July 30, 2005

Old business

Before I move on to Saturday's puzzles, I have a nit from Friday's NYS Weekend Warrior by Alan Olschwang. The answer for 17A, "Vacationing naturist, perhaps," is ECOTOURIST. Even for a Friday, that seems a bit of a stretch. I doubt all that many ecotourism programs are set up with nudists in mind, so the clue could just as well be "Vacationing bridge players, perhaps." Although the naturist/nudist crowd seems to have set up many vacation possibilities (including "bareboating"!), it's not clear to me that they have a special interest in ecology. I'd think the clue was a Friday misdirect except for the links between nature and eco-. What say you?