Monday, November 30, 2015

Tuesday, December 1, 2015, Dan Schoenholz

0:05:29

Earlier tonight, Frannie and I had dinner with a woman who saw the Beatles live in concert, not once, but twice! And now we've got this NORWEGIANWOOD theme! What are the chances?!

All was immediately obvious once I had about four or five crosses through the first part (IONCEHADAGIRL), but I suppose that will be true for many people, it being Tuesday and all, and the Beatles being the Beatles and all. So the theme is fine. How can you knock it?


The rest of the fill is a little hit-or-miss. Huygens will certainly enjoy BALI (16A: 1952 Hope/Crosby "Road" movie destination), not because he loves the movie (he might, I don't know), but because he himself will be on the road to Bali very shortly. Perhaps if he hasn't seen it he'll put that movie on the queue! 59A: Long ago, long ago (ERST) is clever, and was the runner-up for favorite clue. I also like HADOUT (2D: Borrowed, as a library book) partly because it is nicely colloquial, partly because I now work in a library, and partly because it took me a long time to figure out. And speaking of that, 12D: Wield (PLY) is a little tricky for a Tuesday, no?

I enjoyed the paired Hope/Crosby clues, the paired "Kind of tide" clues, and interesting tidbits like 9D: Marc who painted "Russian Village Under the Moon" (CHAGALL) and 47D: Daughter of King Cymbeline in Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" (IMOGEN).

Overall, a decent Tuesday.

1A: Picked (CHOSE) - meh. C.
Favorite clue/answer - 15A: Something that might come to light? (MOTH) That's good, even with the question mark.

- Horace

7 comments:

  1. 10:42
    I starred BALI and DOHA, since our road to the former will take us through the latter, a fact which mildly upsets Sue. I immediately thought of NORWEGIANWOOD, of course, once I had the crosses that provided IONCEHAD_____. Having seen The Beatles twice would put your friend, if I figured correctly, at a minimum of around 61 years old. Am I close? I also starred CARWASH (42D Something to roll up your windows for) because who rolls a window up any more? Also, it was nice to see MONO in there since many Beatles recordings were in that format, and EAGLE is great, as was its clue. Is YODELS and ECHO somewhat of a pairing?

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    1. I'd guess maybe 62 or 63, but yes, very good guess of the minimum.

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  2. 4:51
    I loved the theme, although it made the whole puzzle at least a minute faster than it would otherwise have been. How cool is it that each phrase is splits so neatly by number of letters such that the second and third phrases are equally long, and the first phrase matches the title? I dunno about the rest of the puzzle. What about LEWINSKY symmetric to MANLIEST? I doubt we'd call William Jefferson Clinton the manliest of the presidents. Who would get that title? Teddy Roosevelt?

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    Replies
    1. Teddy would certainly have chosen himself. And really, it would be hard to argue with him.

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    2. And December 1 seems to be listed under the November blogs.

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    3. That must be because I wrote and posted it before midnight on the 30th. Oh, the problems that come from being too efficient!

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