Sunday, April 27, 2014

Sunday, April 27, 2014, John Lampkin



0:44:07

PREDICTABLE PARTINGS

Fun theme. Types of people taking their leave in a punny way. 25A: The paparazzo … (WASGONEINAFLASH), and 60A: The lingerie manufacturer (SLIPPEDAWAY), for example. 

Some nice, punny, clues as well, as in 10A: Where auto racers retire? (PITS), 118A: Showplace? (STAGE), 1D: Pet door opener (PAW), and Frannie's favorite - 58A: One heading to the cape? (TORO). 

We like the words PURVIEW (96A: Range of understanding), CLOUT (70D: Political muscle), and GHASTLY (87D: Horrifying). And we disliked STRO (116A: Houston pro, informally) (Maybe it's just that we live too far from Houston…), REGREW (4D: Greened up, perhaps), IDENT (71D: PIN part: Abbr.), and SPR (14D: Origin of a stream, Abbr.), but none of it was too terribly bad. 

106A: Some hibernators (TOADS) was tricky, as "bears" also fit there, and, hey!, the UTNE Reader is named after 99A: Magazine founder Eric? Who knew? It was also interesting to learn that SIEG means (105D: Victory, to Wagner), and, of course, that an ecdysiast is a stripteaser. The word was coined in 1940 by H.L. Mencken! (Ecdysis is "the shedding of an outer layer of skin or integument, as by snakes or insects.") The things we learn in crossword puzzles!
Decent Sunday.

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. 113:49
    I enjoyed EARCANDY, MITOSIS and BACH (35D "St. John Passion" composer). Also, I don't think we see enough of POSEY Parker lately (or maybe we do...I'll think that one over). My favorite theme answer was RANLICKETYSPLIT (108A The soda jerk...) both because of the answer and the clue. Finally, the obvious blue cross was BONER/BUTT, though we probably shouldn't put those words together.

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  2. No, Parker Posey is a favorite of mine, as well. I think she's pretty choosy about her roles… or maybe I'm just woefully out of the loop. Could be either or both.

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