Now I'm going to sound like a negative Nellie, but I did not like today's theme. I am no fan of a SPOILERALERT. It is perhaps true, that most modern Americans would already be hip to these spoilers, but here's one person who has never seen PSYCHO (To whom the title "45-Down" was referring the whole time).
My favorite clue today might have been 70A. Disappointment for someone looking for a parking spot (HYDRANT). We've all been there. My least favorite was probably 79A. Indoesia's ___ Islands (ARU). Although, with apologies to Huygens, I didn't not say SISI to 90A. Relating to the sun (HELIACAL) either. But, the one that burned me was the aforementioned NORMANBATES. I first entered NORMANBAnkS because I had some other problems in that area. I fixed them up, but failed to go back and review the answers in the surrounding area, and that spoiled the puzzle for me.
~Frannie
37:54 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteHELIACAL is terrible. And PSYCHO is a classic. I never heard the term MARESNESTS, but the crosses were gettable, except for this Basil SPENCE fellow, but his name, with a few crosses, was relatively easy to guess. I didn't know this SNAPE who KILLSDUMBLEDORE, but knew all of the other SPOILERALERT clues and answers. Shout out to BALI at 14A. My error was at the HOYDEN/SOYLENTGREEN cross, where I'd entered an "i." I give the puzzle a thumbs-up, even though I finished 2:06 under the low limit of my preferred time range.
It was reasonably fun, although there was a ton of crosswordese. But my complaint is that the various SPOILERALERTs were such a mishmash. Two movie titles (both with Charlton Heston, weirdly), one object in a movie, three characters in movies, one directly referenced by name, one by relation to another character, and a third by an action he performs in said movie/book. Probably there was no other way to do it, but it seemed a bit inelegant.
ReplyDelete