A really fun theme today, where a two-word, alliterative phrase is tacked onto the end of a normal phrase, and clued amusingly. For example, OFTHEEISINGSONG (66A: "America"?), and LETHERRIPRAP (81A: Grant a girl permission to dis Drake?). That second one made me LOL. I also like FINGERTIPTOP (55A: Nail?) and TRIPLEFLIPFLOP (117A: Diving disaster?). Hah! Again I say, fun theme.
The fill is a little mix-y, as very few people say. I had never heard of ONEACAT (19A: Baseball-like game), and HERNAN (25A: Conquistador Cortés), if I ever knew it, I had forgotten. CETERA (22A: Et ____) always feels a little weak, as does LOA, and there is, as there often is, a smattering of foreign-language glue - SUI, SOU, LAO, IPSO, FRAU, and SEMAINE (91A: Week, on Martinique).
But there's also lots to like, like PALLID (30D: Opposite of ruddy), MANIAC (78D: Nut), NECKED (80D: Made out) (!), CRYPTS (100D: Some vaults), and WINGSPAN (54D: Jet measure). I also enjoy the word LENGTHWISE (16D: From one side to the other), and I don't know about you, but sometimes the different ways they try to clue ERIEPA (77D: It lies between Cleveland, O. and Buffalo, N.Y.) amuse me. But come on, why not use the normal postal code abbreviations for the States, if you're going to use PA? Has anyone ever abbreviated "Ohio" with just "O?"
1A: Inconceivably vast (COSMIC) gets a solid B. I suppose Huygens would want it higher, and if it were "cosmos," it probably would be.
Overall, thumbs up.
- Horace
38:16
ReplyDeleteCOSMIC would have been an A- had I rated it, the minus for it not being cosmos, as was mentioned by Horace. My solve time was close enough to my preferred time for me to give this a thumbs-up in that respect, and the theme, which took me a little while to figure out, was an enjoyable one. REDCAVIAR is something I haven't had in too long now, and I always love LENGTHWISE because it reminds me of when one of my uncles explained in detail how to make a banana split to Sue and me (we already knew how, but he plowed on nonetheless).