. AREA MAN. Love when the Onion makes a clue appearance.I was thinking along the lines of “The dog isn’t missing…” “The dog… has?” Oh wait… it works in this sense: “He isn’t missing his keys” “He has his keys” Ok. I’m still having trouble seeing HAS as a perfect substitute for. ![]() The BOATED/OPT IN/CRASH ON/HAS/TELETHON/ODDITIES area fell last for me and took a lot of elbow grease. It took me a while before I convinced myself it was RITES. I think it’s a bit deceiving of fill-in-the-blank entries to mess around with plurals. Of course I wanted RITE, but I didn’t enter it because it was calling for five letters. NYTIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE FULLHere’s a partial list of new ones for me after a quick scan of the completed grid: Cornelius DREBBEL, SUNI LEE (I just looked her up… looks like her full first name is SUNISA), DOLMA, AVILA, ESTEBAN Ocon (took me a while to see, despite my nephew’s name being ESTEBAN). All fairly crossed and fun to figure out. I can’t say I would feel the same if I didn’t trust the constructor. So when I pass through the clues the first time and can only confidently enter a small handful of answers, not only is that a good thing. What I mean is that I *know* that when I’m solving a Berry or a Birnholz puzzle that it will come together, and it will be satisfying. It’s interesting how knowing the constructor’s work influences how I feel during the solve, however. For me, that is almost always the case with Patrick Berry “difficult” themeless puzzles. And somehow, it all fits together eventually. My favorite kind of themeless is one where I feel like I don’t know any of the clues. I love to show off my minimal sports knowledge.
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