Too bad today's puzzle falls to me to review - music isn't really my aria - I am easily the least musical of the HAFDTNYTCPFCA triumvirate. I did study flute for years when a youth but have retained very little of what I "learned." It's a NATURALLAW that an unused skill gets rusty, non? It is this rust on which I blame my initial error at 63A - that, and the fact that I paid no attention to the beginning of the clue ("Speaking of which ... or where the starts of 16-, 30- and 45-Across can be found?"). I first tried ONTHepiano, which didn't hit all the required notes. Once I got 41D: "Lacking, with 'of'" (BEREFT), I realized I had made a major mistake. The correct answer, ONTHATNOTE, sounds better all around. There was, perhaps, a small partita of bonus theme material in ETUDE.
I found two clues particularly humoresque. "Like I, for one? (ROMAN) and the one for the third theme answer, "One who says that you're not on the ball?" (FLATEARTHER) - ha!
The enjoyed the small ensemble of French answers, CHEZ and ETRE. EQUIP for "Gear up" got a rondo of applause. The references to old favorites BAZOOKA, MAGOO, and Star Trek struck a nice chord.
From da capo to coda, a fine Monday opus, even though it took only a few minuets to solve.
~Frannie.
Clever write-up, as usual. I too loved FLATEARTHER. It's hard to make great clues at the Monday level of difficulty, I suppose, but that's a terrific one. I like the clue for ROMAN too, but I have to admit that it eluded me while solving. I don't think I even glanced at it; got the entire word from the across answers. We must be similar enough in age: I too was going to give a shoutout to BAZOOKA and the fabulous Mr. MAGOO :) Didn't this blog used to give a grade to 1 Acrosses? I'll pick up the slack: a generous D-. PIPE is pedestrian, and it's clue is ridiculously starightforward and bland. And how often does a pipe really leak? Isn't it usually a joint? 5 Across made me think of an old Horace nugget: "Fill in G-O-G-H here." We don't ask a helluva lot from Mondays, right? This was a fine one indeed, if only for the 45 Across clue. But, damn, for some reason, 27 Down sent me to youtube to watch a certain scene from Spinal Tap. A different clue on that one would have made this epic. "One who threatened a Stonehenge prop on stage." Not politically correct anymore, perhaps.
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