0:26:43
Maybe I'm just a little heady 'cause I'm coming off that cold, but I really enjoyed this one. Right from the get-go, I loved the irreverence of 1A: What quoth the raven? (CAW)(!), and then SPRY (4A: Moving well for one's age) is another great word, and soon enough, the whole puzzle was filled with candy! What's not to like? Of course, I didn't know PUSHIT (9A: 1988 Salt-N-Pepa hit). All I know about Salt-N-Pepa is that Patrick Stewart introduced them when they were on Saturday Night Live, and I always say their name (when on those rare occasions it is required) in his voice, but really, I don't know any of their songs. Maybe they even sang "Push It" on that episode, and maybe I saw it, but did it sink in? No. But did that in any way diminish my appreciation of this puzzle? No.
The main difficulty for me was that I put "INStatE" in for INSPIRE (12D: Give rise to). I was thinking that "RTI" could have stood for the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and I had frankly never heard of BORODIN (27A: "Prince Igor" composer)(another Halloween-y clue?), and that could have had an A in it... in short, I was confused, but "Not I" is not the answer to 31A: "Me neither" (NORI), so, eventually, things got fixed.
There were some fun clues in here. 33A: Breathtaking creatures? (BOAS), 59D: Groovy music (LPS), and 58D: Say "I do" when you don't? (LIE). And 44D: Spare wear (GSTRING) was also nice (eh, Huygens?).
Overall, a very nice Wednesday.
- Horace
25:11
ReplyDeleteYes, GSTRING good. Borodin good, also. I'm surprised that you didn't mention the theme for this one. SWEDISHFISH, JELLYBEANS, CANDYCORN, HOTTAMALES, TOOTSIEROLL, and does REESES count? The clue for that one was, however, lame (64A ___ Peanut Butter Cups). I also liked the full RYEBREAD (6D Deli loaf) for that crosswordese clue. It forced me to get a couple of the crosses. And BASTE (22A Moisten, in a way) I thought clever.