1:20:36
STIR CRAZY
The blue/red rebus was very clever, but the iPad wouldn't take "bluered" as correct, so we spent about fifteen or twenty minutes changing all of them to "redblue," then, after reading Deb Amlen's blog, to just "blue," and finally it took it. It didn't help that we also had an error at "YMHo" (89D: Jewish males' org.). I couldn't make HoTE make any sense for 107A: Hardly fancy?, but I put it in anyway. Turns out it was YMHA and HATE. Much better on the across. The down, well, it could have been "organization" just as easily as "association," as far as we knew.
So anyway, all that gave us a little bit of a negative feeling, but really, the grid wasn't that bad. As we noted, the purple theme was nice, and consistently blue-across/red-down, which was good and, I suppose, necessary. Never heard of OLETA (9A: Adams with the 1991 hit "Get Here") or an HORA (40A: Part of a wedding celebration), and I can't decide whether I love or hate ELECT crossing ERECT. It's odd. 24A: One who works at home (UMPIRE) was cute.
I am so sick of seeing ELHI in the grid. "Eel" has grown on us, and we almost hope for it, but "ELHI" is not the same. Does anyone ever say that? What ever happened to the not-crossword-friendly "K-12?"
I don't know, as I review this, I like it less and less. I'd better stop here.
- Horace
I actually rather enjoyed this one. Got the rebus idea with REDBARON, but couldn't understand REDPERIOD until I figured out the across being BLUE. My only complaint (and maybe this would be asking too much) was that the RED going downward was only the color in four of the twelve answers. The HORA is a celebratory Jewish dance.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Colum, and yes, I was too hard on this one. I should've waited a little longer before writing the review. Also, it's very hot here.
ReplyDeleteI'm an idiot to think that "organization" could have been right, as "org." Was given in the clue. Ah well... sometimes it's like that.
It's really a pity you don't do the Saturday and/or Friday sometimes. Both were fun this pat week. But hey, there I go again being too negative... Thanks for reading AND commenting on Sundays!
"past"
ReplyDelete1:19:09
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand "REDANGEL" or "DRESSREDS" until I figured out that it was RED/BLUE. Very clever and a fun puzzle in total.
SJY said she's still looking over last Monday's puzzle and claims to have some ideas for answers. I'll continue on with last Th, Fr and Sat and comment over the next day or two.
I enjoyed the theme, although none of the theme answers were hard in the least. Pretty fast fill--I was able to move in a steady wave from NW to SE as usual--but ultimately a DNF because of the damned T at the end of Arendt. I know I should have known PETIT, but I didn't see it because I really wanted Arends. YMHA is very weak. ELHI is even worse. I think the next constructor who uses it should be required to produce a published work that contains the ridiculous form. ONEBC is fairly lame, as well. Liked seeing OLEANDER, since it reminds me of Steely Dan; also love seeing "Big Red," since the Belmont was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there some way you could make me a "friend of the blog" so that I wouldn't have to jump through all of these hoops to post a comment? And why do those two(!) words always have to be so hard to read?
ReplyDeleteI thought I had the settings set to allow anyone to post, but I guess that's not the case. I'm not really up on the technical aspects of Blogger, but I'll look into it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting!