0:35:50
We're back on track! After a slight hiccup yesterday, we went through this entertaining puzzle with relative ease. Favorites today include EXACTA (18A: It includes picking the place), TEE (39A: Ball-bearing piece), FAMILYREUNION (36A: Relatively important meeting), and KAPOW (1D: "Batman" comics sound). Frannie liked the sound of the word RIBLET, but not the idea of it as actual food. She also wanted to make it known that she is anti-dog-earing.
Least favorite - ICERAIN (28D: Relative of sleet) - Who says that? - but that's about it. Not a lot of slop today. Some we didn't know, like ADLER and AWN (Although I think we're learning that second one. Wasn't it just clued as some kind of stiff-bristle brush?), but they were gettable with crosses. And we should really give a shout-out to our niece Heather, without whom we might never have known about GOODCHARLOTTE. Thanks, Heather!
I thought GIMMEFIVE (31D: "Up top!") was nice, and it's nice to see ELCAPITAN, VWBEETLE and FATBACK in there. Over all, thoroughly enjoyable.
- Horace
Coincidentally, I read to my dad the clue for EXACTA, prefacing it with, "I suppose you wouldn't know this one. . ." And it was true; he didn't. In fact, it took a considerable amount of explaining and elicited a considerable amount of harrumphing. Thought ITAKE was a very weak answer. Got a kick out of NEWCAR, just because of my memories of watching Let's Make A Deal and hearing--who was it?--Johnny Olson shout it so many times. Agree on ICERAIN. Confession: I got TEE from the downs and didn't even make the mental jump from "ball bearing" to "ball-bearing." I rate this puzzle Easy from a solving standpoint (all ratings are day-specific, of course) and Fair to Low from an entertainment standpoint. Nobody dog-ears anymore, do they?
ReplyDeleteHmm. I quite enjoyed it, but perhaps it was partly in reaction to the last two puzzles, which you won't encounter for quite some time.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you got a paper today! I hope you'll do so for the rest of the weekend, but maybe you should also consider getting one on Monday and having Dad start the crossword. He might like to see what a Monday's like in the NYT.
A commenter on one of the other blogs pointed out that DEIST and NONES (another weak answer) were symmetrical. This guy is a solid constructor, in my book. I'm surprised that you didn't enjoy it more. Maybe explaining EXACTA to Dad took too much wind out of your sails.
ReplyDeleteAlso, nevermind about the Monday puzzle, I see Dad will be home by then.
ReplyDelete52:31
ReplyDeleteEveryone loves KAPOW. It took me a while to get PAKETTLE. I liked WEELAD, too and VWBEETLE. Surprising that I finished a Friday puzzle. BTW, I thought that your dad has experience with the NYT puzzles, and has solved many on trips from Mon-Wed.