Mmmmm…. cheese…..
Who doesn't like cheese? A block, a wedge, a slab… it's all good. A tasty theme today with an interesting dispersion - some vertical, some horizontal, and concentrated in the NW and SE. The phrases that contain the cheese shapes are all normal enough, and the revealer is last, and really brings the whole thing together nicely. I had no idea what was going on until I got down there.
It put up more resistance than Monday's sometimes do. I got APSES (1D: Cathedral areas) quickly enough, but it came instantly because I thought of "Apex" at first for 1A: Pinnacle, and I actually put that in, which made CEASE (2D: Stop) very difficult. I guessed MENTALlapse for MENTALBLOCK (3D: *Inability to recall something), and so on. But I'm not complaining. I enjoy an early week puzzle with some tooth.
There's really not much to leave a bad taste in this one. I knew BEEB (31D: British network, with "the") from being burned by it very early on in my blogging days. And NABOB (25D: Big shot) I know from hearing my dad joke about Agnew's crack about the "nattering nabobs of negativism." HOCKS (49D: Takes to a pawn shop) is a good one, and of the pair of "Many, many years" clues, I prefer EPOCH. Basically, the puzzle just PURRS along.
I'm not quite sure I'd agree that WRYER is "48D: More twisted, as humor," or if I'd say that a TREK was necessarily "arduous," but still I enjoyed this one. To me, it was a perfectly good Monday.
- Horace
5:06
ReplyDeleteDefinitely played hard for a Monday! Partly due to a strangely high number of typos I made during the solve. I too had MENTALlapse. Later when I corrected it, and had RUBIKSCUBE, I thought it was going to be a geometry theme. I like the cheese theme better. I suddenly came over all peckish. Esurient. I were all 'ungry-like.
Astonishingly good fill for six theme answers.
How did I not think to reference that skit? I blame the late hour, and the fact that I was rushing through it after a day at work and a night out… thank you for picking up the slack!
Delete7:34
ReplyDeleteNice theme, and nice save there, Colum, on the Python skit reference; shame on you, Horace! I once used the word "hag" in a trip report, so HAGS was a nice reminder of that fun excursion. For 5A, though ("That was a close one!"), I originally entered wHEW, which caused all manner of trouble with PLEAD at 5D. Once that was corrected, though, this went smoothly enough if, as has been mentioned, it was a bit harder than some Monday offerings. As an aside, there is a new PADDLEWHEEL boat on Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg called the "Indian Princess" that Sue and I are looking forward to riding in the fall.