I'll tell you one thing, I'm a sucker for a pretty grid. When I opened this up this morning I was predisposed toward it before filling in a single answer. And when they did start getting filled in (I think STALE (19A: Overused) was my first entry) I still liked it!
But let's get the iffy stuff out of the way first. I wanted "flap" instead of SLAT (26A: Plane wing part), and SOFABED's clue, "All-weather convertible?," seems a little too cute, doesn't it? EMME (53D: Model who wrote the 1996 book "True Beauty") is unknown to me (not really a problem), and then there's ARIL, ANILINE, and URU, which are what Jeff Chen likes to call "glue." And that's about it for iffy.
As for the good stuff, there's almost too much to mention. First, as I said, the grid shape. Lovely. Then there's SPACETIME, AREWEGOOD, MASSEUR (1D: One pressing the flesh), INTHEBAG (8D: Assured), LOVESET (24D: Court blowout), WHATIFS (37D: Thoughts of wishful thinkers), ANGELIC (12D: Not merely good), ACQUIRE (15A: Pick up), PEERAGE (13D: Aristocracy), DEFINED (45A: In the dictionary, say) (maybe my favorite clue), and CAPRICES (33A: Vagaries). And that's just all I'm going to write down. You may have other favorites. 1A: Barbecue chef's coat (MEATRUB) I'll give a B-. I don't love it, but at least they tried to make it tricky.
Solid end to a Turn that picked up steam as it went along.
- Horace
32:15
ReplyDeleteThe clue for MEATRUB didn't fool me for a second, but I needed a few crosses to get the answer since I've never used the term. I love a nice "CQ" word like ACQUIRE. I had the first "M" of EMME in and immediately wrote in iMan, which I quickly removed. EVILONE (42 Old Scratch, with "the") may be my favorite. NOMINEE (16A Something on a ticket) was tricky.