D.N.F.
Wow, this took us forever. We started this after a dinner
party, and after several drinks, and the SW took us forever, and after it all,
we had left "MEzCAL" in where, apparently, MESCAL (20D: Agave
product) was supposed to be, so…. DNF. Also, we didn't know MOONEY (41D:
Comedian Paul), but, luckily, one of our drunken guests did. Another guest
posited LYRIC (48D: Words that are rarely spoken), and it's a little ironic
that that one took us so long, because all we've been doing all night is
singing old seventies songs.
But enough about us. There's some great stuff in here. MAGI
(48A: Star followers), BERG (44A: Something that's fallen off a shelf?), and
maybe the best one, MOSES (59A: One advised to take two tablets). And there's
also some stuff I don't particularly love, like NOUN (45A: What an article may
refer to). Can an article be said to "refer to" a noun? Doesn't it
just kind of accompany a noun? The noun.
And are bulldogs more TENACIOUS than other dogs? Who knows? Not me.
EYESOCKET (58A: Something on either side of a bridge) was
kind of gross, and I was all in on it being about a song. Verse… chorus…
something like that. ANAGRAM (24A: Anemone, to name one) got me completely, but
not Frannie.
A very tough puzzle for us under the circumstances. We like a challenge, and this
one had some good stuff, but it was not without problems. I'll give it a thumbs
up, though. What did you think?
-
Horace
I'll call mine a DNF also, for that damn MOONEY and IMHIP, which I couldn't see because I has BOx instead of BOP, a reasonable alternative. The SW corner was a real bear. I had AOK and CINEMAS in place and that was it for a long time. Then Hope suggested NOUN for 45A (Hope was incredible on this puzzle, time and again). An aha moment gave me TUE, and then TENACIOUS fell into place, followed by INCITE and INAMORATA, which I truly love. EYESOCKET is a tough one, but it came after LYRIC. Cece got MOSES, by the way, but just as a guess off the __SES. Brilliant. The more I look at this puzzle the more I like it. ANAGRAM was great, ESOTERIC was nice, LEMONGRASS is very nice.
ReplyDeleteI did not have GRAPPA in Italy, and I've never had MESCAL. But it sounds like you had plenty of other varietals.
67:06
ReplyDeleteINAMORATA was great, perhaps my favorite word in the puzzle. I had the ______GRASS of LEMONGRASS until I got a few more of the crosses, but this puzzle filled in steadily for me with no giant problems. I agree, though, that the SW was a bit more difficult than the rest of the puzzle, mainly due to TENACIOUS and INAMORATA, which both took many crosses. I love MESCAL, and hate GRAPPA, which I also had in Italy mixed with a caffe at the Circolo - terrible.
DNF in about an hour. Trouble with the same SW corner, although not TENACIOUS. Bulldogs are an idiom for tenacity. I did have IgnITE for a long time and that didn't help. Funny, I thought it was going to be ANAGRAM when all I had was ___GR_M. It took me a while to look at the clue literally. Hah!
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