This was a fun one! I think the first answer I put in confidently was GRAS (21A: Fat: Fr.), but it could have been OZAWA (7D: Conductor who has a hall at Tanglewood named after him), and from there I was off and running.
I love INANIMATEOBJECT (17A: It has no life) because it makes me think of the Simpsons episode where a ticker tape parade is held for an inanimate rod. Hahahahaha! Anyway, WAXPOETIC (20A: Become flowery) is very nice, BOETHIUS (11D: "The Consolation of Philosophy" author) was surprising, but so appropriate beside the ANCIENTS (12D: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes). Those three were more ancient even to BOETHIUS than Chaucer is to us!
44D: Places for pilots (STOVES) was tricky (perhaps because pilots are being phased out), as was 4D: Film setting? (CANISTER). And 38D: Farm butter (RAM), too, was fun, and not given away - as USBPORTS (39D: Openings in the computer field?) was - by a question mark.
SHOCKJOCK (1A: One making waves over the waves) gets a B+. It's a nice Scrabble-y entry, and current, but I just don't like the whole idea of a SHOCKJOCK, so it doesn't get into the As. Some uncommon proper names provide glue (TYNER, ROCHE, HONORE), but overall there's not too much objectionable material. If there were any complaint it would be that it went a bit too quickly for a Friday. But so many good answers (YOUVEBEENSERVED, STREISAND (63A: Broadway star who was on Nixon's list of enemies) (Nixon was quite mad. In both senses.), EMBOSS, SOLEMN...) that it still gets a thumb way up.
- Horace
14:19
ReplyDeleteNice time, Horace! So much to like here. The two clues at 19A: Very well-pitched (NOHIT) and 35D: Get perfectly pitched, in a way (AUTOTUNE) - very clever. I love RAM and LOO (I can't believe I fell for that - I was trying to think of some way to squeeze Dumbledore into three letters... his initials? Albus Percival Wulfric Brian... oh well). SCREENTIME is a nice modern touch. I loved KNEX and KNIT just a couple of columns apart. Only complaint would be INJECT crossing ___OBJECT.
39:39
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with "thumbs way up" or with the SHOCKJOCK problem, which in my opinion is a mis-label coined by those who've never spent any time listening to such a person, but we don't have to go there, or to agree, in order to get along. I, too, (nearly) finished this very quickly, but I had four squares that came very slowly: the crosses of BOETHIUS/ANCIENTS/ROCHE/TINT. Oddly, even though I had the ANCI__TS, I was trying to overthink it, looking for a deep connection somewhere. Anyway, it took me a good twenty minutes to suss that section out, which fell in seconds once ANCIENTS dawned on me.