Sunday, April 10, 2016

Monday, April 11, 2016, Ron Toth and Zhouqin Burnikel

0:06:45 (F.W.T.E.)

A couple of bad guesses held me up in this one. First, off, I tried "ChinO / PANTS" (1A: *With 9-Across, loose-fitting bottoms), which made ABLE (2D: Having what it takes) and GOPOOF (4D: Magically vanish) difficult to see. It was RHOMB (3D: Diamond shape), believe it or not, that finally fixed that mess up, and ABHOR (14A: Hate) was the last thing I entered. Unfortunately, I had tried "TAlk" for (29D: Drive (down)) (TAMP), and never went back to verify it. When I told Frannie about this, she thought that "looed" might not be entirely out of the realm of possibility in the crossword world: "42A: Visited the restroom in Britain"...

Who says "bottoms" to mean pants? Bottoms!? BTW, Frannie tried "sweat / pants," but she fixed it up on hers and finished with no errors. Hmph.

All that nonsense aside, I actually love this strange theme of pockets, and including BOWLINGLANE (24A: *Where you can hear a pin drop) (excellent) is pretty daring, as that sweet-spot between the one and the three (if you're a righty) that you always try to hit is not, I'm guessing, terribly well-known as "the pocket" by non-bowlers.


The other themers are pretty obvious. I also like the horizontal symmetry, and some of the other marquee down answers - WORLDCUP, ENCHILADAS, SOURGRAPES, and even APESUITS (26D: Hairy Halloween rentals). I don't know, I just get the feeling that this puzzle is all about saying "I do what I want!" The craziness of APESUITS, the two central downs being longer than all but one theme answer, having NUDIE and BRA, and GOPOOF... do you see what I mean at all?

Sure, there's some glue, like ESTE, STOA, RAGU... but today I don't care, and you know what? I do what I want too, and I give it a thumbs up.

- Horace

1 comment:

  1. 7:17
    I mention "the pocket" all the time when Sue and I go bowling...she doesn't like it. I didn't ever hear the phrase SKIBAGS, but I don't ski, so.... And REALALE? I don't know. I'll tepidly agree with the thumbs up, but there was a great deal of junk in this puzzle. Let's just say it's a TOSS because of BRA, EROICA, CASK (good 'ol Poe) and SOURGRAPES.

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