I enjoyed the puzzle overall, but today's theme didn't do much for me. Each answer was a common expression featuring a body part connected by an action. In the puzzle the verb appeared in the middle connecting the two parts. For example, FACEMEETFACE, which was kind of funny. The drawback was once you got one of the theme answers, it gave a lot away about all the others.
The puzzle contained a nice mix of things that are quite familiar to me: OWEN (Meaney, A Prayer for), SEUSS, ONEAL, GANDHI (of course), AZKABAN, AAAMAP, and PEETA, and others were completely unknown to me. I have never heard of the Israeli resort city EILAT. I also had no idea that APHIDs produce honeydew when they feed on plant sap. And to think they make melons out of that! And I have known some colossal bores in my time, but had not yet run across a TIDAL bore.
OUTDOORSY is a nice entry. Initiates badly? (HAZES) is clever. and 27A. One flying during the holiday season, informally (STNICK) is cute.
I wonder if Ms. Margolin is from the mid-West. I haven't heard Chicago referred to as CHI-Town since my time in Wisconsin. Or, maybe she's a librarian and the puzzle was timed for the big annual American Library Association meeting in the Windy City. Or maybe not. :)
I didn't eyeseeeye with the constructor on every clue. I thought both STEAD and Place at 47A were kind of bland. And there must be something I'm not getting about 45A. Joins hands? (CLASPS). Why the question mark?
And, speaking of questions, why did LIEINS ever go out of fashion? I could use one right now. :)
~Frannie
I was badly tripped up by "Initiates badly" and AZKABAN. I thought I remembered it as "AshKABAN," and actually entered "sh" as a rebus there. 22A seemed to work as "HAshES," so I left it and moved on. Somehow, once the real trick became clear to me, I never thought again about the idea of a rebus. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThe (actual) theme didn't do much for me either, but I did enjoy such old-timey entries as ASKAFTER, AAAMAP, SELES, and NICENE. I guess OBADIAH ought to be considered old-fashioned too. And maybe TSAR. :)
SHOGI went in immediately. I used to love that game.
24:40
ReplyDeleteNever heard of SHOGI. I didn't like CESTLAVIE, either, or its clue. The rest of the puzzle was OK, but Frannie's correct in that once one theme answer was in, the rest could be filled in pretty quickly. No one ever references OBADIAH; certainly I've never heard a reading from the book during any catholic mass that I've attended.