1:10:44
I had high hopes when I entered the first three Acrosses immediately, but the second one - "wants" - turned out to be wrong (LONGS (10A: Joneses)), and even with the other two in place, there were many, many more that took a long while. We passed the iPad back and forth between us, though, and eventually everything worked out.
SOLASTYEAR (14D: Totally out) and GRAVESTONE (13D: Where to read a plot summary) were good ones, and the top two in the NW, KAMASUTRA (1A: Position papers?) and EGOMANIAC (15A: Vanity case?) were fun, even though they were immediately obvious today, for some reason. Much of the rest either was completely unknown - LELAND (10D: Tycoon Stanford), ALANMOORE (63A: Writer of the graphic novel "Watchmen"), PENA (42A: Mexican president Enrique ____ Nieto), ERICH (31D: Longtime Cincinnati Pops conductor Kunzel), STAN (54D: "Mr. Mom" director Dragoti) (really? this is common knowledge in 2014?), NELLE (48D: Lawyer on "Ally McBeal") (again, when was that show on?..) - or kind of odd. Frannie didn't particularly love MILITARIES (27D: Engagement parties?) nor NIECE (41A: Clan female), and neither of us completely understand the clue for SWM (25A: Certain guy "ISO" someone). We get the "Single White Male" part, but what's up with that clue?
FORELIMBS (51A: Flippers, e.g.), TERRANOVA (20A: Newfoundland, in Naples and Nogales), and STBONIFACE (25D: Eighth-century Apostle of Germany) all seem kind of, I don't know… forced. Also, is Apostle always to be capitalized? KATY (36A: Steely Dan's title liar) was nice, as was KOP (36D: One of a silent force?) (Keystone Kops).
None of it was terrible, but it didn't really sing. It was, however, a good challenge, and one that we eventually finished, which is always satisfying, so I guess it satisfied at least that one important Saturday requirement (of being challenging, not necessarily finish-able). Let's say it was fine, and leave it at that.
- Horace
Untimed
ReplyDeleteI knew only ERICH Kunzel out of the list of Horace's unknown individuals, but (finally) got them all with crosses, which were tough. 2D Sun or stress (AGER) was nice as were 53D Farm block (BALE) and 37A One blowing up a lottery machine? (BALL). Tricky, but satisfying. I enjoyed both KAMASUTRA and MILITARIES. ISO=In Search Of. I originally thought of Nimoy, but there weren't enough blocks.