Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday, February 17, 2014, David Gray

0:06:42

My goodness, I almost forgot to write this one up! I did it last night, but have since moved on (I went back and did an entire week of old puzzles, including a Saturday, with Frannie, on this holiday morning.) But let's see… ahh, yes… UNCLEBUCK (17A: 1989 John Hughs movie starring John Candy). Can any puzzle referencing "Uncle Buck" be all bad? Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen it, but John Candy is enough. And if he weren't, Eric Idle would be ("Say no more").

TAKESIT (21A: Accepts punishment unflinchingly) was somewhat surprising, and it was a little weird that Leon Spinks was referenced twice (ALI (54A: Spinks foe) and LEONS (71A: Boxer Spinks and others)). Other than that, though, the downs were, on the whole, more interesting than the Acrosses (not counting theme material). I liked INCISOR (3D: Front tooth), ANKARA (8D: Turkey's capital), the full ETCETERA (9D: And so on), ALLSTARS (39D: Best of the best, sportswise), and SCOWLS (53D: Looks of displeasure), to name several. Long gone are the days when ETICKET (48D: Printout taken to the airport, maybe) could be clued with a reference to rides at Disney World, but that would have given it to me more quickly today.

I know it's Monday, but I will never stop being surprised by clues like 46A: Biblical garden (EDEN) and 69A: "Mona ____" (LISA). But it is Monday, so I can't complain. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good one.

- Horace

2 comments:

  1. 5:02. Back after a week away. A very well done Monday puzzle, with surprisingly long answers in all 4 corners. Sure you have your OED, NBC, USB, CPU, AKA, but the clues are nicely done, like the 22,000 pages of the OED. INCISOR and ETCETERA were very nice. I wanted LIaison for LINKAGE, but still a good 7-letter answer. And the theme answers were well done as well. NOMORETEARS reminds me of the old shampoo.

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  2. 9 mins.
    That shampoo is still around, isn't it (Johnson & Johnson)? Although, I don't think that I know anyone that uses it.... Horace should watch UNCLEBUCK. I'm pretty sure that it would hold up nicely. I liked seeing EDNA (18D Poet ____ St.Vincent Millay) in there, though the "poet" part was probably unnecessary.

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