Sunday, January 15, 2017

Sunday, January 15, 2017, Joel Fagliano

GRAMMAR LESSON

If there's one thing we like here at Horace and Frannie and Colum, it's wacky cluing, and when you throw grammar into the mix, it's better still. FUTUREPERFECT (24A: Utopia?) is brilliant, SENTENCESTRUCTURE (103A: Jailhouse?) is also strong, and INDEFINITEARTICLE (31A: Piece still under consideration for a magazine?) is pretty good. Some of the others seem a little forced, but only OBJECTIVECASE (113A: The Prada that one really wants?) is objectionable.


In addition to the fun theme, I enjoyed many of the non-theme clues today, starting with SCISSOR (1A: Kind of kick) (B+), which was both unexpected and evocative. In fact, that whole top row is strong. SEASALT (8A: Product of evaporation) is one of my favorite things, and I love the misdirection (for regular crossword solvers) of 15A: Apple product (CIDER). It's not a hidden capital, it's a false capital! What!?

29A: Packers' grp.? (NRA) is funny-ish, SLOG (48A: Interminable task) is nice and modern, and I like the symmetrical PROPPLANES (97A: Fleet for many a commuter airline) and YELLOWFLAG (42A: Signal meaning "no disease on this ship") (interesting trivia alert). And right near that first one is the amusing "102A: Specimen, for example: Abbr." (SYN). Tricky!

It's a big puzzle with a lot of good stuff. This is my favorite Sunday in a while.

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. Indeed, Colum. All the way through this, but for the SE which came near the end, I was thinking how much Frannie must be getting a kick out of it. Then, the bitch appeared. Killjoy for sure.

    Horace, I, a man of letters, like INDEFINITEARTICLE best.

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  2. 29:37
    A bit fast for me, but a fun puzzle nonetheless, as has been mentioned above. No slow-downs or false answers entered. I thought that the theme answers were all pretty strong, save for the aforementioned OBJECTIVECASE, which was weakest by far. Always like to see ATHEISTS and a SEXSCENE represented; I'll RAISE a glass to that. RIMED was tough-to-take, and I found SLURRY to be INBADTASTE, mostly because of that spill of cow slurry a few years back when a truck overturned. FRUMPS, SCIFI and SOFTTACO were all very good. I know that SCIFI shows up regularly, but being a holiday Monday, I had my traditional "Doctor Who" party and hot tub with two fingers today. FIGWASP is interesting; I thought that would be the photo for the day.

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