Just like at the tournament, I was tripped up by not knowing a proper name. This time it was PAULA (15A: Creamer of the L.P.G.A.). I had entered SiNKIN for 9D: Hit home (clues that play with tenses can be very tricky!), and it didn't really set off any alarms when I saw PAULi go in. I suppose, if I had thought for a minute, PAULA would have made more sense in the LPGA, but, well... I didn't.
SOPRANO (4D: One who may finish on a high note) was excellently clued. I liked OPENLINE (5D: Metaphor for easy access), SEETOIT (24D: Carry out a duty with diligence) (looks weird), and PARTYHAT (49A: Conical topper). I tried "dunceHAT" there at first. Must be thinking too much about my performance at the recent A.C.P.T. Hah!
I like today's theme, too. Variants of the sentence "What is it?" answered in different ways. Very nice. 1A: "Sonar"-equipped fliers (BATS) gets a C. It's fine. Not great, not bad. C is okay. There's some less-than-okay fill, like PENTADS (37A: Quintets), TNUT (58D: Letter-shaped fastener), and MPAA (55D: Grp. assigning film ratings), but really, there's not too much of that sort of thing. I'd say on the whole this was a decent Wednesday. Thumbs up.
- Horace
10:14 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteOPENLINE did me in. I don't get it. It's just not a real term. So I had OPENLaNE, which made much more sense. IRONSaDE, however, really makes no sense. So... yeah. I liked the rest of the puzzle a lot. How come I got taken in by "Latvian capital" again? I was thinking EeRO, EbRO, EvRO. Then I got AUTO, and it became clear.
10:15
ReplyDeleteI think I win today, even though my time is a very close second to Colum's. I had OPENdoor at first, and also, like Horace, dunceHAT, but the crosses soon fixed those up. I also had PAU__ from crosses and entered the ___LA off of the clue. PENTADS is bad, but MEERKAT, save for its clue, is nice. I enjoyed the three theme answers related to "it." Odd theme for a puzzle, but it works. I never heard of an OYSTERCRAB; I suppose when Sue and I run our 10K down in that area - Maryland, I presume - we should try that particular delicacy. No one wants to hear about a HAIRNET, or a cafeteria. And how about TOKED? That was unexpected. Also, I entered SEINFELD when I read the first five words of the clue (24A Sitcom whose four main characters...). Fine Wednesday.
9:57
ReplyDeleteWell, OK, Huygens, I guess I have to post. I did know PAULA Creamer and entered it with no crosses. That and SEINFELD, also entered with no crosses, begot ELITE. ILOVEPARIS was also a gimme and I was just cruising. I did, of course, put Riga in at first, but AUTO and SOPRANO were obvious enough to rethink.
I particularly enjoyed seeing SHUNTS because it reminds me of all those many train books I read to a very young Harry so many years ago. Although I take serious issue with the clue. Shunting, as I learned back then quite well, is the process of pushing or pulling train cars onto different tracks so that they can be connected to specific trains destined for different locations. Therefore, it is a strategy used in the process of redirecting train cars, certainly not whole trains, but it is not itself the act of redirecting trains or train cars. That would be switching.
We're a great big rollin' railroad
One that everybody knows
We were born of gold and silver spikes
A hundred years ago
We're a million miles of history
A-shinin' in the sun
We're the Union Pacific
And our story's just begun