0:21:21
"Don't talk about yourself. We will do that after you leave." A quote, running through four long spaces, thought funny enough to carry the puzzle. I guess I agree.
But let's get right to the elephant in the puzzle, shall we? YELLOWY (22D: Blond). (Slightly related to 20D: Like some blonds (DYED.)) So? What do we think of that? I started with outrage, but slowly was converted to acceptance, and then even appreciation. We puzzle-doers want the grids to be fresh, with current language, right? I'll gladly accept TOOTOO (47D: Overdone), and SLOMO (41D: Time-stretching effect), but I frowned at "YELLOWY." Why? No more! I don't want to see it every day, but every once in a while, something like "YELLOWY" is fine by me. Especially in a puzzle with a decent amount of other strong material.
SCARCE (1D: Pretty hard to find), CABAL (9D: Ring of rebels), APPALL (29A: Severely consternate), and SHRIVEL (43D: Contract) (Oh! conTRACT! Not CONtract...), are all good words. We could do without ODISTS (42A: Some Coleridge colleagues) and OAS (52A: Alliance HQ'd near the White House) (?), and I guess I have to accept that "Epicurean" no longer has anything to do with philosophy, but those are small things. DIURNAL (11D: Active when the sun goes down), AZORES (10D: Columbus stopping point of 1493) (tricky trivia!), IDIOCY (50A: Folly), MASTS (17A: Spars) (Good clue!)... they're all solid.
It was a solid puzzle. Better than solid. What do you think?
- Horace
13:52. I don't like the theme of a long quote spread out over many long answers. You have no purchase, and then once it becomes clear, there's no interest any more. So, other than that... uh, yeah. Good puzzle. I'm also going to go on the record that YELLOWY is not okay. I mean... YELLOWY? I've never heard it, and I don't think I want to. Feeling crotchety today, I guess.
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ReplyDeleteNo on YELLOWY. Also, I'm surprised that Horace enjoyed the long quote. I'm with Colum on that one. this wasn't a great Thursday. It's my first solve using Across Lite, which I enjoy. I didn't know that feature was available for a Windows laptop, but it is, so I'll use that from now on (for a computer solve). I did enjoy seeing some of the words that Horace mentioned (especially DIURNAL), and must admit that I didn't get AZORES until I had all of the crosses but the "Z." Also, I knew that 8D Org. offering group practice membership was either the ABA or the AMA. The thing that tipped me off was the cross of 14A ____ Avenue (Mets' community website) (AMAZIN). I'd never heard of it, of course, but knew that it couldn't be Abazin.
Well, well… you two might be happy to hear that Frannie is on your side, too. I don't know… I'm still not totally agin it, to use another crossword term.
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