Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Wednesday, May 7, 2014, Kurt Mueller

0:10:46

Man, what a nice Wednesday puzzle! It took me forever to see TROU (14A: Drop ____ (start to strip)), and then a little longer to actually believe that they would use that, but when it finally went in, I was quite happy.

Other than that, the top was a little lackluster. Somewhat difficult clues for OTHER (1D: Remaining) and ARENA (2D: Where the action is) kept things open up there for a while, but I liked the back-to-back French of ENTRE (20A: ____ nous) and OUI (21A: French vote). Also, just after bashing themes yesterday, I have to admit that I really enjoyed this one. They skew old, but hey, I'm old, and I watched all of these when they were actually airing except for the Jackie Gleason Show. I have a special fondness for AONEANDATWO (24A: Lawrence Welk intro words), because my sister and I used to watch that at my grandparents' house. Well, Sue and I would mostly be coloring in coloring books on the floor in front of the TV, but we'd look up occasionally, and the music, of course, didn't need looking at.

I give Mr. Mueller extra credit for coming up with a new (albeit impossible) clue for ENO (33A: Will ____, "The Realistic Joneses" playwright), and I also enjoyed the paired art clues 35A: Setting for many van Gogh paintings (ARLES) and 70A: Settings of Delacroix and Ingres paintings (HAREMS). Tough, that second one. STEAL (48A: Diamond datum), too, was quite difficult, especially as "karat" also fits there.

There's a lot good in here. The Emerson quote, the classical reference to Icarus... and I just had a good feeling about it.

I'll say it again - a nice Wednesday.

- Horace

1 comment:

  1. 14 mins.
    I, too, watched all of these shows live but the Jackie Gleason (but watched both "The Honeymooners" and "The Jackie Gleason Show" in reruns). I'd be nothing but positive about this puzzle, but there's POOP (58A Inside dope) and the related SCOOT (11D Get moving) just sitting there for all to see. I starred the ENO and the TROU clues for the same reasons Horace mentions.

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