ACPT 5/6

Huzzah and hooray--I finished both of these puzzles with time to spare. 26:44 on Merl Reagle's 'Gender Bender,' and 19:33 on Maura Jacobson's 'What Are They?'

I really like Merl's puzzle. I think I got the theme fairly early on--I had Frito Lay originally, but once I got the first half of the theme clue, 'sex change,' I caught my error and was on my way. What I wasn't expecting, though, was the theme meandering its way into the clues. So 84-across, 'fay,' and 10-across, 'Sox fan, often,' made no sense with their respective answers--send and vegan. I'm not saying there aren't any vegan Sox fans, of course, but it didn't make much sense in the puzzle. Actually, I don't think I picked up on that little trick until I'd been done with the puzzle for some time. I went back to look at it, and then it clicked. Well played, sir.

Maura's puzzle was another case, as has been the norm through this, it seems, where I was getting theme answers and not instantly knowing what the theme actually was. Once I got 'Ball Rooms' as an answer for "Lucille Chambers," I got the last name/synonym theme. Alas, there were a number of last names I didn't know off-hand, but between crossing fill and the second part of the answer, I was able to figure out. Though I will admit to having 'Hardy Guys' as opposed to 'Hardy Boys' for the longest time.


And hey, the Cardinals scored 10 runs today. 10! That's more than the first 5 games of the season combined, so maybe we've turned a slight corner. Nice to see Pujols get himself a HR, and the 3-5 day from Yadi was a nice bonus.

I'm really hoping the cold snap breaks this week. It's just getting annoying at this point.


Dave