Today we get four (somewhat) different definitions of "Queen/Queens". Somewhat, I say, because in all four cases, the word derives from the feminine royal title. I don't really count that against the theme though. I do like that there are two "Queen's" and two "Queens'". It is also odd that there are five answers and four clues, but that's okay.
All four answers are standalone strong. RUPAULSDRAGRACE must have been the seed for this. I have never personally watched the show, but it's been going for 8 seasons, so it's clearly successful.
There's nothing terrible or really amazing about the rest of the grid, in my opinion. I liked BRUNOMARS, but ARROWHEAD is kind of meh. YALU is a bit of Chinese geography trivia: it's nearly 500 miles long, so somewhat longer than the Susquehanna but not as long as the Wabash. I don't know if that makes it crossword-worthy or not. The clue was semi-interesting.
My error came at LOCI, where I put fOCI (29D: Central points). I'd say my answer is more correct, but there's no singer nicknamed JfO, so there you go. 1A: Bear whose bed was too hard for Goldilocks (PAPA) gets a B for the effort. It's certainly better than referencing the Smurfs.
- Colum
This was a fun theme. I kept wondering if there would be an answer like “royal palace” (that is, a real queen) but turns out they just had other kinds of queens.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to some familiar answers like ELBA and OREO we also got TWERK (suitably up to date), RUBATO (nice), and LATEX (again, a bit off the beaten path).
Oh, and I had the same error on fOCI. With hindsight, JLO might have been findable even without knowing anything about "Let's get loud", but I give up too easily on celebrities (mere lack of knowledge does not prevent guessing based on what letters go together).
9:51
ReplyDeleteI tried RUPAULSDRAGshow at first, because I've neither seen nor heard of RUPAULSDRAGRACE (much better name), but it was quickly repaired with the crosses. I loved TWERK, which we haven't seen in a while, either in the puzzle or in real life (thankfully, IMO, regarding the latter). LATEX is edgy, ENAMOR is nice and COHERE is a great word. HIC is nicely clued. Decent theme and good Tuesday.
5:17
ReplyDeleteI had the same "fOCI" but actually noticed that JfO was wrong before finishing. For once.
What, no one else tried mAmA bear at first?...
I liked it.
I briefly had mAmA bear, but before I went on to the next word I started thinking through too hard, too soft, just right and realized it was PAPA.
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