Constructor: Timothy Polin
Relative difficulty: Challenging (like, off the charts for a Tuesday)
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THEME: Curses in one direction are taken literally in the other, I think —
Theme answers:
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Not going to spend much time on this one, largely because I found it so unpleasant. This may be the most badly misplaced puzzle I've ever solved. Took me nearly 2x my normal Tuesday time. This would've been OK, in theory, but in practice, I had to suffer through one damned antiquated quaint oath after another, and then through crosses that were often painfully forced. [Fudge] = TREAT? That's like [Camaro] = CAR. Total junk. If you don't have the "e.g." after it, it's not a legal clue. Likewise, [Great Scott] needs a "?" in order to indicate WALTER. Would you ever, in any other context, use just [Man] to clue HOMBRE? No. [Man of La Mancha], [Man, in Havana], yes. Just [Man], no. I think the core idea in this puzzle is kind of interesting, but man ("Man!") was it painful to solve. ALGAL?! I just stared at ALGA- / TEL-S forever, wondering what the hell? ALGAL is … it's just so bad, as fill. Is it ENOUNCE bad, you ask? Almost. Not sure how many D'OHS (!?) I uttered during this solve, but I'm going to say "several."TOMTIT DEFRAG (… now I'm just writing random absurd stuff from the grid …) ALAI IRAE. So much shrugging. If this had been a. a Thursday puzzle, and b. more cleanly filled, I might've been somewhat more kindly disposed toward it. But as is, yikes. Yoinks. Egads.
Relative difficulty: Challenging (like, off the charts for a Tuesday)
THEME: Curses in one direction are taken literally in the other, I think —
Theme answers:
- 'ZOUNDS / ZEBU ("Holy cow!" / Holy cow)
- DAMN / DAFT ("Nuts!" / Nuts)
- WOW / WALTER ("Great Scott!" / Great Scott)
- TELLS / SHOOT (Rats / "Rats!")
- BLAST / TREAT ("Fudge!" / Fudge)
- GEE / HOMBRE ("Man!" / Man)
- HECK / SOCK ("Darn it!" / Darn it)
- CURSES / BOWS ("Fiddlesticks!" / Fiddlesticks)
An algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae (typically microscopic) in an aquatic system. Cyanobacteria blooms are often called blue-green algae. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration of the water resulting from the high density of pigmented cells. (wikipedia) (I assume "ALGAL" just means "of or related to alga")
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