A somewhat convoluted concoction of couple-word clauses commencing with C comprises today's theme. Come, come!, you say, it can't be as catastrophic as all that! Well, you decide - is COMPASSCOURSE (20A: Ship heading) something you come across commonly? COLBYCOLLEGE (27A: Liberal arts school in Waterville, Me.), in certain company is commonplace, but my brother went to Bates! And COUNTRYCOUSIN (58A: Person in overall sucking a piece of straw, stereotypically) calls for a chuckle, perhaps, but does any contemporary card use such coinage?
In other corners of the grid, some crunchy fill is found, like INDIGNANT (35D: Highly offended), TYCOBB (4D: Baseball great known as "The Georgia Peach") right beside MAYS (21D: Baseball great Willie), and DONTASK (45D: Exasperated response to "How was your day?") is pretty good. I also appreciate the double-l in CANCELLED (3D: No longer on the air). Overall, though, there's a lot of stuff we often see, and a couple things I'd rather not see, like YOICKS (52D: Bygone cry of high spirits). Really? Bygone indeed, and with good reason!
The inclusion of CEE (22D: Major component of the euro symbol) is a nice touch, though, and it's really not all that bad, given the preponderance of Cs - one of my least favorite letters to have in Scrabble, by the way. The other is V. Yuck. But I digress…
Let's call it a wash.
- Horace
5:04. Was that the entire theme? That there were pairs of words that started with CO? A little slim. I like a good revealer. I liked YOICKS. Reminds me of Shaggy, who only said it when he was scared, rather than in high spirits. Although there were often some spirits around. Pretty good fill over all. Not a great Monday though.
ReplyDelete7:56
ReplyDeleteI also liked YOICKS, though I thought that Shaggy said Zoinks! I could be wrong. There isn't much love in the puzzle: perhaps WOOER. As for Huygens fill, maybe REARS?