Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Tuesday, September 20, 2016, Tracy Bennett

0:05:57 (F.W.O.E.)

Frannie and I are on vacation this week at an old family cottage, and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time reading what I believe was my mother’s 1942 edition of “The American Woman’s Cook Book.” While reading the section titled “Useful Facts About Fats,” I was reminded of crosswords by the following text: “Those containing liquid fats derived from meat or cottonseed or corn oils are called oleo-margarines. Those made with oils derived from peanuts, coconuts or other nuts are called nut margarines. They are purchased uncolored but include a packet of coloring which may easily be added to make them suitable for table use.” It was really only the first sentence there that reminded me of crosswords, but the other two I also found interesting, and I thought you might too. So anyway, now this crossword made me think back to the book.

Perhaps because of my recent reading, the theme answers all came very easily to me, and I was racing along, trying to solve for time, which is almost always a bad idea. When I got to 40A: Singer with the site imaginepeace.com (ONO), I already had the N and O in place, and I saw the word “singer” and dropped in the E without finishing the clue. I even thought to myself, “I should go back and look at that to see what site Brian Eno is being connected with nowadays.” If you’re interested, it’s not imaginepeace.com.

Lots of colorful fill – PLASM (5A: Ending with neo- or proto-), RUCHE (15A: Strip of fabric used for trimming) (I generally think of that word as a verb… maybe I’m spelling it wrong), SVELTE (4D: Willowy), and even PRUSSIA (5D: German kingdom of old). I chuckled at the clues for SHIV (14A: Blade in the pen) and IAMB (21D: da-DAH), and I love a salad NICOISE. I don’t particularly love TKOD (29D: Walloped to win the bout, in brief), and I think “Dare I say” is probably more common than DAREWESAY (11D: Hesitating to mention it, but …”), but these are small things.

1A: ____ of the Apostles (ACTS), gets a C, and again it was the first answer I put in confidently.

Overall, I think this is a very strong Tuesday puzzle.


- Horace

2 comments:

  1. 5:34
    I had a struggle in the middle West section, and figuring out that the revealer was NOPIECEOFCAKE rather than some form of "a piece of cake". I'd just like to point out that I was glad the constructor clued 43D: Lowdown, in slang (POOP) the way she did. My first confident answer was ASNER.

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  2. 12:22
    The careful checking of crosses leads to slower times. ACTS was my first confident answer, and certainly not the worst book in the Bible. Fine theme. Who doesn't love cake? I've not had any of the featured answers to my knowledge, save maybe for BAKEDALASKA. SVELTE is a nice word...maybe I'll be that some day again, perhaps after the carrot cake disappears from our refrigerator.

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