Sunday, August 3, 2014

Sunday, August 3, 2014, Ian Livengood

"CHEE WHIZ!"

Another Sunday that seemed a little harder than usual. The theme was fun, but I found THELONESTARCHYSTATE (64A: Only form that carbohydrates take?) to be a little odd, both in clue and answer. It seems to be the only theme answer to which the "Y" sound was added just for the hell of it. I mean, Nietzche is a real thing, but what is "starchy state?" The rest, though, use normal names or words that were clued as a different phrase without the "Y" sound, to great comic effect. TABLEFORTUCCI (97A: Actor Stanley's dinner reservation?), for example. My favorite is IGUESSSOCHI (80A: Unsure answer to "Where were the 2014 Winter Olympics held?)? The triple S is very nice.

There's a lot of very nice fill, today. ERADICATE (2D: Do away with?), BATTLEAXE (114A: Arm that's swung), LYRICPOEM (76D: Classical work accompanied by a musical instrument), and TROUT (64D: Game on the line?), for example.

Overall, I thought it was solid, but I'm a little distracted at the moment, so this is all I've got.

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. As soon as we finished the Saturday puzzle, my mother and I tackled Sunday, especially because the Saturday one went by so quickly. She had the magazine because it's delivered on Saturday in NYC. I thought this was a reasonable Sunday grid. I liked TABLEFORTUCCI by far the best. I don't have the puzzle in front of me, so I can't recall the rest, but in fact, it seemed harder than Saturday's.

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  2. 85:06 (DNF)
    For some reason, I couldn't get the "E" in the COE/ESC (53A/54D). I didn't know the Iowa college and I had a block on "Emergency key" - duh! I chose and "I" and got the "Puzzle completely filled" message. I agree that the puzzle was about 40 minutes more difficult than a usual Sunday, but I enjoyed the theme and the general fill. I liked THELONESTARCHYSTATE and FILTHYRITCHIE the best, and we don't see ARCANE enough. Most changed: 42A Chase scene staples. I started with rObbeRS, changed it after getting another cross to COPpeRS, then finally to the correct COPCARS.

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  3. 32:16
    We played Coe in football when I was out in the mid-west for college. Good thing, too, because the Loser to Pierce in 1852 is a piece of trivia I'm not too proud to admit I did not know. MEOWS was cute and helpful.

    We got BLACKTAICHI and things fell into place pretty quickly. We liked WOUNDEDNIETZSCHE and, of course, Stanley TUCCI. I also liked BATTLEAXE and its clue, Arm that's swung.

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