0:17:37
Kind of an odd puzzle, if you ask me. It's interesting to know that those words come from the Chinese, but it all seemed a bit random. Still, the Chinese added a nice variety of words into the grid. KUMQUAT (1A: *Relative of an orange) is good, but the resulting QID (quater in die?) isn't something that I am familiar with, even though I can figure out the Latin. And while we're up there in the NW, we thought UTERI was weak. And, really, who says KALES (1D: Nutrient-rich cabbages)?
I did like some of the clues, especially 25A: Race with lots of passing (RELAY), and 33D: Foofaraw (TODO). I am amused by the various words that the constructors come up with for "to do" and "ado." Like David Steinberg's choice of "Rowdydow" for "ado," for example. Perhaps you have your own favorites.
- Horace
12:54
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the “W” crosses in the east (YOW with KOWTOW and SWE). Lots of names in here (EDASNER, BARAK, HORATIO, MARCONI, ALADDIN, KURT, NERO, OONA (did I miss any?)). My least favorite clue/answer is 61D “I know! I know!” (OHOH). I’m sure that Horace didn’t like it on several levels, the first being that it’s a quote clue. I liked seeing HYUNDAI in there, since that’s currently my brand. For 8A *Tropical storm, I’d first filled in cYclOne, but that didn’t work once I got to 11D ___Pinafore (HMS, obvi!), so I quickly changed it to TYPHOON, which worked just fine. And Horace, the only way I'd use "kales" is if I were telling Sue that the Market Basket had several varieties of kales available (which they sometimes do), but even that's a stretch.
14:31. Seemed tough because I got no traction at all in the NW where I --and I imagine most solvers--always start. Really didn't turn out to be too tough. Like Horace, I enjoyed the novelty added by the theme. I must confess right now that I don't know if BARAK is the first name or the last name of the former Israeli Prime Minister. I guess I better look it up when I post this comment. Huygens, I hated OHOH at first, but Rex's blog cleared it up for me and made me think it was actually quite clever (usually I hate all such answers). The stress goes on the "I," not the "know" of the clue. Picture a kid in class raising her hand and exclaiming either the clue of the answer. Here's another somewhat embarrassing confession: When I read the clue "Foofaraw," I already had the O from HORATIO and--even though I knew it couldn't be the answer, despite the fact that the Sunday puzzle had MIDGET--the first thing I thought of was "Homo."
ReplyDeleteTo come clean a bit, Frannie did most of this one. She did, however, ask what day it was, when she, too, had trouble getting started. Sometimes I'll erase the puzzle when she does it first in the early week, but today I just reviewed the clues and wrote this (obviously cursory) review.
ReplyDeleteOHOH would have been acceptable if it had been clued with something like "Horshack's usual utterance" or something like that.
And ET59, that's hilarious, and it would have been quite a stretch. Although, as you say, MIDGET was in on sunday, and COOLIE, right? What next, "quadroon?"