Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013, H. David Goering

0:07:15

The theme is somewhat interesting, and it sure is convenient that the longest name for the left hand and the revealer are both 15 letters long, but this puzzle seemed way too easy for a Wednesday, and a little too full of DARER (57A: Courageous one) (all left hand), ASPIRER, ANAEMIAATNO, and ETAL.

I like SCHWAS (5D: Start and end of 3-Down, phonetically), but I never even saw the clue until just now, reviewing the puzzle for this review. And I can't decide whether to love or hate ATHWART (2D: Crosswise). SKIRMISH (9D: Minor battle) is nice, too. And SEAGATE (44D: Channel to the ocean), too, is a good word.

I just didn't love this one as I was doing it, which is too bad, as I review it now, because there really was some nice material. I think it was something about the clueing that turned me against it. Also, our "pigs in blankets" were not WIENERS, they were some kind of ground meat. And the blankets were cabbage leaves. And we had them with raisin sauce. Mmmm..... those were the days.

- Horace

2 comments:

  1. 18:02
    You're talking about a galumpki, not a pig in a blanket. Also, I thought that I completed this somewhat quickly, but looking at your time, I guess not! I enjoyed the theme. I'd never heard the term MASSIFS (1D Mountainous expanses), but my father isn't a geologist. I also wasn't aware of MEDINA, thinking that the answer was perhaps Mecca. I enjoyed seeing ARSE, though. All-in-all, a good puzzle.

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  2. I was really only familiar with MASSIF through French, as there is a region of France called the Massif Central (which, by the way, we drove right through last summer), but French loanwords are common, so I tried it and it stuck. Also, didn't know MEDINA, but knew of it, and sometimes that's enough. Everything I tried today turned to gold. Sometimes it's like that.

    Are we allowed to say "galumpki?"

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