![]() My brain could not adequately process 61A: Finger, in a way (rat on) at first, for a multitude of reasons, so I needed at least the RA- before I got that one. My stumble here is ironic on two levels: first because I DWELT so damned long on the clue, and second because we subscribe to DWELL and there are many copies strewn about the house. More embarrassing, perhaps, was how long I was (ironically) stuck on DWELL ( 28D: Belabor, with "on"). The very basic answer of TAPE is almost too embarrassing to look at now. 7D: Bit of Watergate evidence (tape) was odd to me because all I could think of was "fingerprint" or other types of actual crime scene evidence. I just can't imagine a dog catching a HARE, least of all a bloodhound, which was the dog I was imagining. The film: "Bridge on the River KWAI." 48A: Hound's quarry (hare) gave me what in retrospect seems like an impossible amount of trouble - I had -ARE and had to run through the alphabet. then I got the final "I" and thought "?" Then I got the "W" and reread the clue, and tada, easy. So I briefly tried to think of songs about rivers. Had no idea what 23A: River in a 1957 hit film (Kwai) was at first because I read the clue only to the end of its first line (in Across Lite format). I got hung up in a number of places, not all of them predictable. 43A: I (personal pronoun) - had most of PRONOUN in place before I even saw the clue, so no problem here.I had to get all of SOCIAL and a good chunk of ADVANTAGE before I figured out what this (perfectly apt) phrase is. 25A: IN (social advantage) - see, the thing that made the theme answers a little tricky was that the clues were so short and ambiguous.I have to give the constructor credit for getting a 15-letter answer for INK, even if this is the result. CEPHALOPOD SPRAY is so insane an answer, so unusual, so colossal and odd, that I almost like it. 17A: INK (Cephalopod spray) - lost so much time with this one because I couldn't figure out how any Wednesday theme answer could begin with CEPH-, which had me rethinking my (obviously correct, and easy) NW corner for a bit.Overall, it was a perfect Wednesday challenge for me - not a breeze, not a slog, not a blank stare-inducing mystery, but a solid, thoughtful, entertaining puzzle, even if it does have the demonic PEEPS ( 37A: Marshmallow candies in Easter baskets) for a heart. Knowing words like AVISO ( 30D: Dispatch boat) and MARL ( 11D: Clayey sediment) (unknown to me when I started doing puzzles) kept me in the game when zingers like PHAROS ( 45D: Ptolemy's lighthouse locale) and ANOXIA ( 6D: It may cause a coma) threatened to do me in. ![]() ![]() I was torn between rating this "Medium" and "Medium-Challenging." I got through it in pretty good time, but as I was doing it, I had many moments where I thought "Wow, that was rough." I think that a year ago, this puzzle might have taken me at least twice as long to do. THEME: DISAPPEARING INK (57A: -) - Four theme clues read, in order, INK, IN, I,.
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