Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Tuesday, October 6, 2015, Zhouqin Burnikel

0:05:57

Ahh... circles. Not my favorite theme type. They tend to strike me as being a little thin, and this is no exception. Four feelings: "hope," "rage," "love," and "loss" are circled in down answers. Symmetrical theme answers, but not symmetrical circles... not such a big deal, but not beautiful.


Neither of us knew CARLOSSLIM (30D: Mexican once ranked as the world's richest man), and DANECOOK (19A: Comedian with the double-platinum album "Retaliation") only rang a faint bell, but GINSU (65A: Kind of knife once touted in infomercials), on the other hand, was immediate. From the clue, I guess they don't still have those commercials. Are they still sold? Did the "lifetime guarantee" finally put them out of business?...

FRENCHOPEN (3D: Tennis tournament played on red clay) is nice, and Frannie liked the pair of "bunny" clues - 43A: Mogul with a Bunny (HEF) and 51A: Celebration with a bunny (EASTER). DEFT (39D: Nimble-fingered) and BUXOM (41D: Like women in Rubens paintings) are good words, and Massachusetts is nicely represented with CAPECOD (38A: Massachusetts vacation destination), even though we always head north to "old Massachusetts." Isn't that what Maine likes to be called?

There are some unfortunate plurals (CSIS, EVES, OLES, OAFS, AMPS), but, well... it's fine for a Tuesday.

Oh, I almost forgot - 1A: "For more ____ ..." (INFO): D.

Overall, though, maybe more of a C.

- Horace
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Colum AmoryOctober 6, 2015 at 7:19 PM

    DNF
    I'm going with the DNF rather than FW(3)E. I put in "Serb" without checking the crosses, even though CARLOSSeIM looked wrong. Since I didn't know the person in question, I failed to appropriately question my answer. Um. Anyway, I would have caught it if I'd looked at ErRP or EbES.

    I liked the theme just fine. Except, wouldn't it have been more interesting without the circles? Why must we be spoonfed when we're doing the NYT crossword? I think I would have figured it out, but NOW I'LL NEVER KNOW.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HuygensOctober 7, 2015 at 7:40 AM

    8:29
    DANECOOK is pretty funny...maybe Horace and Frannie should look at a YouTube or two of his. Finally, a "D" handed out, appropriately, I might add. The only thing I required all of the crosses on was the aforementioned CARLOSSLIM, of whom I've, also, never heard. Oh, wait a minute: LIONEL Messi is also unknown to me. Wasn't "ooky" recently an answer, and now a clue ((7D "Ooky" family cousin) ITT)? I liked that GINSU appears above EDGY, though "edge" would have been slightly better. Well, what does one want on a Tuesday, anyway? Good clue for the oft-seen ANTE (67A Pot grower?).

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)