I love this theme. The many Zs running through the puzzle form the signature Z of ZORRO (44D: Subject of this puzzle), and 'though I was familiar with neither the first episode, nor his real name, that did not detract from the enjoyment. One small detraction, I suppose, could be that the revealer, ZORRO, does not have a symmetrical, theme-related counterpart, but the precise positioning of Zs to form the central Z makes up for it.
Some lovely non-theme fill, too: LEONINE (28D: Having a sense of pride?), BARTEND (22D: Lift others' spirits?), AVARICE (50A: "The spur of industry," per David Hume) (Lovely. Love Hume!), SNORKELERS (25A: They're hooked up to breathing tubes) (very nice!), and BUTTOUT (22A: "M.Y.O.B."), to name but some. And the yoking of OTOE (2D: Historical buffalo hunter) to the very fine FUDD (1D: Fictional rabbit hunter) brought it out of the crosswordese cellar.
It was joint effort today. I did some last night, Frannie filled in a lot this morning, and then I finished things up with the crosswordsy DAP (5A: Skip over water, as stones), which I think I learned from a past puzzle. Overall, quite satisfactory.
- Horace
19:00. Much of the puzzle went smoothly, except for the central W section and that last D of DONDIEGO and DAP. The latter I'd never met before, and I don't understand why it couldn't be clued with the more modern sense of a greeting handshake. Other than that, though, I really enjoyed the puzzle. I noted a lot of Zs, but until I read your review, I didn't see the overall architecture. Extremely nice. I assume CAIN is "Initial offer?" because of his original sacrifice in Genesis.
ReplyDeleteLove MINDLESSLY, BARTEND, the peculiar NINESIDED, BRAZEN, AVARICE.
48:07
ReplyDeleteI starred AVARICE, too, and BUTTOUT. Other than that, it's been said. It's been a busy weekend, so I'm still working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday puzzles.