1:28:59
BONUS FEATURES
This was a very enjoyable puzzle, which definitely did elicit an AHA (125D: What this puzzle may make you say) from both of us. Frannie figured out half of the trick, by getting things like MOUNTRUSH (6D: It's known for its big busts), but I took it away from her before she was able to check 60A: ---, which, of course, turned out to be HMORE. This realization led us to give up on Ford as a possible answer to 1D: President who was not elected, and put in the also accurate and better fitting FILLMORE (w/26A). Once that was broken, we had the last four letters of all the "---" clues, and that sped things up a bit. Still, it had taken us a good long while to get to that point.
The fill was pretty clean throughout, with several nice, humorous clues. Frannie put in Embalm early for 51D: Treat like a pharaoh?, and the real answer, ENTOMB, is almost as good. I liked learning the word ECOTAGE (34D: Environmental extremists' acts), and I didn't know that it was an ATOM that the woman was holding in the Emmy statuette (I had "ball" in there for a while).
The last area for us was the crossing of SUNG (90A: Belted out) (I had "sang," which loused things up badly), AVEO (96A: Former Chevy subcompact) (Could NOT remember the second letter - L? R?) and the one that Frannie finally shouted out when I changed "sang" to "sung" - LOUVRE (76D: Where the Code of Hammurabi is displayed). Another interesting factoid learned grâce à le NYTX!
Loved 123D: Take the wrong way? (ROB), and 20A: Spanish skating figure (OCHO) was a very tricky one! All in all, a fun Sunday.
- Horace
I can't believe you didn't lead with 18D: What's not yet due? Answer: UNO! This was a pretty funny puzzle, overall. It took me quite some time to figure out the theme as well, but once I got MOUNTRUS-HMORE, I got the long clue in the middle, which led to all the other ones. I particularly likes Sun spot? BALT-IMORE!
ReplyDeleteOoh! I forgot about that one. Thanks for mentioning it! It certainly did bring quite an AHA!
ReplyDelete~1:30
ReplyDeleteI, like the two of you, finished this very quickly once I figured out the theme. Ford screwed me up for awhile (as it did Horace), but once MOUNTRUSHMORE fell, that was it for this puzzle. I originally (and erroneously) filled in EMINEM for 106D, but that turned out to be a theme answer, and EMINEM eventually showed up in 93A. UNO had me stumped for a little bit, and I loved 77A Cereal box title CAPN. Mmmm...crunchy sugar.