0:18:47
Ahh, circles. Frannie dislikes them. I don't mind them, and today, as on Tuesday, the theme actualy helped me to finish the puzzle. So there's that. I'm not quite sure I know what a "Wood MAN" (43A: "Phew!"), but the rest of them are solid. I like the symmetry, I like the revealer right smack dab in the middle. Nice.
I tried "putt" for 1A: One may follow a long drive (CHIP), but the constructors obviously aren't the big drivers that I am... and speaking of sports, I was thinking about complaining about AROAR (18A: More than loud), but can't you almost hear Al Michaels using that word? I bet he has. Not that Al Michaels is, or should be, the arbiter of what is good fill and what isn't. Take SLATER (5D: Laborer on an old roof, maybe), for instance. He has also said that, but only when talking about Matthew Slater of the Patriots. It is not good fill as it is.
PREDATORY and it's clue "20A: Rapacious" are both good words, and I liked ORIGINALS (52A: Things often left at copy shops) too. I had "tASED" for 48D: Zapped, in a way, but StANG didn't seem at all a reasonable 47A: Dictionary label. It took me an inordinate amount of time to realize it was SLANG.
So, nice theme, some junk (KER, UNI, WAWAS...), but not too much. Decent Thursday.
- Horace
28:03
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed today's puzzle quite a bit. I solved this one on-line sitting in the David Linger residence with Dave and Sue (they didn't help with the solve). I thought that COSET, COGENT and TATAS (for its raciness) were all nice words. I liked to see RUBINSTEIN in there and thought that the "George Washington" clue had a great and tricky answer (CARVER). I'd tried fAthER and fArmER in there before getting it right. And Horace, I also put in "putt" where CHIP belonged and took a long time to change StANG/tASED to the proper words. Nice theme and fun Thursday.
19:05. I too had putt to begin with. Took way too long to get CHIP. You know, I often end up in the NW, as I did today. Thought Huygens would like TATAS, especially when combined with TETON. Some very nice answers in here, such as PREDATORY and CLAYCOURT. ORIGINALS was good too. Don't love NEWER for "More current," but it's okay. I liked GAUZE. And it was nice to have both Pink and RUBINSTEIN represented, the old and the new. Pretty darn good puzzle.
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