Happy Labor Day everybody! Today, I grocery shopped, made BLTs for lunch, mowed the lawn, then made ratatouille for dinner. Guess I know why it's called Labor Day... No, actually, I had a great weekend, including a fun annual trip to Lake George, so I don't have anything to complain about.
The fill includes four pairs of 7-letter answers in each corner, and one 7-letter in the middle. All nine of them are good answers, solid material. I like ECHELON the best for its rarity. Unfortunately, there are a number of partials (ITOO, SADO, ONEI), and a very poor crossing at BHT and BAA. I chose the B, but wondered about M. I also don't like ISL as an abbreviation for "islet" or "island" or whatever this puzzle is calling the Florida Keys.
1A: Has debts (OWES) is about as vanilla as you can get. I'll give it a C. Amusingly, 64D: Ma'am with a lamb? (EWE) uses the same letter structure, and is definitely a better clue-answer pair.
It was fine, but I was just not too excited about it.
- Colum
5:36
ReplyDeleteI, also, am uninterested in golf and never heard of CHIPBOARD. I thought I was really screaming through this, but I always make the "mistake" of looking at downs instead of just running through the acrosses (or vice versa) on Mondays. I'm sure I could have gotten a sub-5:00 had I done so. THEISM was a nice surprise; I had THE___ and thought that it would be a "the [blank]" answer. I also liked its sister answers, REDSEA and HEROD. I also enjoyed the NASA/ASTRO pair, and the look of AAAMAP in the grid. Other than that, I don't have much to add; fine Monday.
5:03
ReplyDeleteI've heard of chipboard. It's junk, but it's real. I thought the theme was pretty good for a Monday. Four shots is an average par for ball golf, so that's cool. I'm not too familiar with the term PUTTPUTTS for anything other than miniature golf courses, but I'll take Ms. Gamache's word for it.
The sevens were, indeed, quite good, and I liked the clue for TASERS (Stunning weapons).
I've been out of reach of internet for a few days, and I am still saving the recent Reagle to do with Amy, but I'll go back and fill in comments where I have them.