2021 clue round-up

by ada nicolle

Here are some of the notable clues I wrote in 2021! The idea of this post is borrowed directly from Kate. Answers are in white text. Happy new year!

Personal favourites:
[Rager after the hobbit party?] ORC
[Cinnabar, e.g., but not Cinnabon] ORE
[Song sung by Captain Hook in Brian David Gilbert’s “AAAH!BBA” series] SOS
[Music genre that’s the opposite of lawful neutral?] ANARCHO-PUNK
[Event where you can see eye-to-eye with your higher-ups?] SAME HEIGHT PARTY

Fun facts:
[Country often referred to by the landmass it comprises 23% of, briefly] USA
[Alan who met his wife by eating fallen rum cake with her at a party, according to a viral Wikipedia screenshot] ALDA
[Company whose logo was designed to look like Pong (I don’t see it)] ATARI

Fun with fill-in-the-blanks:
[___: you are solving a crossword (TikTok caption for a video of you solving this puzzle, potentially)] POV
[“Been wondering recently whether ___ Klobuchar is the name of a comedian I know or a crossword constructor I know. Wasn’t expecting it to be a presidential candidate, gonna be real” – @adanicklmao, Jan 14, 2020] AMY
[Febreze : your room :: ___ : your armpit] AXE
[“still ___ tho” (r/egg_irl catchphrase)] CIS
[“Cool thing about life is you can say ‘hey, I’m sorry about the whole situation with your ___’ and it will apply to 95% of people” – @KylePlantEmoji] DAD

Things I found funny:
[Your like really old?] THY

[Animal who’s kind of Sus?] PIG

[Sea that’s more of a sea-minus if you know what I mean?] ARAL

[Drink my dad thinks I won’t like because I haven’t responded well to lagers] IPA

[Like the kip, a currency unit worth 0.00 Bitcoin (yeah this cluing angle ends immediately)] LAO

[Bit of work??? In science class??? Okay you know the drill, type in ERG] ERG

This barely even works as a clue:

[(imagine you’re making one of these right now) me: “ooooh i hope you don’t punch me”] FIST

[specify photo app] IGLIVE (yeah I just straight-up forgot to clue this one, oof)

[Side with a pinch of flavor???] CRAB SALAD

[Un-iron-ic?????] CREASE-RESISTANT

Times I mentioned AJR:

[“___ on the G String” (piece sampled on AJR’s “The Good Part”)] AIR

[Prefix for “theater”, in an AJR album] NEO

[Condition that Jack thought he had, in AJR’s “Three-Thirty”] ADHD

[Instrument featured on AJR’s “Sober Up”] CELLO

[AJR song with the lyric “recently he said that she said that we said some shit that you wouldn’t believe”] DRAMA

[Horror film from which the bridge for AJR’s “Birthday Party” is taken] ERASERHEAD

Misdirects:

[Sign that you’ll be staying up to watch the show?] SRO
[Position of power?] NTH
[Pack lunch?] ALPO
[Dream pop?] DILF
[Car max?] SPEED LIMIT
[Group of hot singles?] TOP TEN HITS
[Moving rendition?] WORK-OUT REMIX
[Old lines of computers?] I’M A MAC, AND I’M A PC
[One-off connection, maybe?] NUMBER NEIGHBOR
[Special someone?] STAND-UP COMEDIAN
[They’ll give you points for organization] BULLET JOURNALS

Clue I never used cause it doesn’t work when you think about it too hard but come on I have to share it:
[Mutually exclusive?] INVITE-ONLY (“mutuals” meaning “friends” in this sense, which doesn’t really make sense)