A daring, DOWNANDDIRTY Monday theme! The three Down clues run from a profession that'll give you dirty clothes, to dirty tricks, to a dirty movie. I like it and I'm giving it an A-. And you know the minus is just there to save a little room. 1A: Indian in many an old western (APACHE) is a pretty good clue for a nice Indian tribe name... let's give it a B. And my favorite clue/answer? Let's say 49A: State of thinking (MINDSET) because it brings to mind my old college advisor, who is one of the creators of the Beloit College Mindset List. (Shameless plug alert!)
There's quite a bit of typical Monday stuff: RAJ, EWE, VAT, SOS, APE, IONS, INGE, ATEE, RITE... and some less-than-great stuff like UAW, CLV, FIXE, ASKA, EAU, and VON, but I also enjoyed some of it - ELPASO (12D: Texas city on the Mexican border) (it's nice to have the whole thing in there), AMTRAK (46D: Northeast Corridor service) (oh Amtrak... when will you grow up?), DAWSON (30A: Former "Family Feud" host Richard) (always brings a smile), and the long Acrosses (unusual!) are also decent. POKINGFUNAT (17A: Teasing) and UNITEDFRONT (61A: Coalition with no infighting).
Let's say on balance, it's a thumbs up.
- Horace
3:38
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice all the glue while I was solving, and I very much enjoyed the DOWNANDDIRTY theme.
7:04
ReplyDeleteWell, I came in faster than your combined times, anyway. This was an unusually good Monday. I, too, love a reminder of Mr. DAWSON, plus KYOTO is right in there and, of course, the theme. SUCKERPUNCH is great, and the FLUES/CHIMNEYSWEEP combination is good, too. I briefly considered headS instead of NOSES at 23A Things "counted" when taking attendance, but quickly disabused myself of that notion.