SATURDAY PUZZLE — That is Shaun Phillips’s third development for The Instances and his first themeless grid. It has an attention-grabbing structure that basically struck my fancy as I labored my method via the Down entries, and it additionally has a notably low phrase rely, of 60. This can be a grid attribute that may go unnoticed by a solver, however takes a ton of talent as a constructor, as a result of there are fewer blocks and extra crossing letters to wrangle into place.
The clues are on a sure wavelength that a few of you is perhaps on, nevertheless it’s at a excessive altitude — I received stumped in every nook, regardless that I found out the longest entries fairly early.
Difficult Clues
20A. [Baby blue, perhaps] solves to PEEPER, referring to the dreamy eye shade of Paul Newman, for a well-known instance. On this utilization, “peep” most likely branched off from “peek,” and caught on. I are inclined to consider frogs after I see this phrase, however within the puzzle’s context I remembered “Jeepers Creepers,” which is loads catchy, too.
29A. Talking of frogs, [Some dragonflies] solves to DARNERS, massive predatory bugs that frequent ponds and — enjoyable truth — whose larvae are large enough to eat an occasional tadpole. Equally enjoyable however much less factual, dragonflies have been stated to possess stitching expertise, used to sew up naughty kids’s mouths, eyes and ears. Yikes throughout!
38A. This can be a debut crossword entry: The [Mediterranean plant named for its brightly colored flowers] here’s a SUN ROSE. They’re fairly fairly, drought tolerant, and appear to be a good selection for a dry West Coast backyard.
7D. This can be a extremely particular clue, the sort that requires being on that wavelength I discussed. The [“Mary Poppins” tune that begins “With tuppence for paper and strings / You can have your own set of wings”] is LETS GO FLY A KITE, a charmer that was sung by David Tomlinson within the 1964 film. With that entry in place, don’t you assume that the 2 massive blocks on this grid, that are every trailed by 5 diagonal black squares, may look a bit of like one thing that you could possibly fly “as much as the very best top”?
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