A very nice twist on referential clues, working both sides at once. For example, 6A: With 8-Down, lime shade (LIGHT/GREEN) and 8D: With 6-Across, approve (GREEN/LIGHT). Usually, I dislike this sort of clue, but this, I love. And to top it off, they all intersect, which isn't always the case with referential clues. What are there, seven of them? Really nice work, I say.
The rest of the fill is decent too. SYNCH (17A: Harmonize) looks a little odd with that H, what with so much "sync"ing going on these days. And even my old Random House gives the no-H version first, but really, there's nothing wrong with having the H. SMELT (18A: Refine, as ore) is good. Interesting trivia added to the old standby ADA (19A: Nabokov's longest novel), and we get up-to-date cluing on things like CREW (22A: Rapper's posse) and DIED (34A: Was incredibly embarrassed, in slang). REROLL (45A: Try to improve a Yahtzee turn) might ordinarily get an eye roll, but the clue saves it. It was a little surprising to see ADOLF (60A: Unpopular baby name) in there, but it was the first thing that came to mind for that clue, so even that made me smile!
As you can tell, I really liked this one. There was clever cluing, interesting cluing, and not much junk at all. NEEDI (21D: "____ say more?").
- Horace
7:08. I agree, an unusual theme in an essentially themeless style grid. The least pleasant was HEAD-CHEESE. Yuck. It took me some time to see ARM-STRONG/STRONG-ARM, so the mid section in the E was last to fall. I entered ADOLF on the strength of the A. I mean, what else could it be? Four nice long down answers anchor the grid. And have I mentioned that I visited Michelangelo's David in person recently? It was definitely NUDE. No question about it. Excellent Tuesday.
ReplyDelete10:21
ReplyDeleteI starred WELL-WISHING / WISHING-WELL, but since I solved this yesterday morning at around 6:30 I don't remember why; it must be because that's the first one of the theme answers that I got. The only other star was ADOLF. Are people still that sensitive about that whole thing? Of course, a kid might not want that moniker. I wonder how popular it is among certain (misguided) demographics that look back longingly toward that era. There was great stuff in here, like DRONEBEE, LASERDISC, PROBST and BEATENDOWN. My least favorite longer answer? REFILLED (56A Like gas tanks and many prescriptions, again and again). No good.