0:13:10
Let's see... where's that theme? I saw a reference to it while I was doing the puzzle, but I didn't see all the "TANs" until now. Interesting. Kind of an odd theme, really, but not bad, I guess.
Aside from NATANT (12D: Floating), UNHAT (21A: Take the top off of, in a way), SURAL (35A: Relating to the calf), and a few names I didn't know, there wasn't much to complain about. (OK, that's not an insignificant amount of stuff, and I didn't even mention WAAC!) Well - I do prefer seeing TASED (51D: Shocked, in a way) with a Z, but I'm really not even sure if it is the preferred spelling or not. Maybe "tased" is British, and maybe that's the "way" referred to in the clue. Probably not. Hmm... when I type "tazed" into Google, it asks me if I meant "tased." But when I tried to write those into Blogger here, it accepted "tazed," but changed "tased" into "based." Inconclusive.
Anywho... MOES (39A: Where Duff Beer is poured) is pretty good, as far as Simpsons references go, and I like the second Star Trek reference in a row this week - SCOTTY (13D: "Star Trek" character who says "Aye" a lot). I also absolutely love INSTANTANEOUSLY (50A: Without delay). I love it when single words span the grid. They are more beautiful, to me, than broken up phrases.
Let's see, what else? OWNS (10A: Defeats regularly, in slang) is a nice, modern usage, and I love the word SINEW (14A: Muscular strength), although I usually think of it as the physical muscle, not what might flow from the muscle. And is NET really best described as "4D: Last figure on an invoice?" I usually think of "net" when I'm thinking of incoming money, not outgoing.
OK, so I have a lot of NITs (58D: Minor complaint), not least of which is that I hate that word. Weird theme, but a lot of it. Some good clues/answers, but a fair amount of esoteric weirdness, names, partials and abbreviations. Let's give it another Simpsons reference - "Meh."
- Horace
21:22
ReplyDeleteINSTANTANEOUSLY had me flummoxed until I filled in nearly all of the crosses! I agree that a single word span is great, I just wasn't ready for it. I never heard of NATANT and didn't know that GIJOES were 44D Toys known as Action Men in the U.K. I wanted AA League, or something similar, for 54A Where some ex-major-leaguers play (JAPAN), but it wouldn't fit. Also I was thinking either tango or salsa for 32A Quick ballroom dance (CHACHA). Anyway, I filled it in well enough. I liked the summery theme since we still have 1/3 of the High Season to go!