This is an awfully cute theme. Take a well known catchphrase from an advertisement, anagram one of the words, and clue the resulting phrase with a wacky result. I think the theme started with the highest point, with 23A: Warren Buffett's rule about hugging? (DONTSQUEEZETHERICHMAN). Not only is the original catchphrase a classic, the result is just plain ludicrous.
The others don't nearly reach the same level. I laughed at OBEYYOURTSHIRT, but the remaining four are merely okay. But that's okay. I like the idea and the results are reasonably good. I'd never really registered the phrase "the fabric of our lives", advertising for cotton. There's a minor duplication in the theme, in that "We love to see you smile" and "You deserve a break today" both are from McDonald's ads.
There are some nice long down answers scattered through. CANNELLONI matches up with PENNE for a dual pasta punch. EXACTITUDE is good, but UNFRIENDED is very good. I like the modern terminology.
1A: Comment after a bull's-eye (NICESHOT) is pretty good. I give it a B. Much better is 129A: "Perfecto!" (NAILEDIT). I wish they had been reversed.
IMPEDERS is problematic. Not only is it an -er word, it's unnecessarily pluralized. "Look at all of those impeders in the Senate!" is a sentence that no one said ever.
Also, JEOPARDOUS. Phew. That feels really awkward. It googles fine, but I just don't think anybody since 1450 has every said it.
ROSSSEA is fun to look at with all those Ss.
Anyway, it was pretty fun to solve, and took me about the average time, so that's fine.
- Colum
Wow, the bottom of this played really tough for me. I never even got JEOPARDOUS until I came over here to read your review. I put in something like trOPARDOUS and then read the review. I didn't know MURESMAN, and could not stop thinking about bus-related rivals for Peter Pan. Not that TIF is a known bus line or anything...
ReplyDelete"Gray matter" for BOTANY is pretty tough. I suppose I should have known it, though, as we have the Gray Herbarium right at Harvard! ENTENTE (Compact) was also given a tough clue - at least for me. I like how NAILEDIT is the last across answer. I just wish I could have said that at the end today... sigh.
Also, THISDUBSFORYOU was pretty funny, I thought. You might be a tad too young to have internalized that old ad campaign. ... but yes, the first one is the best.
ReplyDeleteAnd lastly - Brian ENO did the Windows 95 start-up sound?!!?! How did I not know that?!
And lastly lastly, Michael Jordan looks tiny in that photo! I guess I had stopped watching basketball when that monster entered the league.
ReplyDeleteAverage time for me, too, although I didn't officially time it since it's a Sunday. CYST - gross. I had rsvp instead of BYOB down there in the SW for a bit, but the latter is much, much better., and who doesn't like SPIKEHEELS? Girls, probably, that's who. What...no picture of TAZ? Or Yorick?
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