I didn't really love this Tuesday offering. Perhaps it was the odd pair of 10-letter non-theme answers that threw me. Perhaps it was the three theme answers of anagrammatic pairings, with the revealer answer that was not anagrammatic. Maybe it was all of those three-letter answers in the NW, SE, and the middle. On the other hand, the anagrams are fun, all three being of essentially equivalent humor levels.
Actually, going through the clues one by one, I realize my issue with the puzzle is it's too straightforward. There are simply no misleading clues at all, with the possible exceptions of 31D: You might pick one up in a bar (TAB) and 50A: Switch positions (ONS). Everything just feels deadly earnest.
At least we get a reference to AUDEN's Funeral Blues, a favorite of mine:
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
And with that I'll sign off.
- Colum
11:01
ReplyDeleteHow about "Minus times minus equals plus / The reason for this we need not discuss."
I didn't star anything in today's puzzle; it all seemed pretty easy. Even ONS is often seen in puzzles. I did like the two Hawai'i references (OAHU and POI), and at first put SOngS in instead of SOLOS for 18D Arias, e.g., but other than that there was no problem.
6:59
ReplyDeleteI think Colum hit the nail on the head saying that all the cluing herein was quite straightforward. Everything feel into place without much thought, including the anagrams. And I, too, was a bit puzzled by PASSINGNOTES. I'll admit that I had to read the clue for DRAWS (32A: "Go fishing in go fish?") a second time, slowly, but does that warrant the "?" Perhaps because "go fish" isn't capitalized as a title?
I do always like seeing the reference to Bikini atoll in a grid, even if ATEST is overused. Huygens, did you know that my father was there for those tests? He was the on air radio count down voice for the explosions. I always think that must have been quite an adventure.
I didn't know that. Your father was quite a man with many and varied accomplishments. It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to have known him.
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