Saved from a DNF by Frannie realizing that GIMEL was more likely than "gimol" for 25A: Dreidel letter, since I had guessed "Ugarto" for 8D: "Casablanca" crook" (UGARTE). (My mistake there should amuse ET59, assuming he still checks in from time to time.) And speaking of GIMEL, the first letter was tricky too, as it took a while to remember GTE (25D: Bygone telecom).
So anyway... overall, this was another mixed bag, we thought. I liked the 15s. DOUBLEENTENDRES (33A: Much of Mae West's wit) was good, and HOTASBLUEBLAZES (47A: Sizzling) is funny, but the many abbreviations (GTE, TPKE, DRS, PNC, SSGT, ALT, INT, RTS, PSAT) got a little tiresome. Never heard of RENI (12D: "Crucifixion of St. Peter" painter) or ELORO (24D: Ecuadorean province named for its gold production) (but this, of course, was inferable), or ELY (31D: City on the Ouse), but then, STRIKEZONE (27D: What half of a battery is next to) (somewhat tortured clue), OLMEC (46D: Like some ancient Mexicans) (thinking of Burns's gift of an Olmec Head to the Simpsons always makes me smile), IMBUES (41D: Suffuses), and TASTY (30D: Easily taken in?) were all quite nice. Frannie enjoyed MENDEL (9D: Pea-brained researcher?), and I enjoyed the simple reduction of "54A: Ferrari or Lamborghini" to IMPORT.
I guess there's good fill in here, but it didn't feel all that great while we were solving it. Maybe it was stuff like CLOPPED (16D: Hoofed it?) (ok, ok, that's kind of funny), and partials like ITHAS and ASAN. How 'bout a thumb just slightly up above halfway?
What did you think?
- Horace
DNF. Ouch. RENI, ELORO, UGARTE, PETRA, TRANE. I hate SSGT. That being said, BARONMUNCHAUSEN is awesome. Maybe I'm just bitter.
ReplyDeleteI like MENDEL also. I had some misentries that threw me, including dTS instead of RTS; OLtEC, which is just wrong; and lSAT for PSAT. So I blame my impulsiveness.
And tomorrow will be a better puzzle.
34:31
ReplyDeleteWe had several letters in doubt and did indeed get the "One or More Errors." GIMEL was among them, and we tried a few permutations of that, but for some reason I was pretty confident in what we had. We also didn't know RENI and were over-thinking DRS; there must a trade organization for psychiatrists.?. But our error was with ELORO and MEET. Somehow the "Cross" clue threw us for a major loop. Mercifully, we only lost about 4 minutes.
I actually kind of liked "What half of a battery is next to" for STRIKEZONE. Yes, it's a bit wordy, but it's not bad misdirection. Same for ONBASE "Hoping to get home?" And if you have to have ETTU in a grid, "Surprising words from Shakespear" is a clever take.
DNF
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that Sue could help out in the SE with 46A, but she couldn't, so that corner went partially unfilled. I starred 18A Hit the road (RUNALONG) for being a good Friday clue/answer (common but not something one would immediately enter), and 46A What I can be (ONE). I, like Horace, loved HOTASBLUEBLAZES and got it with surprisingly few crosses, and I'm a Mae West fan, so I loved her clue as well. Did Frannie enjoy 3D Drop in library use? And wasn't 29D Easily taken in? (TASED) particularly good? I didn't see OPAH on any menu that we perused while visiting Hawai'i, and I should have gotten BASSALE (34D Its bottles feature red triangles) slightly faster. Isn't getting a "One or More Errors" message a DNF?