0:28:19
Sorry for the late post today, we are completely removed
from the interwebs this weekend. The only way we were able to get the puzzle in
the first place was by walking the streets until we picked up free wifi, and if
you're reading this now, we did the same thing to upload it.
But enough about us, let's talk about the puzzle. We liked
it all right. A little on the quick side, maybe, for a Saturday, but it had
some nice entries. WALTDISNEYWORLD (7D:
Home to Main Street, U.S.A) was a gimme, and the other fifteen CALVINANDHOBBES (39A: They created the
Get Rid of Slimy Girls club) should have been, but alas, wasn't. We needed
quite a few crosses before we remembered those two. ONEARM (6D: Physical feature of Herman on "The Simpsons")
was another easy one, but maybe only because we've seen a lot of Simpsons
episodes. Infinitely more, by the way, than we have seen of WIFESWAP (54A: Reality show documenting
a two-week trade). OK - one last gimme that I'll brag about (don't you hate it
when reviews are all about what the review knew or didn't know?) - DIDO (17A: Trajically heartbroken
figure of myth). She was jilted by Aeneus, and even though I skipped out on the
classes that covered that intense event at the end of book three, it still came
up enough during other classes that it stuck with me. YAY for continuing
education! Thanks, Professor Thomas, even though you probably think I'm a
slacker (a charge I can't really refute), at least I got something out of the course!
18A: Office addresses? (INAUGURALS)
was a fun one. As was 32D: Course obstacle? (TEST), and its paired clue 60A: Dreaded messge on a returned
32-Down (SEEME). My favorite clue,
and the last one to be entered today, was 22A: Bit of audio equipment? (EAR)(!). I had "amp" in there
for a long time, but nothing worked. Finally, Frannie got 14D: Red giant that
disintigrated (USSR) (lovely clue),
and that opened things up for OLLA (13D:
Pueblo cooker) (I liked "It's a crock" better!), and so on.
I'll end the way I began, by saying that it had a lot of
good in it, but that it played a bit easier than we like them on Saturdays.
Now it's off to try to poach some bandwidth!
- Horace
I found this one adequately difficult for a Saturday, but perhaps that's because I was working it toward the tail end of consuming 4/5's of a bottle of Trader Joe's La Finca cab. Hard not to like a puzzle that has the greatest comic strip ever stretched right across its middle. How would "amp" work with the question mark on "Bit of audio equipment?"? The wrong answer that I had in for the longest time was "I'm hit" for "Battlefield cry." I still prefer my answer--I mean, seriously, does any soldier really ever cry "MEDIC"?--but it is imteresting that both answers have "I" in the fourth slot. Agree that INAUGURALS is nice fill. How 'bout the clue for YOKE, "Team unifier"? I had that one starred. Let's get back to the statements that litter this puzzle. As I said, I call bogus on MEDIC. I also call BS on "WEWON;" Do you suppose that has ever been uttered to accompany a high five in the entire history of professional sports? I guess I don't know what they really say, but if I were a betting man, I would put money on "Nice game!," "Way to go!," "Yes!," or "Fuck, yeah!," before I even considered "We won." However, "HOWDAREYOU" and "ANYONEELSE" I have no problem with. And, really, overall I greatly enjoyed this puzzle. I even liked the grid with the two single black squares in the middle (Usually, I don't take particular note of the grid.) I just wish constructors could send ATSEA out to sea.
ReplyDelete59:04
ReplyDeleteAgreed on CALVINANDHOBBES and WALTDISNEYWORLD (I told that one to Sue because I thought it was interesting to see the full name when one usually just says "Disney World," even though that's not strictly correct). PROTESTVOTE (4D Abstention alternative) was tricky (I was thinking of the other abstention), and there was that nice pairing of OREO and HYDROX in there. I don't usually think of MELONBALLS as cocktail garnishes, but I suppose a sufficiently fruity drink, which I would not enjoy, would take them fine. Both TOTO and BOBA Fett in one puzzle, though, may be too much.