HALO, TOPKNOT, HAT, BERET, and SCHMEAR form an almost word chain. My mouth rarely moves when I'm reading isn't that the idea? Anybody want to buy stock in Hooked on Phonics? I balk when I'm told to sound it out phonetically and cross reference cluing doesn't help. Now to the theme I figured it out before I was done, but my solve lasted a bit longer than that of OFL. Even then, the French had trouble following our lead and I had trouble following his logic. One of our local entrepreneurs, operates Bagel Me! and soon will open Yogurt Me! He's one of those guys that insisted upon changing his product from French fries to Freedom fries. My college roommates and I used the phrase, Beer me!. See me! Feel me! Touch me! Heal me! I have others, but this is a family forum. Satisfactory! Huzzah! It's a NEW DAY (for one day, at least)! From PAPRIKA to ACOLYTE and on and on, this grid brings the interesting answers, and very little dreck. Had NIOBI (рџў) for NAOMI (18A: Biblical wife of Elimelech), but no other missteps to speak of. Had to reboot with PCP and again with CLOY and *again* with PAR / AGE in order to get going again. I'm especially fond of the saucy VEGETABLE GARDEN, demanding action, now! As for the rest of the puzzle, I didn't have much trouble, despite being unable to flow smoothly down into the middle and bottom of the grid. But the ones in the puzzle all work fine. Also THOME (which future MLB HOFer Jim THOME pronounces 'Tow me!,' I'm pretty sure).

in the columns of long Downs, as well as the longer Acrosses at the middle and bottom (interesting L/R / mirror symmetry for the grid today, instead of the more typical rotational symmetry). Puzzles are supposed to be well made stem to stern, not just in the theme, so that when the theme is, let's say, not exactly to your taste, there's still delight to be found. It's especially good in the non-theme parts, which is important, as you may know if you read me, like, ever. That said, if cornball punning is your thing, this is a pretty good puzzle. So I had a belated but genuine aha moment, which was also an audible groan moment, as that is some cornball punning. I was breaking the answer into instead of. I kept saying them slowly, like an idiot, and I could feel that terminal -E sound, but could not find the pattern for what felt like ages. I finished this very quickly but it took me well over a minute of total bemusement before I understood how the adjectives had anything to do 'phonetically' with the theme answers.

Thursday january 5 2017 crossword