0:26:09
The PHYSICSFORMULAS (60A: What the three sets of circled squares in this puzzle represent) were very clever, and the rest of the puzzle held together pretty well. Some oddities, and some crosswordese, but, well, it was worth it today.
I found the clue 50A: The Yoko of "Oh Yoko!" (ONO) to be somewhat odd. I mean, how many Yokos are there? Just one–at least as far as crossword puzzles are concerned. To put it into the clue twice seems, well, odd. I also find that my French major has never come in so handy as it does doing these things. I mean, yesterday we had "Massifs," and today we have DETROP (64A: Too much). I thought of "de trop" immediately when I read the clue, but I then thought to myself, Well, sure, Frannie says that all the time, but it's French, so it can't be the answer. Is it English? Is "de trop" common in English?
3D: Center of a square, maybe (STATUE) was a very nice clue. And who knew there was an EEL river (33D: California's ____ River)? It was nice to see ERECTORSET (28D: Old A. C. Gilbert toy) in the grid, but does ENVIRON really mean to 44D: Form a ring around? (Yup, I guess it does. Who knew?)
In the SW, I had guessed the more popular (and less scary) LSD for 60D: Hallucinogenic inits. (PCP), which started "66A: Some Groucho Marx humor" with a D, so I tried "dark." I think it's kind of funny that "dark" should have turned to PUNS.
Did not like the SMEARY (49D: Like wet paint)/NYX (68A: Greek night goddess) crossing. Really would have felt better about "Nox" as the night goddess, but it said Greek, not Roman, and I didn't know of a goddess with either name, so we went with the Y. Still... "smeary?" EGAD.
- Horace
p.s. I wish it could be settled once and for all whether the drink is "Iced tea" or ICETEA (43A: Ingredient in an Arnold Palmer) as Mr. Polin has it here. (Deb Amlen agrees with me that it should be "iced.")
Here is a rare Friday comment to make up for the missing Sunday last week (while on vacation). At first, I expected the theme to be those old word puzzles ("I" placed below "stand" to represent "I understand"), but I much preferred the simple ratios. I had a lot of difficulty with 1A (OBS), being stuck on UPS, so northwest was the last to go. This is not uncommon for me: I find the southeast the easiest.
ReplyDeleteUnknown time.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why I haven't commented on this one previously. It's possibly because we discussed it at the HBH. You know that I loved this one, being somewhat of a physics buff. This was all relatively easy, non-calculus based physics, but enjoyable nonetheless. It took me awhile to get the theme, but once that happened everything fell into place pretty quickly. I also had LSD in first (where PCP belonged) and enjoyed seeing the more interesting clue for EEL. A Beach Boys fan, I also liked the SLOOPS clue, and I'm always ready for ALOU whenever there is a baseball family name reference, though I'd never seen the "Dominican" used before. Great puzzle.