0:05:57
Decent enough theme of "No way!" defined in four different ways. FUHGEDDABOUDIT (17A: "No way!"), while somewhat funny, is the weakest, as its spelling is not rigidly defined. I mean, other variants must exist for this one, right? Or would you say "THATSRIDICULOUS" to that claim?
Lots of usual early-week fare, and some words that exist more in crosswords than in real life. To wit: VEND (3D: Sell), LULUS (19D: Doozies), ISLE (55D: Archipelago component), and RIA (57D: Narrow coastal inlet). There are also appear several names that in these grids are weekly kept alive, like GAYE (35D: Marvin of Motown), BOHR (13D: Physics Nobelist Niels), and THOR (50D: Norse god of war). QUEST (5A: Knight's pursuit) and QUAKED (5D: Trembled, as with fear) provide some excitement in the North, but HIPTO (28D: Savvy about) belies a certain "unhipness" in both clue and answer. See also PONG (39D: Video game with a paddle). Is that trying to trick Wii players, or is it just old-fashioned? Hard to tell.
Not terrible. Not great. Monday.
Too UNKIND?
- Horace
I think that FUHGEDDABOUDIT is the generally accepted spelling of this. Yes, there may be variants, but a Google search confirms plenty of examples using this spelling, including some "official" ones (i.e., Brooklyn).
ReplyDeleteIt's always revealing to do these Monday puzzles with mon fils and learn what he knows and doesn't know. For example, HIPTO is definitely dated, as Horace points out. He also didn't know the idiom FORA (song). He is familiar with the ONION and came up with PONG with the help of PO--. BTW, I thought, as Mondays go, that was well clued. I, of course, thought of the PONG paddle right away, but yes, Wii also uses a paddle. And while I agree with you about VEND, LULUS, and RIA, I don't think ISLE has existed the vernacular (go listen to Frank sing ISLE of Capri, you'll be thinking ISLE for days).
3:53. I was surprised when I finished to see the under 4 time. Didn't feel like it went that fast. It's a pangram also, but it didn't feel like a stretch (QUAKED/QUEST, IBEX/TWIXT, JADE/JAVA, RAZE/OOZE are all fine, if a little crosswordy). Don't like UNIFY and UNITES in the same grid. The theme is fine.
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