A puzzle that fulfilled it's purpose to ENTERTAIN me. I felt like I was on the same wavelength almost all the way through the puzzle, up until the final corner, in the SW, about which more later. It started with 1D: Like some castles and zoo exhibits (MOATED), which went in immediately. I had ONEofFOUR initially, which sort of makes sense, but isn't quite right. ONEINFOUR works better. I also put NFl instead of NFC, so that slowed the NW somewhat.
I moved down the middle, where REAM was a good guess, giving me METOO, but that was it for that section for a while. So then YUM allowed SPYGLASS (nice Jack Sparrow reference there - the first movie was a heck of a lot of fun, if only for Mr. Depp's performance), and then the too obvious SUTURE (25A: Surgeon's closing line?).
In very quick fashion, the NE and NW fell. I liked 10D: Royal who toured the U.S. in the late 1970s (KINGTUT) which was apparent from the ___GT__. BATARANG is a great entry, and EVOLUTION gave us DARWIN as well. I feel like we've seen ASIFICARE very recently, but it's still a fun answer. I didn't know ISADORE or SEAHARE from the three letters I had at the start of each, so I moved around to the SW.This corner was definitely the hardest. Although, I did get PANTYLINE off of the P alone, which felt like a coup. The problems with this corner weren't really that the answers were unfair, it's just that there were so many proper names or foreign words in one area. AGHA, YENTAS, MARIN, SALINAS, HADES, and the completely unfamiliar AGENA (that final A was the last letter in the puzzle, and it was a shot in the dark).
That being said, I love GOESGAGA, and HUNKERED is an outstanding word, so I'm not too upset. In fact, I had BIDET before the rest of this corner, and that gave entry to the SE, which I finished first. DOCTORWHO was a gimme. I like the clue for 53D: Hamstrings or kneecaps (HURTS). ARCHIE Griffin was a complete guess off of _R__H__. REHONE is a blah answer.Cece liked OWIE.
- Colum
31:37
ReplyDeleteNice time! My troubles were in the NE, where SUTURE was not a gimme for the non-MD set. Well, for me, at least. I love the clue, though. Also enjoyed many that you already mentioned, but I've got to call out BATARANG again as one of the best entries I've seen in a long while. Just excellent.
Also, can I just say that I hate seeing "tootled" as a clue. And it seems we see it with some regularity. Not as often as some, sure, but too much.
Overall, though, a very enjoyable Saturday.
I think I was in a Saturday solving place; the SUTURE answer just sprang immediately to mind.
DeleteSUTURE sprang to this non-MD solver. It just had to be the answer. I love it when that happens. Ergo, I did not love the SW corner, for reasons which have been amply addressed by our esteemed reviewer. AMAH, AGENA, MARIN? To sum up, METOO.
ReplyDeleteI was pleasantly duped, as is often the case, but temporarily, I'm happy to say, by 40A. Trial and error, e.g. NOUNS.
MOATED and MUFFINTOP are also great answers that are nicely clued.
And Sesame Street is in da house, lately, right?. First ERNIE, then OSCAR, now LUIS. Fun.
~Frannie
33:17
ReplyDeleteA great time for me on a Saturday. I thought this played a bit easy. As is the case with Colum and others, I enjoyed KINGTUT, BATARANG, MUFFINTOP and the DARWIN/EVOLUTION/MUTATE crosses. DOCTORWHO was over-clued, IMHO. SKYLAB was nice, too. I got SUTURE pretty quickly, though not right away. All-in-all, a good Saturday puzzle.