It's not common that a puzzle advertises itself so baldly. The mini-theme of 1A: Completely (FROMATOZ) and 61A: They use every letter 1-Across (PANGRAMS) makes the goal of the puzzle absolutely crystal clear. Although, to be fair, Mr. Dekker accomplishes his pangram with room to spare, using 3 Zs, 4 Xs, 2 Js, 3Ks, and 1 Q.There's a lot to like about this grid. The open spaces with two large connections to each corner make the flow of the solving enjoyable. I got 19A: A lot of bucks... or the Bucks, briefly (MIL) as my first entry, and guessed at YETIS, but it wasn't enough to open the NW. TEXTS was a good guess in the SW, but that area as well resisted further entree. I wanted "death squad" for 34D: Group of dispatchers, and then "hitmen". It took a long time, nearly to the end, to get the right answer.
My biggest success started in the middle S, where DANTE is clued well with "Writer about a hellish journey". With the local gimme of BACKBAY and the nice Clair de Lune reference of DFLAT, I was off and running. I had the entire corner done quickly, then stalled. I couldn't see VISINE, but Hope helped me out, and JOSBOYS came back to me from some uncataloged corner of my mind.I wanted anorEXIA (?) and deCODING. It was the latter that made me give up the incorrect "elmira" for the Minnesotan county containing Grand Rapids. I didn't know ITASCA or PEEDEE (although I've seen the latter in puzzles before). LARYNX helped me figure them out. I love the clue for EATS: Works on a course. That's good stuff.
I took a break here because I couldn't get anything. When I came back, FROMATOZ jumped into focus (should have been obvious much earlier), and then the rest went in about 3 minutes.
Some nice clues: 15A: Something you might make a stand for (LEMONADE); 17A: Quaint raid targets (ICEBOXES) - I wanted "bloomers"; 12D: Source of a character flaw? (DYSLEXIA); and 53A: Execute a motion on the fly? (ZIP).I didn't know either MILKCAP or PEZIZA - gotten entirely from crosses, all of which were fair. I should have known ODETOJOY (7D: European Union anthem).
A fine Saturday, and I think the trifecta was completed.
- Colum
33:34, but FWOE
ReplyDeleteI despaired, briefly, that I wouldn't finish this one at all. The NE had me stopped cold for quite a long while. I actually got JOSBOYS from Frannie over Skype, which gave me TOXIN and JEDI, but above that I had little. I, too, tried anorexia and decoding, but nothing else came. Finally, I realized that DYSLEXIA was much better, and that gave the excellent LARYNX (I had been thinking along that line, but couldn't get it without the Y, I guess), and then, well, the rest. I know ITASCA because I have a brother who lives in Minneapolis, and the P of PEEDEE and PLIES felt like a guess, so when I didn't get the Congratulations! alert, I spent a little while wondering what else that could maybe be. In the end, it was LLD. I had put an S at the end of that and never went back to wonder about JEs. By the way, I think I learned that ODETOJOY was the EU anthem during one of the recent Olympics broadcasts. Didn't they have people singing that all over the world? Was that the Olympics? I seem to remember people out in front of the Sydney opera house... anybody? does that ring any bells?
Can't say I recall that happening, but I think I missed the opening ceremonies.
Delete57:34
ReplyDeleteI think that I saw that opening ceremony at David's in SD, but I could be mistaken. Regardless, I needed all of the crosses to get it. I put yoDa in first instead of JEDI, but all-in-all, the puzzle went by at a good pace for me for a Saturday, and it was all gettable stuff. ZIP was my favorite of the bunch: brilliant. I didn't know PEEDEE or ITASCA either, but the crosses worked them out.
Yes, ZIP was excellently clued.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhg-Aw_zMW4
ReplyDeleteThat was a long time ago! I didn't realize you were going that far back. Now that I am reminded of it, I recall that happening also.
DeleteI didn't realize it was that long ago either, but that is definitely what I was thinking of. The 9th is timeless.
ReplyDelete