National Post Cryptic: by Cox and Rathvon Saturday February 19

[Richard B.]

https://natpostcryptic.blogspot.com/202 ... x-and.html



Enjoy!

[oldjudge]

Fun puzzle, albeit harder than normal. Much of the time, especially when already into a puzzle, I figure out the answer and then use the wordplay to justify it. In this puzzle I often needed to use the wordplay to find the answers and then sometimes needed to Google to make sure they were correct (27A and 18D as two examples).

[RPardoe]

A day late, but enjoyed this morning over coffee.

Jay's solving method above sounds pretty much like my normal method on these. Sometimes it is definition first, then justified by word play. Other times, I get the word play and justify by definition. Especially when I have crossing letters to hint at possibilities in both cases.

[mokelfish]

3/4ths of the puzzle went down well, but the four theme answers stumped me. Also never heard of 4D or 27A so that last fourth was pretty rough going.