12A isn't a plausible situation, but it's intriguing to imagine.
25A is short and sweet (like a cookie).
2D is my favorite. Really consistent surface sense.
4D is cute, even if that "A" is cheating the surface.
5D has lots of flavor (though I would add "and" for grammar).
7D is terrific, though I wonder if another def might've gone further (and would have helped to avoid "that"). For instance—and this isn't great, but—[King was formerly known as Bender].
8D's very smooth; love the use of [boarding].
20D is wonderful.
Notes:
10A feels very busy.
11A is fine, but [2004 ABC drama] feels both too specific and too vague for a charade part at the same time (YMMV).
17A and 18A are probably OK, I just didn't understand them.
15D doesn't make much sense to me as a surface, but I love the definitional sense.
22D seems as if "mistakes" is doing double duty as definition and anagrind. I'm fine with that; I think most outlets are not.
Thanks for all the feedback! I think I agree with all your notes -- 10A I had trouble getting something to work for, it was the last clue I finished, and I wasn't super happy with the result. I definitely went back and forth on how to define the TV show Lost - J. J. Abrams name was put into and removed from the clue a few times. You're completely right on 24D! 7D was another one I had a hard time with, tho I'm not too upset with how it turned out. 'Knee' is surprisingly hard to define concisely!
For 22D, I was trying to use "!" as indication that the whole clue was the wordplay but part of it was also the definition - is that not generally how exclamation points are used in cryptics? to be honest I've always been a bit unsure about their 'correct' use. (For 4D I was using it as an &lit clue, which I've also seen).
I really appreciate the thought you put into this comment!
US conventions (which some have argued against as "giving away" the trick) are to use an ! to indicate an &lit, but as far as I know, that should only be done when the whole definition is also the whole wordplay, with no extraneous bits. 22D is what I've heard people call a sesquilit, so they are done, but they're in a sort of gray area. As for 4D, I think it works as a double def (tough/mascot), but if you mean "A tough mascot" as a straight definition, I'm not sure what the cryptic parse is. (This is why elegant &lits are the hardest and most impressive clues to write.)
Thanks for clarifying! Yeah, &lits are always the clues I'm most impressed by when I see them work, and it's SO TOUGH to get them to fit. Working on it tho!
Alex Peebles-Capin 🤓38:30 · 2024-06-05T15:53:38.011Z
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