No new Dan Katz or Mystery Hunt solves this week… last weekend was all about Iron Puzzler, a great event where I got to help write two pretty good puzzles and solve some pretty great puzzles, all with am excellent team of people I really like. 

I did sneak in a MGWCC solve Friday night, since it was the last one I needed to complete my first theme month.  The puzzle is here and the log of my successful 31 minute solve is after the cut.

0:00:00

I already have a print out, reading…

0:00:14

Six letter literary term. the specificity there makes me worry the meta will be vague. hope not. we’ll see. let’s solve.

0:01:01

6D WAGSA? 21 IHERE.

0:02:18

can’t connect off those. another long xword solve predicted. AMI 22D.

0:03:14

24/25D ARCH/TYRA? checking crosses

0:03:46

35A INCR could work

0:04:33

moving down to the bottom

0:05:07

44a/d MARIE/MDCIV (if my math is right)

0:05:54

VIL/REOIL/IDLE/ILIE/AIOLI in that corner in that order.

0:06:44

57A COOL AS A CUCUMBER fits, and is a .. simile? 53D EARL

0:07:53

ONCEI/BRER/CLIO/HSBC/NEURO in that order. then 48A ONES, but can’t get 41D, moving to SE.

0:09:54

58D RAT 61A BOLLA? dunno. moving up.

0:11:20

38D STY 34D REAM, 33D something in the olympics, oh EPEE probably

0:12:03

43A ENEMY 41D GESTURE?

0:12:53

39A ends GREAT… starts THAT? so 40D is THETA

0:13:19

51A DIESTHENEXTDAY. back to that corner to finish

0:13:55

55D is my original thought, ABAD. 56 looks like YETI now that it starts with a Y, and 64 is two words, grrr… ENDIT

0:14:29

don’t know the 54d/61a cross right now.

0:14:53

42A HES

0:15:45

39A “THAT’S JUST GREAT”? sarcasm? is 51A irony? so we have SARCASM/IRONY/SIMILE for the last 3… maybe the 6 letter word ends SIS.

0:17:24

27D but that middle is hurting. back to the top left. 4D REEF? 5D SPEAKUP?

0:18:47

no, because 19A is LIFE IS A HIGHWAY (a metaphor… ?/METAPHOR/?/SARCASM/IRONY/SIMILE) 17D SIC  [With those four solid, especially after getting -SIS first, I’m all set to solve this no problem. Lucked out a bit. A TM- start may not have gone so well.]

0:20:06

11D ALTAR

0:20:53

28D ends -LATER, so 18D is AGITA?

0:21:46

26A SAT… wtf is 26D?

0:22:08

let’s make 24D INCH so we can start 28A MANY (M*RY was always troubling)

0:23:32

20A SCAR 9D SANI (I think)

0:24:19

8D recent world capital studying paid off, I think. PENH. 14A ‘field’ I guess could be AREA. 7D AROAR… I guess.

0:25:18

16A ***E*S GONNA **T* hmmm

0:25:42

HATERS GONNA HATE. Device is….tautology? I don’t know.

0:26:19

10D anther 2-worder. Need to get better at those. INAWE. NE done.

0:27:28

5D DARESAY, so 28A is MANY YEARS LATER… don’t know the literary device? elision?  [Close enough]

0:28:25

BOARD and APNEA finish the top left. just need 36A… don’t know. shouldn’t matter. let’s google it, then look up *M*SIS words. [on onelook.com]

0:29:59

ADANO, ooooh. SSNS. heh. I don’t understand ADJS for 30D but oh well.

0:31:13

TMESIS looks like a good answer, which may mean with tautology and elision, I had all 6 right. It’s the breaking up of a word partway through, like the title of this puzzle. Sold. TMESIS.