My goodness, the NYT is getting edgy nowadays! Even risque, you might say. It's a cute revealer, with BOOBYTRAPS, and the first word in each themed answer goes with the word "bra" to name a type of brassiere. On that level, it's fun. I'm not sure about 47A: Be dead and buried, in slang (PUSHUPDAISIES). Seems to me that the term is "pushing up the daisies", which obviously wouldn't work for the puzzle. Unless somebody has a pushing-up bra. Anyhoo. I find it somewhat disappointing that all three types of bra are essentially the same thing. No "sports" bra, "strapless" bra, um...
Because there are only four theme answers, the puzzle feels open and unforced, for the most part. 1A: Place to swim (POOL) is straightforward and unobjectionable. I'll give it a C. The long down answers are similarly not terribly inspired, but not problematic. I liked 41:A Add more to, as someone's drink (FRESHEN).
I'm not fond of ODIST, SYS, or SYM. I felt that SLiLY is more correct than SLYLY, but I could be wrong about that. There were a number of brand names as well. Still, it was a pretty smooth solve over all.
My favorite clue-answer for the day is 30A: "Plan 9 From ____ Space" (OUTER). I've always enjoyed Ed Wood's work. Second place went to MYST, a game I very much enjoyed in the early 1990s.
- Colum
0:04:26
ReplyDeleteGreat start to the week! I laughed out loud when I figured out the theme. PUSHUPDAISIES is, maybe, a bit forced, but I'll take for this level of irreverence. I thought of Huygens, of course, and I hope he's back from wherever he was this weekend so he can enjoy this one.
I don't have any complaints about the favorites. I've never seen the movie in its entirety, but I did enjoy trying to figure out MYST.
I never played MYST, but have long been an Ed Wood fan, and have seen the named movie more than once. The theme was great, and I was, of course, happy to be back to enjoy it. I've always heard PUSHUPDAISIES, so no complaints there, and SLYLY seems OK to me. Of course, we have SPAM, RIO, OLDS, NOKIA, MOEN, RAM and AIRBUS that could all be considered to be brand names, but that doesn't bother me too much.
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