A fun Sunday theme today of clues that pretend to start a job listing, and are finished by ordinary sayings that are reinterpreted in a punny way. My favorite might be 80A: Need cruise ship band to ... ROCKTHEBOAT, but 89A: Need orchestra conductor to ... FACETHEMUSIC isn't bad either. And, well, 114A: Need blackjack dealer to ... HITTHEDECK is funny, too. Wait, wait... I forgot about my real favorite - 37D: Need stunt pilot to ... FLIPTHEBIRD. HAH! Hi-larious. And speaking of that one, it's nice that a couple of the themers go vertically. And did you notice the Easter egg (CANDYEGG?) bonus theme at 106D: Fill a position (HIRE)? Heh.
We are not BESET by much junk today. There's the dreaded ELHI, the odd ALGA (16D: Bit of marine life), and the suffix ETTE. BLATS (39D: Calf cries) is missing an E, and DODO isn't quite what I think of when I hear "109D: Dullard," but I'm not going to get all HETUP about it. Overall, this is pretty clean. Especially for a Sunday. I say thumbs up.
- Horace
I'm back from vacation! Included were four bike trips adding up to 100 miles over 6 days. Made me think about maybe going for a century one of these days. I didn't comment because on the iPad, at least for me, if I start typing and then go to the crossword app then back to Safari, the comment is frozen. I'll go back and make some comments after this.
ReplyDeleteThis Sunday was fine. FLIPTHEBIRD was by far the best of the theme answers. There are a whole slew of fine clues. I liked 33A: Characters in "The Hobbit" (RUNES). I did not like 61A: Track runner (TRAIN), as the clever verb for adjective switch doesn't quite match the intent. 83A: Take orders, say (WAIT) was surprisingly straightforward. I was thinking about the religious context.
Strange clues for ATOM and SOME. Overall I enjoyed it enough.
27:28 (FWTE)
ReplyDeleteI'm back from vacation, also. Agree about FLIPTHEBIRD. My problem came with the horrid crossing of Benjamin BRATT (101A), who is unknown to me with both 101D Port in western France (BREST) and 102D Page opposite verso (RECTO), so whatever. Shouldn't Colum have written SAFARI in all caps up there (35A Chrome alternative)? My time, despite the errors, must be a Sunday record for me.