"Curiouser and curiouser" is not only a memorable "Alice in Wonderland" quote, but it's become a bit of a meme. I haven't heard ALL TATTED UP, but I'm not the target audience since I only have one tattoo. It's a self-explanatory phrase, though. The one place I bogged down ...
This idea sat around for a long time because I couldn't come up with a revealer. I loved that BLANKET OF SNOW, SHEET OF ICE, and BED OF ROSES went together so well (bed item + OF + something in nature), but with only those three I didn't think it was a solid enough theme. ...
Also – this is just an aside – the sense of foreboding is rising because the stupidity of our “betters” shows up in our shopping carts and the odd messages we get from financial institutions. For example, the high-deductible health insurance led me to open an HSA several years ago; ...
There was a lot of flexibility for where each of the five answers (plus NUMBER) went, but it's still an impressive feat. Imagine the nightmare: start with FIBONACCI, get the numbers correct. Place SQUARE, get those tuned in — aargh, that messed up FIBONACCI's numbers! Rinse and repeat...
I'm thankful that Ross spoke up, because I completely missed the word ladder aspect! Could they have made that more noticeable? Incorporating WORD LADDER would have been intrusive — and kind of random — so probably not. What else could they have done with the "female name vowel-consonant...
I had the first/last entry conceit in my notepad for several months before I thought up a way to flesh out the theme. Once I had that, other than the grid layout being somewhat constrained — WAIT FOR IT, which I really wanted, only worked smack dab in the middle with three black sq...