0:25:50
This puzzle was a breath of fresh air! It starts with a BANG (1A: Report of a shooting) (great clue) and doesn't disappoint. We don't mind so much the necessities of an occasional ORA (51D: "... ____ close second"), DROME (30A: Aero- completer), or OHME (36D: "Alas!") when the payoff is this good. WASSOBBY (18A: *Blubbered?) for wasabi!?! PSEUDOCOUP (35A: *Imaginary overthrow of the government?) for sudoku!? They're all brilliantly hilarious. I wish I had come up with something this absurd and fabulous.
The non-theme stuff is good today, too. Witness PHARAOHS (35D: Exodus figures) (there was more than one in Exodus?), MOMANDPOP (34D: Kind of shop), PLATEAU (41D: Level off) (nice clue), and the always Star Wars-y-even-if-it's-not-clued-that-way ITSATRAP (11D: Warning to the unwary). Heck, I don't even mind ENTHUSE (58A: Motivate), IMTHERE (21A: "Wouldn't miss it!"), or ARTIER (8A: Affected to a greater extent), because all are things I've heard people say. And I guess you can add to that list REORG, but I don't like that as much.
Nice tribute to CHRISTA (39D: Teacher/astronaut McAuliffe), and I love El Greco, so it was nice to have TOLEDO (24A: Home of El Greco) (adopted home, that is) in there. Also liked the advanced French of ALAMORT (2D: Gravely ill: Fr.), although some solvers might not.
In short, we loved it.
- Horace
18:58. Holy cow! This was an excellent puzzle. The theme is great. I got CARRYOKIE first, followed by WASSOBBY. I loved ARTIER (Affected to a greater extent: yes I fell for it, thinking it was *effected!) and DISOBEY (Not mind; very clever). ERECTOR was good, MOMANDPOP was great. One drawback, the inclusion of OHME, UHOH, and OHBROTHER feels a little repetitive. I'm sure Frannie liked the Jane Austen reference, and the Mad Men reference (or 30Rock, if you'd rather) right above it was fun as well. Altogether TIDY!
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ReplyDeleteYes, good puzzle. ARIGOTTOW was a bit clunky, but still great. I also thought that 37A Robin Hood and others (ARCHERS) was clever, and I'd starred BANG and ALAMORT for the reasons mentioned by Horace. And what about SMEARED (33A Maligned)? Another nice one in the regular fill category. Frannie probably liked seeing ASCII in there, as well as GASSED and EMMA (and maybe HAMM?).
I also got CARRYOKIE right away, then PSEUDOCOUP, and then JAPANESE. When I figured out ARIGOTTOW I thought, contrary to Huygens, that it was a wonderful piling on of the Engrish.
ReplyDeleteColum - DISOBEY was a great one!
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