Monday, December 2, 2013

Monday, December 2, 2013, Adam G. Perl

0:05:51

Decent Monday. Tons of theme material and all of the long answers from which the theme was pulled were perfectly un-strained, normal constructions. The fill was really quite clean despite the 45 theme squares, but then, in early-week puzzles, I often find things like ANIL (7D: Indigo dye) and ANAT (54D: Med. school subj.) almost comforting. Truly, though, that was about it for crosswordese, and there was plenty of good stuff to cushion it, like CODDLE (45D: Treat like a baby), ERELONG (9D: Soon, old-style), OXYGEN (27A: Scuba tank content), and INERTIA (42D: Subject of Newton's first law of motion), among others.

Funny that we see the uncommon (and prudely clued) AREOLA (28A: Colored part of the iris) today, when we just saw AREOLE (38A: Biological ring) yesterday. And we've got side-by-side French fill in IDEES (35D: Notions: Fr.) and GARDE (36D: En ____ (fencer's cry)), and they're right below another language pair - VOGUE (12D: Style) and ESSEN (13D: City on the Ruhr).

This is just what a Monday ought to be. A simple cakewalk, to be sure, but one that's got a fun theme and not too much ridiculous fill. Nice job, Mr. Perl.

- Horace

4 comments:

  1. 4:08. A real cakewalk. I got all the long clues in about 10 seconds after filling in 1A. I particularly liked TENON. ANEGG was a fine finish to "Lay ____ (bomb)". Hardly any Scrabble points, except the X in OXYGEN. Fun Monday.

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  2. 7:11
    Very quick romp through this one. I didn't slow down at all filling this in (though it seemed to take me a bit longer than you two). There were no obvious REDHERRINGS today, though I didn't immediately know 16A Grandson of Eve (ENOS) without the crosses.

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  3. I found the theme rather ridiculous. Made for too easy a puzzle, even for a Monday. One clue impressed me: "Nothing doing" for IDLE. When OXYGEN, CODDLE, and INERTIA pass for quality longer entries, you know you have a clunker.

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  4. Oh! Frannie loved "Nothing doing" too. Thanks for mentioning it.

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