Interesting theme today of MALELEADS. That is, names for male animals - stag, cock, bull, and buck. The names are all situated in solid fill - STAGNATED (18A: Got stuck in a rut), COCKTAILHOUR (20A: Time before dinner for socializing) (Excellent), BULLETPROOFVEST (37A: Protection for a police officer), and BUCKEYESTATE (53A: Ohio's nickname).
In non-fill, we have the amusing EPICFAILURE (3D: Huge blunder) (usually shortened to just "epic fail"), VIPENTRANCE (25D: Special access for celebs), REFRAINS (41A: Repeated parts of songs), ABHOR, BLOAT, EXTOL, DEUCE, and UTTER (51D: Say). Pretty good stuff.
On the other hand, LIETESTS (33A: Polygraphs) felt a little ad hoc, BOHO (37D: ____-chic (fashion style) felt a tad non-Mondayish, HAR (42A: Sarcastic laugh sound) APAL, and TRE are straight-up glue, and SYSOP and LASIK are a little specialized, but that's not much. Overall, I'm a FAN.
1A: Views as (DEEMS), gets a C+, for being mildly unusual.
- Horace
4:12 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI've got to watch my thick thumbs on that darned iPad. Simple typo. Anyway, I forgot to even look at the theme. Nice idea, well handled.
6:07
ReplyDeleteFine theme, and nice that EXPAT is in there since we know at least one. I've never heard OLDVIC. LUNAR is timely (Year of the Rooster!).