So the “new” letters (in the solution grid) spell “FRESH START,” while the “old” (from the base phrases) spell “SO LAST YEAR.” Apt phrases indeed.Įven with the constraint of a phrase, Evan would have a lot of flexibility setting this grid up, so I’m glad to see both the inclusion of a second phrase and *ten* themers in this one, especially as for my money, it didn’t sacrifice fill quality. 98a ALF ON THE SHELF // “Elf on the shelf”.42a EIGHT BULB JOKE // “Light bulb joke”.The old letters spell out another apt phrase.” We’ve got circled letters at the beginning of each themer, a basic letter-shift theme, and a note from Evan that “new letters spell out an apt phrase. Happy New Year! Let’s dig in to Evan’s first puzzle of 2023. Universal Crossword, “Themeless Sunday 22” by Rafael Musa - norah’s write-upĮvan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Out With The Old, In With The New,” – 78D: POSES NUDE – Clue of the puzzle? This made me smile. – I cracked up at the pairing of the “Stick of butter…” clue with GET BACK IN SHAPE in the first pair of themers. Here’s hoping many of you started the year with quick times, too! – This was a really clean grid that filled super quickly for me. There are other options that could make for themers in a puzzle like this, but I was really happy with the ones that made the cut here, and the timing of this puzzle is probably not unrelated to the GET BACK IN SHAPE entry that resonates with January 1. WOWIE, talk about theme density! In each pair of themers, the first contains a word spelled out sequentially, while the second reimagines a common phrase to describe that word-within-a-phrase. – 110A: PICTURE IN PICTURE ĭOODLE (PICTURE) is in DOCTOR DOOLITTLE (PICTURE) – 61A: DOCTOR DOOLITTLE with DOODLE encircled MATES (FRIENDS) is in MOUNTAIN STATES (HIGH PLACES) – 50A: MOUNTAIN STATES with MATES encircled – 82A: BREAK OUT IN SONG ĮRUPT (BREAK OUT) is in LOVE WILL TEAR US APART (SONG) – 31A: LOVE WILL TEAR US APART with ERUPT encircled RECLAIM (GET BACK) is in RECTANGULAR PRISM (SHAPE) – 23A: RECTANGULAR PRISM with RECLAIM encircled
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