This is a fun theme today. Adding a final "E" to the last word of common phrases makes it into a name, and then the clue is appropriately silly. As in "96A: Comic's copy of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'?" (JOKERSWILDE) and "4D: Single copy of 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'?" (LONEWOLFE). And it's not just authors' names, the best one might be "52A: Reason for Brosnan fans to watch 1980s TV?" (BUNSOFSTEELE). Pretty good.
There's some unusual fill, though. We didn't know TROPHIC (51D: Nutrition-related), MEDE (26A: Ancient Persian), or KRAIT (98D: Poisonous snake). That snake, I learn from Wikipedia, is native to Southern India and is one of the "big four" group of snakes responsible for the most human snakebites in South Asia. The other three are the Indian cobra, the Russell's viper, and the Saw-scaled viper. Lucky, there is a widely available "venom neutralizer," so don't cancel that trip just yet.
This had a slightly irreverent vibe. I like NUTCASES (85A: Fruitcakes), REAM (29A: Curse (out), and especially 20A: Words of defiance (SHOVEIT). And OGLES (97D: Eyes) crossing STEAMY (120A: Erotic) is also nice. I also love the cluing on SILENTI (24A: Business feature?), SWISS (31D: Like Vatican guards), SEW (49D: Singers do this), and HATE (84D: Hardly fancy). The pair of "fidgety" answers are also good (ONEDGE & RESTIVE). Great word, RESTIVE. It's one of those that looks like it should mean the opposite of what it does.
Overall, we liked it a lot.
- Horace
p.s. 1A gets an F because, you know... SCALIA.
50:13
ReplyDeleteI have an alternate rating for 1A. On another front, though, I starred most of what Horace mentioned above, but also 56A Beach fronts (BRAS) as being a particularly good clue for that oft-seen bit of crosswordese. IDONTKNOWHOWE many times I'll fall for that SILENTI type of cluing before I come to expect it! Anyway, it was all said in the blog above, so I'll just mention that this took me just the right time to finish for a Sunday; nice puzzle.
I love the title - finally a good way to use the otherwise useless "e-tail." It works perfectly. BUNSOFSTEELE was by far the best theme answer. I really didn't like LIGHTGREENE. Such a blah phrase.
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