Horace again. Maybe you'll get Frannie for a couple days in July in return. Maybe not.
Did anybody else find it poignant that Elizabeth REGINA appears on the very day of the Brexit vote? One wonders what her stance on the whole thing was. Well, this one wonders, anyway. Perhaps it was made public, I don't know. I don't follow the news. Unless, of course, there's been a tremendously important piece of news like there was this morning. Will her land now be seen by the rest of the E.U. as an AGGRESSORNATION? This ain't no TRIALRUN, Redcoats, this is "End of EMPIRE" stuff we're talking about. How will you GETBY? And already we're hearing rumbling from the capital on the AMSTEL about a "Nexit," and from the nation that makes BRIE of a "Frexit." Will BLADES be drawn? Will there be WARS? Or will a sense of unity and togetherness be REAWOKEN in the rest of the E.U., and indeed, the world at large? Will the OVAL Office help put the LIE to the NAYSAYS of the horde, the GANG? Will the ignorance of the majority be LAID BARE? Will Europe ever again rise to meet the BELL, to usher in the LONGEST peaceful era EVA?
OK... that's probably enough of that. Besides, I had OLMOS run out of material! OK, ok, I'll YIELD... Even the SNOOTiest ETONIANS will have tired of this trick by now...
Still, the E.U. is NEARTO my heart, and I'm sad to see it compromised in this way. And by England, of all places. The same England that tried to keep together another union separated by an Ocean, never mind a Channel. What have they become?
BLADES (1A: Fan group?) - A-. Decent clue, decent answer. Question mark doesn't bother me.
Overall, I enjoyed it. As Frannie said - "Funny thing about this puzzle, I did better on it once I realized it was a Patrick Berry." He hardly ever ANNOYS us.
- Horace
C'mon, give us a review, not shtick and a political screed. Good for jolly old England. They're adults (as much as any of us are . . .), they can do what they want. Fear is a powerful motivator, even if you don't really understand all the ramifications of a vote. European countries are not equipped in any way to absorb unlimited quantities of Arabs. If I were a British single issue voter, I might've leaned the same way. But on to the puzzle. This is one of the many Times puzzles that make me wonder why, or how, or something. How do you come to the decision to have AGGRESSORNATION, FREIGHTTRAIN, LAKEVIEWTERRACE, PASSEDTHETIME, DONTLETMEDOWN, and ROBERTPRESTON as your featured answers?? Is it merely that the last three fit together and the first three slide through the stack? I guess that must be it. I guess to the great puzzlemakers it's mostly about the fit of the letters and the construction. To wannabe hacks like me it's more about getting in cool words or phrases, or having some clever theme. But maybe I sell Mr. Berry short: there does seem to be a very subtle, tricky theme here on the half-year anniversary of Christmas Eve. How else does one (man, he's really mixing up one's pronouns!) account for BREWSUP EGGNOG, SLED, YULELOG, BELL, and ONEMAN (operation)--an obvious reference to St. Nick's enterprise. Maybe a bit too easy for a Friday, but the usual very high quality effort from Berry. Favorite clue: "Boxing ring producer."
ReplyDelete18:35
ReplyDeleteTypical Friday time. As predicted, this wasn't much trouble. I filled in EGGNOG off of the clue and never really slowed down. CASABA is excellent, even though it's often seen, not only because it's a decent fruit, but because it's typed solely with the left hand. I mean, I was able to sip a nice Russel's Reserve while typing that in. WORMS: gross, but good, for the garden anyway. Typical quality from Mr. Berry and nice long answers. I hadn't made note of the Christmas Eve / six-month connection mentioned by ET59, but that's quite nice. I think I'd have voted to stay in the EU, but mainly for economic reasons. If I were living there, I may very well have voted for the Brexit. Hopefully our market crashes for a little while so I can scoop up some inexpensive shares.
7:42
ReplyDeleteMan this went fast for a Friday, and my mother was watching me solve over my shoulder! She'd already done it in the morning, so she didn't help. I put PASSEDTHETIME in off of the P. The only things that really held me up were SNOOT for "High-hat" (I had put in SNare initially, mistakenly thinking of "hi-hat", which is fact a cymbal, not a drum), and LAKEVIEWTERRACE, which I've never heard of. NAYSAYS is acceptable but never heard. I really enjoyed this puzzle, but that's to be expected from Mr. Berry.