A surprise Saturday rebus today! Well, is it really a rebus puzzle if it only has one rebus square, or is it something else? Either way, it's just the one center square, which I stared at for at least a full minute before the solution hit me. Thinking so much about politics lately, I started by wondering if it could be "second amendment," but then "New York [amen] New York" didn't sound like any song I knew. How much more familiar, on the other hand, is "NEWYORK,NEWYORK," and SECOND[COMMA]NDMENT, too, works better for "15D: Precept about idol worship."
Aside from that 15x13 cross in the center, there are four more 15s tying the whole puzzle together. And on top of that, the corners are pretty wide-open. Now, I've never made a crossword, but it seems to me that this kind of a construction would be quite difficult to fill in cleanly, and sure enough, there's quite few less-than-ideal entries. Take, for example, ISO, EXE, ENE, AFR, OSH, HET, ORC, ROOS, and RIDA. And moving into the longer stuff, we have ESSIE, ASRED, PLANA, REGNAL, EDENIC, and ASLOPE. Kind of a lot.
But on the brighter side, we have the disturbing pair of OPENFIRE (2D: Start to fight) and TEARGAS (Lachrymatory agent), and the always welcome SEXSCENE (15A: Part of a blue book?). Nice clue there. I actually considered trying "exam page" in there. Heh. And speaking of good clues, I really liked "25A: Overnight letter?" for INN. A letter of rooms, that is. And how 'bout "60A: Acting willfully?" TESTATE! Good stuff.
The crossing fifteens are fine, but nothing to write home about. Overall, I guess I come out in favor of this one, but it's not my favorite.
- Horace
16:24
ReplyDeleteWell, I love the comma. I too thought first of "second amendment", even though I'd thought initially that a comma would go there, but had rejected it on the theory that it would have to be a comma in the down answer as well. First answer I was confident about was TACT of all things. I have no clue what NOSIDE means. Apparently it's exactly that: the end of a rugby game. A little bit of trivia, but not very interesting in my book, so I give it a C+.
Again, thanks for the rating. I can't believe I've completely forgotten about that twice in the past week!
Delete56:07
ReplyDeleteThe [comma] had me stumped for a bit toward the end, and was, in fact, my final entry. This puzzle wasn't TOOBAD in my book, although I agree with Horace that there's quite a bit of junk. I was surprised by the odd clue for OSH (46A Old city in Kyrgyzstan), which no one knows. Nice clues, however, for ESTEE and DREAMT. And what about AMYS? Surely, someone enjoyed seeing that in there.