0:41:42
Frannie and I solved this "together" on two different devices, talking back and forth about various clues as we sat on our sunny, breezy, front porch sipping espressos this morning. It sounds ironic, perhaps, after that last sentence, to say that neither of us particularly enjoys the phrase WINATLIFE (1A: Be successful, well-liked, etc.). And we don't watch "Game of Thrones," so TARTH (10A: Brienne of ____, "Game of Thrones" protagonist) was a complete unknown. Frannie knew AMINOACID (15A: Glutamine, e.g.), so that helped get going in that NW corner. Did you know that a wooly bear caterpillar freezes solid through the winter?!? Isn't life just so weird sometimes? And doesn't that remind you of "Catcher in the Rye," when that cab driver tells Holden that the fish "live right in the goddam ice?" Well... it does me.
Although I have remembered that fictional discussion with a cab driver for about 35 years, I did not correctly remember that OREGON was the "54A: Subject of the campaign slogan "Fifty-four forty, or fight!" I guessed "Alaska," which, unfortunately, fit. Frannie knew HORUS (59A: Egyptian god of war) immediately, and eventually sussed out NULLS and STYLE, leaving us with "...HNS" at the end of 38D: Capital of Antigua and Barbuda. It looked bad at first, but then we got ST at the beginning, and suddenly STJOHNS went right in. It's always fun when that kind of thing happens. You end up with horrible-looking letter combinations that turn out to be exactly right. Heh.
So anyway, another answer I really wanted to be right was "Vaders" for "30D: Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, e.g." And yes, I know, they're Skywalkers, but couldn't they have taken their father's new name? And no, the "e.g." doesn't really work either in that situation. OK, ok, that was an idea I had when I looked at the puzzle after midnight last night after HAVEinghadABEERortwoorthree... REBELS is fine.
Favorite word today - TRAIPSE.
Fun Saturday.
- Horace
15:59
ReplyDeleteBlistering time for a Saturday with the happy "Congratulations" pencil showing up at the conclusion. I started with WINATLIFE and never looked back. Even though I'm not too familiar with the term SPANDRELS, all of the crosses went right in (I quite enjoyed 8D Aid in restoring a crown (FILLING), and how about how Jack DANIELS crosses HAVEABEER? And PLEAS is right above SANE, the opposite of the latter being often used in the former...well, as a defense, anyway. I use the web site OPENTABLE quite a bit, but never the one directly below it, PINTEREST. FILIAL , HORUS (which I, too, knew immediately), JAG, and TRAIPSE are all excellent fill. My least favorite word today: HENNAED. AXIOMS and FIDGET are probably tied for my favorites.
Wow! Nice time! That's got to be close to a personal best for a Saturday, no?
DeleteAnd nice "opposite of the latter…" sentence. You're on quite a roll today.
Agreed about HENNAED. I hated it as I was forced to enter it and I hate it now.