It's a rare thing when a Tuesday puzzle really kills it. Even Bill Clinton will raise a chilly swill to the fill on this grid. But enough silliness. Let's drill down into this one.
Okay, truthfully, the clue and answer that made the whole puzzle for me came at 43A: Repeated cry when stabbing a vampire (DIE). I'm still laughing out loud at that one. Way to make a 3-letter answer pop. Perhaps nothing else quite rose to that level, but I enjoyed the puzzle anyway. You also get SCHERZO and COEXIST.
On the negative side, VAS, SAC, and FLAB all on the same row raise the question of whether the creator was thumbing his nose at aesthetics. To have two Chinese names, WEI and ZHOU, is unfortunate. And there's the random Roman numeral (CMVI).
But then, there's also CELTIC (far fallen from their heydays of the 80s and late 00s), PALMED, PATHOS, and DEFICIT.
Anyway, the theme itself is fun. I particularly like the pair of 15-letter down answers, each with a hidden pair of ILLs. I can never look at MILLARDFILLMORE's name, and not think of the cartoon strip, Mallard Fillmore. In fact, he is the president I routinely forget when I run through the list in my head (or on Sporcle).
Anyway, I enjoyed it overall.
- Colum
0:09:17
ReplyDeleteDidn't love it. The theme is nice enough, and DIE is, as you point out, hilarious, but some of it rubbed me the wrong way. Particularly, BIMBO (58A: Dumbbell). I do not like that clue for that answer. Also, BALKS yesterday, BALK today... and not only is CMVI random, the clue - 10A: The year 906 - is pretty much a punt. And we've got my new favorite word STERE again way down in the difficult SE.
Not terrible, but not my favorite.
- Horace
You're right about BIMBO. I forgot to put that in my review. Might have tipped me over towards not liking it.
Delete9:41
ReplyDeleteTough crowd. HILLBILLY, CHILLPILL, MILLARDFILLMORE and CADILLACSEVILLE were all great theme answers. In addition we have the full CHAITEA, PATHOS, TEDIUM, CULL, COEXIST and WIELDS. Sure, the two Chinese names were a bit much, but at least one of them crossed the aforementioned SCHERZO. Also, SLAKE is great, and my brother was once a 42D Grand EXALTED Ruler (Elks pooh-bah). I'd have though that PIXEL would have tipped this to the positive side for Horace.