Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Wednesday, April 23, 2014, David J. Kahn

0:19:35

See what I mean? They'll commemorate anything, anytime. Not that the MERCURY SEVEN (71A: & 1D: first American astronauts) don't deserve fĂȘting, they do, it's just that, well, what about Earth Day!?

All that aside, however, this was a decent puzzle. Working in all seven names, as well as the MERCURY, SEVEN, ROCKET (9D: NASA vehicle), and SPACERACE (12D: Old U.S./Soviet rivalry), and even what I'm calling bonus theme commentary, ATROPHIED (21D: Weakened due to inactivity) (like America's manned space program) - that's a lot of fill!

You end up with a little bit of KAON (38D: Unstable subatomic particle) (unstable fill?), OTOE, and Crossword's favorite family, ALOU (35D: Baseball family name), but there's plenty of good non-theme stuff, too. VAMOOSE (17A: Blow the joint), TORRID (31A: Not just hot), GNASH (8D: Grind), and my favorite clue today 13D: It's a crock (OLLA). Hah!

I liked it.

- Horace

4 comments:

  1. 18:50
    I thought that was the best OLLA clue I'd ever seen. I loved this theme, of course. I never heard of a SUPERC (48A Very high trumpet note), and I was flummoxed by the cross of NOTOK (37A Improper) and KAON (38D Unstable subatomic particle) until I realized that it's "not OK." Sometimes it's tough to separate the words mentally. I also never heard of MYST (14D Best-selling PC game of the 1990s), but that's not surprising. I wonder if ET59 liked seeing OKAPI (39A Animal with stripes) in the grid. For blue material, I guess we could include the answer, but not the clue for 42D Tease.

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  2. 11:29. Not just all the theme answers, but the lovely way they're entered symmetrically is well done. ATROPHIED was an outstanding answer, and it fits the theme from a physiologic perspective, given that muscles atrophy in zero-g. Also great to see LOESSER make it in the grid. "Guys And Dolls" is a wonderful musical. Never heard of KAON. I wanted NOTOn for "Improper", and tried neON for the subatomic particle, not recalling how Alan SHEPARD's name was spelled. DOODLER was well-clued also. The only sad thing is I have little WHEREON to hang a reference to Italy! Speaking of which, Phoebe and I managed to get to the Pantheon first thing in the morning, and were the only two visitors for about 5 minutes. That is a gorgeous space architecturally.

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  3. Oh, also... do you think ALOU wins over OTT for the most common "baseball name" clue?

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  4. I'd definitely go with ALOU.

    And your Pantheon experience sounds great! We loved the space even when we were two in a throng. Being there alone must have been sublime - divine, even.

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