Another somewhat quiet Thursday theme today - rhyming proper name homonyms of common words given wacky clues. The first one I got was CHERWEAR (12D: Clothing line from an Oscar-winning singer?) (shareware). Another, better one, is POEHLERBARE (19A: Naked "Parks and Recreation" star?) (polar bear). I wonder if that was the seed for this whole idea? It certainly wasn't HERRKERR (39D: The Galloping Gourmet in Germany?) (hair care), or BELLEHEIR (20D: Offspring of Beauty?) (Bel Air?), but it could, I suppose, have been THOREAUFAIR (61A: Event at Walden Pond?) (thoroughfare). I guess it's fine. I just didn't wow me.
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the puzzle, though. I liked a lot of the non-theme sixes, sevens and eights. Well, eight. DISROBED (7D: Stripped was good), NONMETAL (41D: Any of about 18 elements on the periodic table) was odd. "About 18 elements?" It's interesting to think that all the other elements are metals, and even more interesting to think that some are questionable. So ok, maybe I do like both eights.
The middle had DOWEL, CADENCE, FREAKY, and HOKUM (45A: Balderdash), all of which were good. MUFFLES (46D: Quiets) was nice, SPRUCES (69A: Neatens (up)) made me think of Frannie, because she likes to use that term. She also likes HANKERS (18A: Longs), btw. ALDENTE (68A: Firm, in a way) and ORIGAMI (15A: Paper work not usually done at the office) (I actually tried "a resume" in there for a few moments) have good clues, and I liked the Lyndon Johnson quote leading to WARTIME. Poor guy didn't get his wish.
Overall, I really like the fill, and the theme is fine, sooo.... good Thursday!
- Horace
p.s. This month has flown by, and Colum takes over again tomorrow. See you in June!
14:47.
ReplyDeletePlayed a little tough for a Thursday, IMO. I liked almost the entire NW corner. COPPER is well clued with "Conductor of note." I wanted a orchestral conductor there, so nice misdirection. CODERED, ORIGAMI, and PIGGIES are fine, and POEHLERBARE is the best of the theme answers (not to mention that it crosses DISROBED!)
So everything was a little downhill from there. I entered "one term" for LBJ, which slowed down the SW. 8A: Case for a lawyer, maybe (ATTACHE) fooled me not one second, on the other hand. 16A: Performers with lots of fans? (GEISHAS) took me longer, but I have to quibble: what kind of performing are these geishas doing?
ALDENTE was excellent.
31:48
ReplyDeleteI had to stare at CODERED for a little while before I parsed it properly. I guess I don't quite understand 38D Equals, in math (ARE), but other than that, this was a fun puzzle, and I enjoyed the theme. I agree with Colum on the crossing of POEHLERBARE crossing DISROBED as being quite nice. I may not do the Friday and Saturday puzzles since I'm currently on vacation in FL, but we'll see.