Nice, I really liked 18a and 19d, though I was not fond of 21d, as I didn't think any of the parts matched up... but thats a minor nit in an otherwise great puzzle, and besides people like me who can't construct puzzles shouldn't throw stones
Thanks for playing! My intended parse for 21d was monosyllabic = curt, robot = AI, not = n, but totally see why that might not be a perfect clue. Always happy for the feedback! (and if you ever wanted to try constructing, it might go better than you think! I'd play it)
Oliver Hardy 19:38 · 2023-11-30T11:30:48.618Z
Thanks - your puzzles are eagerly awaited!
I too enjoyed 18A and 19D and 12A was really clever.
These comments are not intended as criticism.
7D I'm not sure about TILE as a synonym for "brick"; many thesauruses don't include it. Should "go" be "to"?
21D I think "monosyllabic" is not a good synonym for CURT and AI is pushing it for "robot".
8D "workers" as a synonym for YE(O)MEN? Again, I'm not sure about the synonym; "farmers", perhaps?
11A TOP as a synonym for "eclipse" - very clever. It's interesting to note how Chambers shows "eclipse" as a synonym for TOP yet doesn't show "top" as a synonym for ECLIPSE; one would expect better cross-referencing.
Thanks, once again.
Thanks for playing! Good catch on the "go" and "to" mixup, fixed now. I tend to use thesaurus.com for my synonyms (with some editorial decisions oc). You're the second person to object to 21D, so I'll definitely concede that one! Farmers would've been better than workers, wish I'd thought of that!