It's hit after hit with this puzzle! Which is an odd twist for such a low-key, revealerless theme. (Full disclosure: I used Horace as my personal revealer. TMI?) Five across answers include a slang word for hitting someone: SLUG, BELT, BOP, SOCK, CUFF. It puts me in mind of a great bit in The Philadelphia Story. Katherine Hepburn's mother in the movie keeps trying to improve the vocabulary of her younger daughter. Here's the relevant excerpt:
DINAH: Maybe he's going to sock her.
MRS LORDS: Don't say 'sock,' darling. 'Strike' is quite an ugly enough word.
Overall, a fairly straightforward Wednesday with only a touch of trouble for me at 11D. Hardy work shoe feature (STEELTIP). I am more familiar with steel toe shoes, but BLITZKRIEGBOe isn't a Ramones album. That I know of.
Interesting start with ASHHEAPS at 1A - something you don't see everyday. At least, I hope not. :)
I had a few favorites a little farther along in the puzzle;
27A. Not allowing sales of alcohol (DRY) - so New England.
37A. Wade noisily (SLOSH) - it's kind of the opposite of dry in 2 ways.37D. Walk with an awkward gait (SHAMBLE) - funny word.
49A. "I've seen better" (MEH) - nice clue/answer parallelism.
And how about 14D. Keister (BUTT)? There GOES the neighborhood!
I thought there was a rather high number of verb + preposition combos in the grid today: ATEIN, SOLDTO, SETON, NOTIN, HADIT, CALLEDTO, FEASTON. They just seemed to BLAREOUT at me.
I thought 2D. Granite ______ (New Hampshire resident) STATER was kind of a WOOFER (I hope that isn't HERESY coming from a New Englander), but not much else struck me the wrong way.
~Frannie
4:25
ReplyDeleteSeemed like an easy themeless to me, but since it was a Wednesday, I knew it needed a theme. On reviewing the long answers, I found the connection. Very nice! So much goodness here, smooth and fun. Well done.
5:16
ReplyDeleteNice review, Frannie! I liked it too.
Boy, doesn't EINK look weird?
4:40
ReplyDeleteMy new record for a Wednesday. So no complaints here.
Yeah STEELToe had me for a while as I played around with two letter words that follow "feast", "called", or "not" (for a while had NOToN on the theory that it could be short for "not online" but I'm glad that didn't turn out to be the answer; just seems forced).
ReplyDeleteMessing around with Google makes it look like STEELTIP might have been better clued as a kind of darts, although that would risk going down the path of even more obscure knowledge.
8:49
ReplyDeleteFavorite: BUTT (and its clue, 14D Keister). And we happen to be adding on to our SOLAR electric system here at the YBH, from fifteen to thirty panels due to eliminating all fossil fuel use here; we're on electric heat, hot water and range now. Anywho, DRY we're not, but lately not SLOSHed, either. ASGARD, HERESY and EDEN all in the NW downs; do they GOES together somehow? I liked OFFTHECUFF and TAKEAKNEE down in the SE. And the cross of ROTUND and LOWRIDER reminds me of a great scene from MST3K's "Future War" episode where Crow sings "All...his...pants...are low riders" to the classic song's tune.