Monday, February 23, 2015

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, Elizabeth A. Long

0:08:20

Egad. Fifty Shades of Grey infects the NYTX. EARLSSUNGLASSES (20A: Shades of Grey?) is particularly painful, but neither of the other two fifteen-letter answers was much better. I like a pun as much as the next guy, but this one, well, it just didn't do it for me.


Add to that, things like DANL (18A: Frontiersman Boone, familiarly), ESSES (51D: Pluralizers) crossing YESES (64A: Some R.S.V.P.'s) (A. Decide, is it two esses or one? and B. Just don't.), and ATIE over NOTA, and, well, there's more (ABU, AARE, NCO), and you just want to say BLAH.

On the brighter side, I did enjoy all of the long Down answers. SCULLERY (4D: Room where pots and pans are stored) (We call this the "kitchen"), MANGANESE (8D: Element between chromium and iron on the periodic table), INNOVATE (39D: Be creative), and even AMBULANT (38D: Able to walk). These all have some ZING! In fact, if I had solved this with just the Downs, this would be a rave review. CALLACAB is good. I love WOODSY. SEXED and AMOR and BLEEP are all nicely related. And you could throw in LEGS and FESS. No, wait, I'm thinking of fesses, which is French for—well, you figure it out. (I'll give you a hint, it's one of Huygens' favorite words.)

I'm sure some will be happier with the theme than I was. After all, how many copies did that book sell? Heck, maybe it'll even get my sister to take more of an interest in the puzzle. If that happens, this review goes right up to "rave." Until then, however, let's call it a wash.

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. 14:57
    I had some trouble down in the SW, which took several minutes. I finally guessed on ZING and it all fell into place. I don't think that Sue would love this puzzle, and I don't know FESS in French, probably won't look it up, but have nonetheless narrowed its meaning down given the hint that Horace provides. Not a bad puzzle, but not one of my favorites. That may be more my fault than the constructor, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8:16, typed by Cece (with several entries by her as well). I like MANGANESE, INCUBATOR, CALLACAB, INNOVATE, SCULLERY. But not AMBULANT. I don't know what that is. We never use that term. Ambulatory, sure. 59A: It smells a lot (NOSE) is cute. ENDUE and UNDUE in the same puzzle. Not the best Tuesday by any stretch of the imagination.

    ReplyDelete