I wondered if today were some kind of anniversary, but no, WATSON and CRICK's article was published in April. Also, while looking for that date, I learned that they did not discover DNA, but rather discovered its DOUBLE HELIX structure. Nice, by the way, that those first four bold words are found symmetrically in the puzzle. The swirl of "DNA" down the center is also lovely.
The structure of the puzzle, however, strains a bit. ACNED (29D: Spotted at the prom, perhaps?), despite its cute clue, is pretty ugly, and ERO, ENDO, BANOS (36A: Spanish baths), ACOP, and MDLI are all less than great.
On the other hand, ARACHNID (20A: Scorpion, for one) is strong, BRINDISI (36D: Port city at one terminus of the Appian Way) is great trivia, and STUBBY is fun, as are the clues for WED (41D: Enter an altared state?) and ROIS (16A: 18 Louises). That last one was news to me. I thought they would have stopped with the "Louis" name after #16 got his head cut off.
Some entries, like REALGNP, AGREESTO, TENACE, and DECEASE seem a little bland, but one can't really complain too much about that, can one? At least I'm not going to, because I'm hoping that Mr. Collins will buy me a couple PILSNERS in Stamford if he comes east again for the ACPT this year. Is that wrong?
- Horace
Mr Collins AGREESTO (57 Across) the PILSNERS (9 Down). That would be DIVINE (6 Down).
ReplyDelete- Mr Collins
Excellent. Looking forward to it!
Delete5:10
ReplyDeleteAlways impressive to have those triple checked letters. I liked MRCUB and ANGLIA. Others have complained of the crossing of REALGNP and BRINDISI, but really, what other letter by N could go in there? I was in a good mood before I left the NW corner, what with NOTASOUL and ONTHEGO. Excellent.
13:03 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteWell, Colum, my error was at that very cross, where I put a "D" in there (gross domestic product), which is, I think, reasonable; I never heard of BRINDISI, and "Briddisi" seemed like something that could exist. But I'm certainly not complaining, since that's a fair Thursday cross. With the circles, I put in all of the DNAs once I had CRICK entered, which I did off of the clue. WATSON, DOUBLE and HELIX also went in very quickly, which contributed to the speed with which I solved today. ARACHNID, SKEIN, SIEGE and BRUTAL (I'm planning a trip to that continent, but in the more pleasant Summer season, thankfully) are nice. I didn't love MCRAE, LIBBER or ALTON too much.
Of course, I mean "Wednesday" cross...today is Thursday.
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