Five answers including even numbers running from zero to eight, and a revealer, AGAINSTALLODDS (60A: How an extreme underdog wins ... or this puzzle?), making, happily, six theme answers. Kind of cute, I guess. I like ZEROVISIBILITY (16A: Driving condition in a blizzard) the best of the bunch, and it seems to be involved in an unofficial "winter" sub-theme. We've got SNOWTIRE (4D: Michelin winter product), SKI (9D: Compete in the Nordic combined, say), and POINSETTIAS (10D: Traditional Christmas plants) all running through it. And today when we woke up and looked out the windows we saw, for the first time this year, a dusting of snow! Coincidence? You tell me.
Decent fill overall, with only a few bits of glue like ENV, ORL, and the slightly-esoteric-for-a-Monday OSSA (59D: Greece's Mount ____). I actually like NOGO (26D: Canceled, as a launch), PSYOP (12D: "Hearts and minds" military maneuver, briefly), and MWAH (24D: Air kiss sound), though I can imagine others thinking of them as glue, too. TURNSIGNALS (27D: Blinkers) was fancy (if, like the other long down, plural), but FLATSODA (42D: Pop with no fizz) seemed a little, well, like flat soda.
- Horace
p.s. The uncommon 14x16 grid today also avoids odd numbers. Nice touch.
3:07 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI put in SUZi instead of SUZY. Saw it almost immediately on finishing, but had I put in correctly the first time I would have finished at 2:59. Darn!
9:04
ReplyDeleteEIGHTMENOUT had me stumped, as did two of its crosses: DIAGON (of which I've never heard) and LAHTI (of whom I've never heard). Obviously, I hadn't paid any attention to the theme, which would have helped immensely. So, YEOW, that is a bad Monday time, but TWOTHUMBSUP to the puzzle in general. Who doesn't love a good numbers-based theme?