Thu., 6/18 Robert E. Lee Morris

[magus]

THEME:   types of nuts found jumbled in phrases
   
GOOD ONES:     
Bar freebie {& theme}   MIXED NUTS [the nuts are mixed in that they are jumbled]   
Broadway flier   PETER PAN [I thought handbill]   
   
BTW:   
Somme summer   ETE [I like the clue, pronounced /sum summer/ as in the expression "Some summer we're having."  If only ETE were ever used in our language.  Is this the time to repeat my suggestion for the ubiquitous ETE:  "Gam end?"]   
   
1976 Olympics decathlon gold medalist   JENNER [still finding it hard to believe]   
   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

I thought today's "Mixed Nuts" crossword was very creative. Not only did it contain the names of three nuts---no, not Moe, Larry and Curly; they are ALMOND, PECAN and CASHEW---the names were also scrambled within the longer answers: TOMLANDRY, SPACENEEDLE and NEWSCHANNEL.

Today's NEA crossword has 42 black squares. Forty-two! And the grid is only 13x13. That means that one-fourth of the 169 squares were black. Yikes! And in the white squares were more of the over-used words: ALP, ARC, ART, ELL, OLE, OSLO and UTE.

Robert Morris's crossword also had several over-used words: ALIT, EAU, ETE, INN, ORE, OREO, URN.....and ERES for "Cockney toast starter"? Really?

ETA and ETD ("estimated time of arrival" and "estimated time of departure") often appear in crosswords. I just discovered that there is a related term, ETE ("estimated time enroute"). There is a discussion of the term on Microsoft's Flight Simulator page. So the puzzle creators do have a way to clue ETE without referring to summer in France!

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/archive/index.php/t-30891.html