Day: March 17, 2022

Popular site for holiday gift orders [9]

I love the use of “site” in this clue. For a great many modern solvers, “site,” especially in the context of a holiday, is going to suggest somewhere you can get stuff on the web, possibly last minute. (This is assuredly reinforced by the humorous clue directly above it, Requested pickup time on many online orders (4) for ASAP.) And “holiday gift orders” keeps it open enough such that the mind might not even immediately go to Commercemas. But no, no, no, we are in fact talking about the red-suited, white-bearded man himself (and not his propensity for slapping elves, if you parsed it the wrong way). “Orders,” too is a nice word choice: not wishes, but the directives of spoiled, needy children. I feel humbuggish at this point, so let me course correct by repeating how much I enjoyed seeing the final answer, SANTA’S LAP. Other good stuff in the puzzle includes What Graham Green called a “failure of the imagination” (4)–and if you’re going to do a quote clue, make it at least as good as this description of HATE–and Totally misses …or totally surveys (9), which is one of those fun “the word can mean itself or an antonym, isn’t English great?” aka OVERLOOK.

by Aaron Riccio

Winged title character of a 2018 Marvel movie [7]

I love this one because it flies right under your nose given our propensity to ignore articles, or to flat-out ignore “secondary” characters. (So yeah, this is exposing a bit of a bias.) There’s also the great use of “winged” here, because that’s probably not the thing you remember about this hero, or this film. At any rate, we’re talking about THE WASP, and if getting that wrong stings, well, you won’t forget again. Plenty of other playful entries here, from the rhyming Whopper toppers (9), which is talking about the Burger King product and its RAW ONIONS, the more literal than you think They might come out of the closet (6) clue for LINENS, and the aptly re-described Deal with stuffing? (12) for ALL YOU CAN EAT.

by Aaron Riccio