I think three errors are too many to excuse. Nothing wrong with the puzzle, I just was in a major rush to finish it because we were off to a wedding last night! Also the reason why the review is late. Please excuse me!
There's a lot to like about this grid, including 1A: It's soft and sweet (CREAMSODA), which gets a B+. I really have no excuse for putting in HOLDUPrOB. It simply makes no sense at all. But there you go. ABERNATHY is Ralph David Abernathy, Sr, a leader of the civil rights movement. Thus the hidden capital in "King's collaborator".
My other errors came at 34D: Post-W.W. II rival of Stalin. I had __TO and put in naTO. This was techincally not incorrect, and as Richard KILEY was unknown to me, KaLEY seemed reasonable. I can't say that I came up with a rationalization for nIGHT as the answer for 34A: Too small, possibly (TIGHT).
Anyways, other excellent entries include the late Alan RICKMAN, NESTCEPAS, and ASTRODOME, with the remarkable bit of trivia that Mickey Mantle hit the first home run there. It opened in 1965. Mantle retired in 1969, so plenty of overlap there. I actually saw a game at the Astrodome in the late 1970s, and even wore one of those old Astros t-shirts for a while after.
YOGIBERRA's complete name added to the New York feel to the puzzle.
Pretty good and smooth puzzle, as is to be expected. ROMEO was my first confident answer, as my daughter just finished reading that tragedy for English class.
- Colum
11:16
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to get anything in this one, but ass soon as I did (first might have been PSYCH), but it all unraveled quickly from there. So smooth and open.
I liked the mini-theme of CREAMSODA and PURPLECOW.
22:58 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteMy error came at OJAYS/HOLDUPJOB, where I, too, entered an "r." NUMERIC is fine (but blah), but I loved MANALIVE, PSYCH and even SHAREWARE (I still have a version of Mah Jong that is from that, which I pulled out of the dumpster (don't judge me) that was originally on a 5-1/4" floppy). SILENTCAL went in off of the clue.