Friday

NYS 7:18
LAT 5:46
NYT 5:19
CS 3:17

Reagle 9:20
WSJ 8:30

Greetings, dear deadbeats. (Yes, you.) Light blogging tonight on account of feeling lightheaded, which is not the optimal mode for writing sensibly.

The NYT's timed applet has gone kerflooey for the evening, it appears, so I did the puzzle in Across Lite, which sometimes steals my mojo (or maybe it was knowing that my finishing time was a full two minutes slower than Byron's—mojo thief!). Loved most of Manny Nosowsky's multi-word entries (even if I was duped into trying WHOA NELLY before hitting on WHOA THERE). WHOA THERE! WHAT SAY, OLD GOAT? Fantastic clues, like "Place to get a date?" = OASIS (I was on the right track, first thinking of PALMS) and "Bed occupant" for OYSTER.

Doug Peterson's Weekend Warrior took me longer, despite the long gimme down the middle of the grid (LADY AND THE TRAMP). I especially liked the bottom right corner, with the stack of ARTICLE I ("Where to find the elastic clause," which I confess I'd never heard of), MNEMONIC clued as "Role for Reeves," and PERP WALK (clued as "Turnkey trot?"—which on first glance looks like "turkey trot"); the three were bound together by the oddly clued IMP ("Horny half-pint"? O-o-okay...). Why did I like that section? I respect a puzzle more the morning after if it makes me work harder.

Updated:

Okay, clearly I'm missing something. Would somebody who's done Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle ("How High Can You Go?") explain the theme?

The Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle available each Friday on the Cruciverb site is from three weeks earlier. Would y'all prefer me to follow that schedule, or do them (and write about them) closer to real time, when they're usually available via Puzzle Pointers?

Loved the theme in Pat Merrell's Wall Street Journal puzzle, "Opposite Ends," liked Merl Reagle's "Avian 'Role Call'" theme.