This is a lovely puzzle. Just tiny bits of crosswordsy things like OISE, TIGE, and WSW, but they are overshadowed by tons of great, interesting fill. The NE corner is beautiful. CHACHING (7A: Cash flow statement?) is great, BEANTOWN (18A: The Hub), which we love, of course, is appropriately situated (in the NE), and fun (I tried "Boston, MA" at first), and AIWEIWEI (16A: Winner of the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent (2012)) is very up-to-date.
The SW, too, has three nice stacked eights. We enjoy any reference to Columbo - ONAHUNCH (54A: How Columbo often worked), and I just pulled Huygens around on WATERSKIs (56A: Be at the end of one's rope?) yesterday, and on a brand new rope, at that! The end of his old one broke!
The long downs, too, were fresh. TAKETHEFALL (25D: Be a patsy) was one of our first breakthroughs, but TRUSTNOONE (28D: Catchphrase for the paranoid) was one of the last things in. Sometimes it goes that way, I guess.
Lots of fun clues, which is always welcome. 48A: Soft spot (SOFA), 37D: Rush home? (AMRADIO), and 26A: Steel-eyed one? (CARNEGIE), for example. And the French was third-year stuff, with the somewhat inappropriate CUL (2D: French bottom) (it's really closer to "ass"), and 38D: Soupçon (TAD).
Overall, a very enjoyable Friday.
- Horace
DNF in 59:34
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the first "I" in AIWEIWEI, nor did I know HIERO (its cross), so I guessed wrong and got the "Puzzle Completely Filled" message, which means DNF. Other than that, this was a slow start for me, but once I got into the swing of it it went pretty quickly. I shortened the rope by around three feet by tying a knot in it near where it attaches to the boat, so that new tow rope is fine. It was a bit long when Horace pulled me. We've seen SIRKAY in the puzzle before. I don't know about NEWAGEY, though. Susan DEY of "The Partridge Family" is always nice fill, and Sue would probably like a box of NERDS (45A Willy Wonka Candy Company candy). It took a while for me to get SIXTHMAN since I'm not much on sports, but I got SETI quickly and knew of KRONE from a "Seinfeld" episode. Finally, I thought that MELODY (57A Principal part) was well clued.