Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, David Woolf

0:09:33

This played slightly tougher for me than a usual Tuesday, I think, but I welcome the added challenge. Another quote puzzle, with two sports-related entries to go along with it. It's March Madness, which I know because I happen to be in Raleigh, NC as I write this, and it's also, I understand, Spring Training, so this is perfectly timed.

Like yesterday, the fill is largely free of cringe-worthy fill (ENISLE being a notable exception). There's a couple of designers - MANOLO (5D: Shoe designer Blahnik) and OLEG (32A: Designer Cassini). I like FSTOP (48D: Aperture setting), although I know it's getting a little old-fashioned.

RABAT (23D: Capital of Morocco) (It's not Casablanca?) is good trivia, and there's some nice long stuff, like SHISHKEBAB (4D: Serving with a skewer) and RICHARDIII (30D: Shakespeare character who says "I have set my life upon a cast"). ZAFTIG, too, (40D: Pleasingly plump) is quite nice.

Overall, a nice Tuesday.

- Horace

2 comments:

  1. 19 mins.
    I wasn't previously aware of the word ZAFTIG, though I did know the two designers (I watched the full "Sex and the City" series, under duress). This was a bit tough for a Tuesday, but, hey, I still got it in under twenty minutes, so it's fine. The last long clue to fall for me was WALKOFFHOMER (27A Hit that proves 17-/57-Across. I was thinking along the lines of a song. I'll just give one shout-out to CALI (15A Frisco's state): "What the...?!?!"

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  2. 6:19. I got off on the wrong foot by putting "storm" at 1A, and not figuring out it was wrong until the end... although I should have known because 14A had to start with S or M, and 1D couldn't start with sS or sm. Anyway, that got me going wrong. I liked MIRIAM and ZAFTIG. RICHARDIII was good but I hate ENISLE; the second time we've seen that in the last couple of weeks, and that was twice too often. SHISHKEBAB I wanted to spell SHISHKaBoB. It was a fine Tuesday that played more like a Wednesday.

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