Freestyle 100 by Tim Croce
Let’s hitch up the Croce wagon and get solving!
Lena and Peter have been derelict in reviewing the Tim Croce freestyles so I, Lena’s occasionally referenced “boyfriend,” am stepping up to the plate to lend a hand.
This was Freestyle 100, although Tim didn’t do anything special to mark the occasion. He just churned out another fun, tricky puzzle. The man is seriously some kind of puzzbot.
Anyway, this one went pretty quickly for me as Croce puzzles go. I didn’t time it, but I did it in less than an afternoon without cheating (AHEM, research*) so I’m going to say this was at the easier end of the Croce spectrum. Not the Croce-est of puzzles, but most of the hallmarks are here: fun, conversational marquees (vertical this time) with SNAP TO ATTENTION and ARE YOU SATISFIED, some dense center stacks, and some very devious clues e.g. IN TWO for 47A [Rent, maybe].
*Lena tells me that asking friends doesn’t count as cheating, so just as well I had to ask her for help with ALABAMA SHAKES (33A) [Band that earned a Grammy in 2016 for “I Don’t Wanna Fight”] and ICI ET LA (53A) [In various places, in Vichy].
Personal favorites are: the opening salvo of PISS OFF (1A) [Anger], the gender-balancing STAY AT HOME DAD, and BOWL-A-THONS (8D) as [ball events].
I was not a fan of HAP for [Out-of-the-blue occurrence] (shouldn’t there be an abreve indicator, or ?), or PDA for [Open bussing, say] (is that a computer thing? Make-outs? I seriously have no idea).
wonderfully written review! and [Open bussing] = definitely makeouts.
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