More circles, and guess what? I liked it! But let's not get too carried away, I thought the "balls" were all normal enough, but in almost every case, they forced less-than-desirable fill. Witness CHROMO, AFTA, RASE, and ENROOT. Not to mention the "second tier" weak fill like AMTS, RESEAT, ASOF, OHFOO, and ABED. Wait, maybe I put OHFOO in the wrong category.
So why do I like it, you ask? Well... I'm asking myself that very question right now, actually. Is it a FOOLSERRAND (20A: There's no reason to go on one) to try to turn this into a positive review after that opening? Will I be OBSESSIVEly EDITING (54A: Academy Award category) all night, trying to work in some entertaining results of PARONOMASIA (56A: Art of punning) (Who knew?) to entertain all o'y'all? Should I just give up and run a Sally FORTH (20D: "... and so ___") comic instead? ... wow... where did that come from? Sorry.
OK, so it wasn't perfect, but it's Tuesday. Don't we cut a lot of slack on Tuesdays? Or is that not quite SPOTON? Am I just overlooking all the DINGS (55D: Game show sound effects) (ok, I like this clue), or did I really DIG (43A: Archaeological site) it? Well... EELWORM, NEWSPAPER, GATOR, PESOS!
- Horace.
p.s. Do we also cut slack for reviewers on Tuesdays?
5:39
ReplyDeleteVery mixed about this puzzle. I love PARONOMASIA! What a weird word. I needed every cross to get it. OHFOO crossing AFTA? Blah. I love the clue for NEWSPAPER (45A: Makeshift fly swatter). But then you get little corners of yuck like IDA/VOL/ESL/DOS.
And the theme? It's cute, but I don't really like the revealer. The little circles of words that can precede the word "ball" are not JUSTHAVINGABALL. They come before the ball.
Eh. It wasn't terrible.
Yes, you guys are right on the money: this is a very weird puzzle. PARONOMASIA is really cool--I wasn't aware of that word--and FOOLSERRAND is a superlative bit of long fill; but as you have both pointed out, there is an awful lot of crap here. I'll add a few to your lists: NTH, AKA, PRE, MED, VIP, IBM, SAN, SSTS, IPOS, and I'm getting a little tired of seeing OGRES too. Agree that the revealer wasn't great. Rex was all in a snit over the JUST part. I think Colum's criticism is more valid. I can live with the JUST. Interesting that we get HADAGO for "Tried" when just two days ago we saw HASAGO for "Tries." Strange, huh? Finally, I originally wrote in, and would have preferred, "hog" instead of PIG for "Not the sharing type." Don't you think of a hog as the selfish one and a PIG as just the prodigiously consuming one? I know I do.
ReplyDelete9:50
ReplyDeleteOn my puzzle, DIG is 43A Archaeological site. 39D is Kind of access (VIP). I liked the puzzle just fine, with my least favorite theme answer being POOL ball. Is that a thing? I never heard the word PARONOMASIA, and, like Colum, needed every cross for it. I also never heard of an EELWORM. On a positive note, I was able to enter RENEE (49A Soprano Fleming) with no crosses. And what about 50D Infant bottle topper (NIPPLE)? That could have been clued a bit better, no? No one likes an infant.
Thanks. I've fixed the clue for DIG.
Delete