Saturday, September 6, 2014

Saturday, September 6, 2014, James Mulhern

1:07:53

Tricky! A lot of fun stuff in this one, which was technically a FWOE for us because I entered "eSE" for OSE (30A: Malt finisher?), and never looked back, even when ORSINe was filled in for ORSINO (12D: Duke of Illyria, in Shakespeare). Other than that, though, no troubles.



Some nicely misleading clues here. 16A: Point of origin for some flights (AERIE) had us stumped for a long time on a very common crossword entry. 19A: Cause of many unwelcome lines (AGE) was cute, but I got that one right away. One of the benefits of being so old, perhaps… I enjoyed the references to Ratso Rizzo (ENRICO (21A: Ratso's given name)), and the ROADRUNNER (24A: Predigital beeper?).

Frannie seemed to recognize that PINKYSWEAR (48A: Use a two-digit confirmation code) was a thing. I was thinking along those lines, but was stuck on "Scout's Honor," even though that's three, I think. Was Cub Scouts two? Anyway, it's not important.

SQUIRTGUN (57A: One may soak a competitor) and PUTSASIDE (61A: Tables or shelves) (great clue!) was a good pair down in the SE. Crossing NEOLOGIC (37D: Linguistically adventurous) and GERTRUDE (38D: "Most seeming-virtuous queen," in Shakespeare) too. A lovely corner.

Also enjoyed, for once, a HANGOVER (2D: It can be a headache), IDEEFIXE (3D: Preoccupation) was some nice French (that major is finally paying off!), and MAGNUMOPUS (10D: Prime piece) is lovely.

Not super-familiar with the expression 54D: Give ____ (have any interest) ARAP, but I suppose I ought to be. One little thing, though - Couldn't a MYOPE (10A: Person lacking foresight?) be thought of as someone who has "fore" sight?  I mean, I get it, they can't see into the future ("far"), but it sounds like the opposite, doesn't it?

Overall, this was a very enjoyable Saturday puzzle. Thumbs up!

- Horace

4 comments:

  1. I'll call it a FWOE for the same reason as you, in 41:16. A lot of truly excellent clues and answers. I had the NW filled pretty quickly after I guessed CROAKS correctly. But I was stuck in the SW for a long time since I had CELERYSalt. I never use either in my salad dressings, but oh, well. I also tried "bluecheese". Another adventurous entry was "xenoglot" for NEOLOGIC. Things I loved: PUTSASIDE (Tables or shelves), GERTRUDE and ORSINO, IDEEFIXE, and MAGNUMOPUS. Things I didn't like: BSA and TSA right next to each other, OTO, DOST, and MYOPE. AANDE got me for the umpteenth time. EEYORE and PISCES were well-clued right next to each other. Over all an excellent Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We had the exact same problem in the SW, and were stuck down there for at least 30% of the time. Then we spent probably five more minutes looking for that OSE!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also a FWOE in 42:43 in the same place with ORSINE. Foolish because I played lute for Twelve Night in college and was thinking ORSINO, but not MALTOSE.

    Curiously, we finished the SW first in about 5 minutes thanks to OPERAS, ONLINE, ENLIST, RETRO, TEST, and PINKYSWEAR (Double PINKYSWEAR if it's really important, I believe). All came quite easily. It was the east that gave us trouble. We liked ROADRUNNER, IDEEFIXE, STAINED teeth and glass, and seeing KOFI Annan in there. I hate to see the CHICKFIL-A zealot get any publicity, even in a grid. And I liked the cluing effort misdirect made on the otherwise crosswordese ABUTS (50D: Meets) and AERIE (16A: Point of origin for some flights.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 63:12
    Sign me up for the FWOE! What's that, all four of us? I wonder if it was a popular error outside of this blog. EVINCE was nice, DEXTER is always welcome, even though it had a few meh seasons. What about GASSY (18A Overly talkative)? I've never heard that used in a sentence. And it's quite timely to see CHICKFILA in there (1A Big chain closed on Sundays), as its founder died the next morning (Sunday) at, I think, 93 years old. Even the REEL/REED pairing was nicely clued (34A An early Disney cartoon had one and 46A Harmonica piece). And need I say that no one likes a RADIOEDIT; just play the whole damned thing.

    ReplyDelete