Sunday, March 17, 2013

Thursday, March 14, 2013, Mike Buckley

0:34:46

Einstein quote: "Creativity is the residue of wasted time"

Not sure I completely agree with that, but whatever.

I'm a francofile and I don't even like the answer ABBE (15A: French cleric). The very next across, however, CAPN (16A: Superior of a bos'n) pretty much made up for it. I don't know why, but that clue and answer made me smile. Maybe because it made me think of Cap'n Crunch cereal... Nice to see cerium and samarium getting a shout out as rare EARTHS (22A: Cerium and samarium are rare ones) - I like it when I learn something new from doing a puzzle. Now if I can remember those two elements, I'll be even happier. I might remember cerium, as it was named after Ceres (the planet and the goddess, I guess), and who doesn't like astronomy and/or Classical mythology? And speaking of that, it's always nice to picture a nice crown of LAUREL (23A: Classic prize), isn't it? A RHODO is a (29A: Showy bloom, to flower enthusiasts)? Who knew? Is it really just short for rhododendron? Lame. SARA (60A:  "_____ Smile" (1976 top 5 hit)) Really? Wow.

Doesn't YAR (20D: Quick to the helm) make you think of Katharine Hepburn? Me too. And what's wrong with that? The ESSO (26A: It, in Italy) / OSSIE (28D: Actor Davis) cross was a tough one. It could, I suppose, have been ESSa and aSSIE, but then Assie is even odder a name than Ossie, so I guess it was guessable. Still, not great. Also, I had never heard of a DHOTI (30D: Indian attire), and I wasn't positive that NERO (37A: 2009 "Star Trek" villain) was correct, even though I've seen that movie twice, but Nero is a known name, and could easily be a villain, so, again, guessable.

I kind of like it when two answers are clued in the exact same way, but I like it more when the meanings of the answers are completely different. This is not the case with DATED (36D: Went out with) and SAW (40D: Went out with). Both answers refer to seeing someone socially. I'd rather have seen "dated" and "exited" or something like that. I wish I had a better example, but I think you get the idea.

- Horace

4 comments:

  1. And it's because of you, Sanderson, that yar does make me think of her.

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  2. I really enjoyed this one. I had a cross of write-overs in the middle, which was unfortunate because I knew Ossie Davis. For some reason, I let myself write in Ozzie since I thought "Be half-asleep had to be "snooze." When I think about it more, I know it doesn't quite work. Horace, you don't know the great Hall and Oates classic "Sara Smile"??? I thought 1-down SPACED for "Like this" was very clever and original. Enjoyed PILL for "Hard to tolerate sort." Mostly, though, this one was fun because of the quote. I read "on which Stephen Colbert commented" and I was excited to find out what it was. Granted, the answer was slightly disappointing, but sometimes the anticipation is better than the payoff. Agree that EARTHS is very good.

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  3. Not only didn't I know it, but I am surprised to learn that Hall and Oates were putting out hits in 1976. I consider them to be more of an 80's band, but then, I didn't really pay any attention to them in those years, either. The "SPACED" clue was a nice one, I agree.

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