Okay, I just love this theme. Take a 15-letter word and reparse it into three completely unrelated words, clue wackily, and there you are. I had no idea what was going on for a very long time, working my way around the theme answers in dribs and drabs. Then I had __MP__A__TALLY at 36A: Noodle count in one of Arizona's largest cities? I guessed the Tempe part of it, but put in "pasta" in the middle for TEMPEpAstaTALLY. That made no sense. Was it some sort of pun?
So then I figured out RECONSIDERATION. That's awesome: recon / side / ration, such excellent reimagining of that word, especially taking the two syllable middle and turning it into one syllable. That finally broke the theme, and I changed the middle to TEMPERAMENTALLY. Finally, came NONCOMMUNICABLE (noncom / muni / cable), which I found the least clever of the three.
But that's not all. Look at all of those long down answers! Four 8-letter answers, and four 11-letter answers. It took me forever to understand 9D: Faux bronze (SPRAYTAN) - hah! I also really enjoyed 24D: Did a tour after joining up? (HONEYMOONED) - way to disguise the answer. And how about 6D - Clark Kent's newspaper the DAILYPLANET. I got that off of IDRIS Elba (outstanding actor).
There are a ton of interesting and fun clues: the pair of old-time advertisements in ELLA Fitzgerald's Memorex ad and Willie the Penguin's KOOLS spot. Two that got me were 40A: Pounds, for example (MONEY - no final S here!) and 27D: Biblical mount (CAMEL) - not Sinai (note the lack of a capital M in the clue). How about 50D: Pen name (BIC)? Tough!
ROSHAMBO was the site of my error: I had put PINTo in for PINTA, and didn't know the cross at all. Apparently, that's a West Coast name for the game.
I had a lot of fun with this puzzle.
21:11 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI finished with the same error as you, but I wish I had given it another minute of thought, because I like PINTA (Noted trans-Atlantic voyager) a lot.
Agree that this was a great Thursday. I, too, love the theme, and you hit the highlights in the fill, but there's so much to like! I love SWIRLY, for which I at first tried "SubtLe." "March locale of note" for SELMA was tricky, and "It's so typical" for NORM was fun. And what about "Word after hot or before kit" for MESS? Ha!
Can't believe you went with Rubinstein over Minnie Riperton. :)
27:53
ReplyDeleteI, too, loved the theme, even though it wasn't a rebus-type Thursday. I finished most of this in around 19 minutes, but the SW and SE took a little while. Of course, EPCOT and LANAI, the former of which is a favorite place to visit and the latter a nice view from Maui (I don't golf), are nice to see. I liked the EGYPT/MYST cross just because of the "Y" in both words. Least favorite: 25A Ingredient in Christmas pudding (SUET). Gross.