Monday, September 7, 2020

Monday, September 10, 2020, Gareth Bain

0:03:59

Today when I got to the revealer starting with "How tall Barbie is ..." I thought that she must have been designed to represent either the average, or someone's ideal, height for a woman. I noticed that "five ft four" would fit, but I wondered if that was too short (my own ideal being about 5'9"). In the end, I chuckled when the answer turned out to be ABOUTAFOOT. Mr. Bain was referring to the doll itself, of course, and to the various parts of the foot called out at the ends of the four thematic answers: ARCH, TOE, HEEL, and SOLE. It's kind of cool that TARSI is standing up at the top of the grid, as the puzzle's own ankle. Was that intentional? 

LARD
The feature-length Downs are all quite geographic, with PARTHENON (Temple on Athens's Acropolis), WESTBANK (Where Jericho and Bethlehem are located), VENICE, LAGALAXY, and SESAMEOIL (Staple of Asian cooking) sending the mind to far-off lands. Even the shorter BEALE Street gets into the act, though Memphis is the closest of the bunch by far.

Lots of names today - IVAN, MEL, AVA,  ANDRE, Ocsar DELA Renta, ONO, BIEL, CONRAD, TORI, TALESE, ... is that all? I suppose LAMA, CREE, and maybe even ERIN could also be included.

VAVA ("____-voom!") is probably the worst offender today, but it's pretty clean overall, the theme is solid (how many other foot parts are there?) and it got a laugh. What else can one ask for on a Monday. Now it's onward to MARDI!


- Horace


4 comments:

  1. 4:07
    Happy Labor Day! Very funny theme. I laughed out loud when I got the final revealer. Did not see it coming at all.

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  2. Longtime lurker, first time commenter. Love your blog. But as a former Memphian, I must take umbrage at the association of Beale Street with Nashville!

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    1. Geez! I'm sorry - Memphis! We've actually been there, and I'm sorry for the mistake, but at least it got you to comment. :) I'll fix it in the review, but your comment will forever show my mistake. Thanks for the correction!

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  3. 5:36
    Nice time, Horace, but Monday was the 7th day of the month. I also thought it a clean and well-done puzzle with amusing theme and very little junk (or "glue"). SEXTALK was surprising, although the quotes in the clue gave it away. LARD is unfortunate; I always need to ask about the crust if ordering a pie for dessert in a restaurant. Restaurants love to put animal products hidden where they don't need to be, such as LARD in crusts, chicken stock in risotto or rice or soup or mashed potatoes, beef stock in soup, rennet in cheese, etc. Glad the anonymous lurker offered a comment!

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