2:20:30
BURJKHALIFA? (1A: World's tallest building). OK, Mr. Lim, we see how it's going to be...
This one was tough, but I liked it. So many tricky clues. Like 11D: Forward, back or center (ATHLETE) for example... or 36A: Belfast is on its shore (MAINE)! We had a tough time in the NE, but almost everything, once it was gotten, elicited a sigh of understanding rather than a groan. "23A: She's beautiful, per a popular song," for example, (AMERICA), was great. And 12D: Like every Bond film since 1989 (PGTHIRTEEN) had us going down many, many wrong paths.
If it wasn't for our friend Andrew, who knew 7D: "I shall not find myself so ____ die": Antony (APTTO), AND KTOSLIN (5D: Singer of the 1987 #1 country hit "Do Ya"), we might never have finished, because you know we didn't know the name of that building!
This not only seemed especially tricky, it also seemed particularly clean. Sure, the somewhat common TSR (54A: Co. purchased by Wizards of the Coast) was there (but with a clue we'd not seen before), and YAGO (45D: ____ Sant'Gria (wine choice)) was right next to IGOR (46D: Servant in the "Discworld" novels), and we knew neither, but the crosses were gettable, and good, so I don't much mind.
Lastly, Frannie didn't love CRANIA as "43A: Trepanning targets," thinking that trepanning really just went through the crania, and targeted something on the other side, but, well, neither of us are doctors, so perhaps we're missing something. (If only Colum looked at this blog on days other than Sunday...)
Regardless of that detail, I thought this was a good, satisfying solve.
- Horace
Strangely enough, my mother and I attacked this puzzle yesterday while I was visiting her in NYC to celebrate her 75th birthday. The first clues answered were 12A (PIC) and 12D (PGTHIRTEEN), which leapt into my head immediately. HELSINKI seemed right for Sibelius, so CRANIA was an early get as well. I disagree with Frannie: trepanning is the act of boring a hole through the skull, so its immediate target is the cranium. If it had said "Trepanning goal", I would agree. Loved CRONYISM (Partial appointments, which had us scratching our CRANIA for a while). And WISDOMTEETH was great as well. A lot of fun, and two CRANIA were certainly better than one on this one.
ReplyDeleteOops, that was from me, not Hope...
ReplyDeleteHow fortunate, and remarkable, that you should comment when we specifically called you out! Yes, we decided a similar thing about trepanning, once we looked it up. Also got Helsinki quickly, but struggled more, as we mentioned, with 12D. Two heads are always better than one, and it was Frannie who put WISDOMTEETH in very early on, and who knew what they wanted for CRONYISM before we actually worked it out. She immediately thought "nepotism," but that, of course, did not work out.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks for checking in, and though it was you both times, it's nice to see photos of you both together here in the comments.
Oh, and Happy Birthday to your mother!
ReplyDeleteI did this one in about 55 minutes, with the NW taking up about a third of that. Loved it except maybe for Yeah ("Sweet!") PGTHIRTEEN was indeed a toughie. So much quality long stuff and very little crap.
ReplyDeleteDNF (72:09)
ReplyDeleteI filled in a nice, thick swath from the NE to the SW, but had trouble in the NW and the SE. This filled in quickly (in around 25 minutes), but no amount of staring helped me with the trouble sections, so I TITT.