Odd theme today related to the NBA (48A: Org. whose only members with nonplural names appear at the ends of 17-, 25-, 410, and 56-Across). To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I could have told you that "Thunder" was the name of a team now. I pretty much stopped following the NBA a year or two after Kevin McHale started playing for the Celtics. They're still a team, right? The Celtics?
Theme aside, the long downs today were all quite good. CATALYST (4D: It makes things happen), GLITTERATI (11D: Fashionable celebs) (love it!), and even DISCOUNTED (25D: Not full-price) isn't bad. As a photographer, I have mixed feelings about ANSELADAMS (26D: Famous Yosemite photographer). He was a great technician, and developed the zone system and all that, but I'm not convinced he was a revolutionary artist. But then, they also serve who only stand and develop photos of lovely scenes, right?
Other interesting fill include ZOWIE (15A: "Holy cow!"), NERDY (60A: So unhip as to be hip, maybe) ("hip" and "nerdy" don't mix - they don't need to!), and GUAVA (45A: Exotic jelly fruit). Less than stellar fill include ILIAC, ANDI, IMA, and LTYR. I didn't include AERIE (39A: Place for a kiddie hawk?) because it had such a fine clue.
Overall, a decent Tuesday.
- Horace
5:47, and that last minute was for the time it took to discover that I'd entered GmT instead of GST. After all, it is Greenwich Mean Time, is it not? Ah, well. Very nice long answers here, as mentioned above. The theme is cute and timely, and well put together, with a simple revealer. Thumbs up for me; a major improvement over yesterday's.
ReplyDeleteHmm… it is GMT, as far as I'm concerned. I guess I didn't even notice it, what with SEMITROPIC and all.
ReplyDelete17:30
ReplyDeleteColum, you must not have noticed that mEMITROPIC didn't work that well. Was this an "Across Solve" for you today? I should try that and see what I get for a time sometime. I tend to fill in a region and then move on. Of course, today's time wasn't great in any respect, and I certainly wouldn't have approched 5:47 (or 4:47, as the case may be). I don't remember DAYSOFTHUNDER, and needed most of the crosses to get that. I, too, could not have identified The Thunder as a basketball team. ZOWIE was perhaps my favorite word in today's puzzle, although SHTETL (51A "Fiddler on the Roof" setting) is right up there.