This one was a little bit of a let-down after yesterday's. It might be that I only like two out of the five "Don't" songs (the first two), but should that influence me? Well, whether or not it should, it seems to.
It all just seemed kind of boring. Lots of short junk like TRAM, ALOE, AMO, POR, ERST, LES, IRA, ABC, ALMA… and nothing much to marvel at. And the stuff I didn't know, like PLUTON (8D: Mass of crystallized magma), RINGALEVIO (12D: Game similar to hide-and-seek), and MYLAI (23D: Vietnam War locale), wasn't all that exciting either. It's mildly interesting, I suppose, that MYLAI is somewhat similar to the name of the person who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., Maya Lin. In fact, I was stuck there for a while because I kept inserting "memorial" into the clue in my head.
CANNONBALL (31D: Dive done with the arms around the knees) is good, and it's interesting to learn that RWANDA is the "49D: African country known as the Land of a Thousand Hills," but other than that… not much.
- Horace
p.s. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7661291/German-pensioner-fined-14000-for-cannonball-dives-at-public-pool.html
10:05
ReplyDeleteI didn't know PLUTON or its cross HANA, but I had the HA_A, and an N was the only thing that made sense. I didn't know the other things mentioned by Horace, either, but this puzzle was doable fairly easily. The only song I don't know (or at least THINK that I don't know) is the final one by the Buckinghams (whoever they are). The others are all fine songs. I starred only 19D Seaside eagle (ERN) because I don't like that spelling, and 53D Very heavy (OBESE) because I wasn't thinking along those lines so that held me up a bit. I thought Horace would be happy with the French offering, at least (ETATS), although we've seen that before.
You really should know My Lai, Ho. It's the site of a fairly important piece of U.S. history. I heartily concur with the sense of a letdown, though. Uninspiring theme, even for a Tuesday. And in what country, or in what decade, was RINGALEVIO a game similar to hide-and-seek?? Nothing marked for distinction, really nothing of even moderate interest. SEE YA.
ReplyDeleteYeah... it was a massacre, right? I'm telling you, it was my misreading of the clue that threw me. Even after it was filled in, I momentarily thought "how should I know where their monuments are?" I'm an idiot sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAnd come to think of it, there may well BE a monument there.
ReplyDelete7:23. It was a bit of a slog, wasn't it? Harder than expected for a Tuesday. Thank goodness I had Cece on my side, to give me INC (among other answers). Couldn't remember HANA Mandlikova at all. I kind of liked INDIE crossing OLDIE (and not through their shared endings).
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the US today.
8:20
ReplyDeleteWe saw HANA Mandlikova play Martina Navratolova at the Worcester Centrum once. She lost.
I thought list started promisingly with KAPUT and KEDS, ELENA Kagan (SCOTUS in the news these days), and Elvis. And any reference to the great LES Paul is OK with me, but the rest of the puzzle waned.