"Now That's a Gift!" - December 24, 2021

[Annabelle]

Still afloat. Did get the past tenses of the key answers, but was looking for whole words in the grid for the present tenses. Sneaky, that Mike!

[MikeM000]

The one rabbit hole I hit that I dug out of relatively quickly as there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it, was that the meta was tied into "Twas The Night Before Christmas" as some of the words in the asterisked grid entries are in the poem. Obviously I was thinking about an MGW from about a year ago when that idea crossed my mind.

[JAQT]

When I posted my "ashore" comment, I was watching the Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol". For a moment I considered starting a debate on which version people here liked the most. But then I realized "Wow, what a spoiler!" I would have been banned from the site.

[Kas]

The one rabbit hole I hit that I dug out of relatively quickly as there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it, was that the meta was tied into "Twas The Night Before Christmas" as some of the words in the asterisked grid entries are in the poem. Obviously I was thinking about an MGW from about a year ago when that idea crossed my mind.

Yep, 42D sent me down a "12 nights of Christmas" rabbit hole, too. For which I suppose I should be grateful, because I've always felt I should be able to sing the whole thing (Partridge, Turtledoves, French Hens, Calling Birds, Gold Rings, Geese, Swans, Maids, Ladies, Lords, Pipers, Drummers...and I now know without question that none of them "were, spun, saw, went, drew, or laid." (Side note...what's with all the birds in that song?! If I had gotten a bird for christmas, I'd regift it...except the turkey--which I did get, and happily ate, but which bird is not in the song, oddly. But I digress...)

My other hiccup is that another present tense of "Saw" is "Spy," per *E*spy at 42D, which had me anagramming the wrong six letters for...a long time. But perhaps I was extra distracted with all the birds.

[PQ63]

Did anybody go down the Gift of Gab (WENTON) rabbit hole?

[Jeanrosz]

Anyone else having problems with fleeting image and getting the Monday crossword? Doesn’t want to download ….? Any other way to get across lite?

There was a comment on fiend about a website outage and temporary replacement

https://crosswordfiend.com/2021/12/26/m ... /#comments

Thanks for the heads up!

[Barney]

My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks.

I too first thought "Present" but then why the asterisks. Without the asterisks I might have submitted "Present."

I thought this was an excellent meta. For me a nice aha moments when I saw the present past tense deal and then the missing letters. And not so difficult that it affected my holiday.

Has a grid entry EVER been the meta answer?

[hoover]

Did anybody go down the Gift of Gab (WENTON) rabbit hole?

Yes! And how it intersected beautifully with its mirror image NOT NEW.

[Janet]

What took me a while on this puzzle was that there was more than one possibility for the present tense. I had a couple wrong at first, then kept looking at the grid again to find the right ones.

[Janet]

Did anybody go down the Gift of Gab (WENTON) rabbit hole?

Yes! And how it intersected beautifully with its mirror image NOT NEW.

That was an early rabbit hole for me.

[BarbaraK]

Has a grid entry EVER been the meta answer?

February 3, 2017. But the prompt that week was, "the two grid entries that, when combined, would make a good sixth theme entry," so it wasn't just something in the grid that turned out to be the answer.

viewtopic.php?t=277#p12578

[MaineMarge]

This puzzle was calling out for this photo- a mall Santa, a Maine setting , and a cat named Alice -and a Maine coon cat no less

Alice comes with a great backstory. A sweet little old lady brought him (yes, HIM) to us as a starving stray in her neighborhood since she couldn’t afford to buy cat food for him. Best cat we’ve ever had among the 30+over the years. (May have you beat there, @DrTom ). He always ate at Alice’s Restaurant. That sweet old lady was named Alice.
No WONder there’s a tWINkle in Santa’s eye as he holds this gentle giant.

How well we remember those WONder tWINs!

[woozy]

Did anybody go down the Gift of Gab (WENTON) rabbit hole?

Yes! And how it intersected beautifully with its mirror image NOT NEW.

I'm always intrigues when I find germs for palindromes I have never though of and WENT ON- NOT NEW is a very clever one I had never seen.

I didn't really persue it as a rabbit hole (a rabbit hole implies there is a direction to go down) but oddly it did make me think a heck of a lot of clues were in the past tense and it got me to the right place.

[OGuyDave]

Know how close I was to this one? Think about the pictures that the new Webb telescope is going to capture. I was out there someplace.

Moon. Yeah, it's one. I like 'em.

TFTXWD anyway

[KayW]

How well we remember those WONder tWINs!

All too well. I think THAT traumatic DNF (for me) is the reason I solved this one so quickly. Seriously.

[RussHiggins]

What took me a while on this puzzle was that there was more than one possibility for the present tense. I had a couple wrong at first, then kept looking at the grid again to find the right ones.

I was right there with you. I had ARE, SPIN(S), SEE(S), GO(ES), DRAW(S), and LAY(S), for 32 combinations of final letters. One of these combinations anagrams to SENSES, which I thought wasn't very good. I never went back to the grid to look for the present tenses.

[Ergcat]

When I posted my "ashore" comment, I was watching the Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol". For a moment I considered starting a debate on which version people here liked the most. But then I realized "Wow, what a spoiler!" I would have been banned from the site.

No debate….The 1951 Alistair Sim version is THE BEST! We watch it every Christmas Eve!

[JAQT]

When I posted my "ashore" comment, I was watching the Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol". For a moment I considered starting a debate on which version people here liked the most. But then I realized "Wow, what a spoiler!" I would have been banned from the site.

No debate….The 1951 Alistair Sim version is THE BEST! We watch it every Christmas Eve!

Totally agree! Although the "Thank you very much" song from the Albert Finney musical version is an absolute kick!

[DBMiller]

I had so much wanted to use Do/Did in my initial response instead of my usual Done and Done. Fortunately, I know/knew better.

[vandono]

i was all like "sheesh, who's been an idiot on this meta" and Isaac was like