FWOE
My FWOE came when ALAIN met LARA. I'm too UNHIP to know who either of the two principals is. I guessed AdAIN and dARA, but when Horace told me the man's name was Alain, I realized I could have made a better guess based on his last name (De Botton). Derp.
I found the theme/quip to be entertainingly meta. I am a fan of portmanteau words and celebrity names to begin with, so making a portmanteau name that is PORTMANTEAU, well, that's a PLUS. Thinking of Natalie and Jacques actually dating is UDDER nonsense. Maybe they met when she was the black swan. :) In any case, it would have been something of a GIGIesque romance, as she had just turned 16 when he died in 1997.
ELSINORE was a nice longish down ("To be, or not to be" soliloquy setting), but its partner in the north (IWANTYOU (Wartime poster phrase)) had less LILT.
If I said the list of crosswordese in this puzzle was ENT LYS, it would be a LYE, but tho there isn't exactly a TON, there's not none: ARP, SSN, GPA, ETA, UNE, ETON. Only epee and eel are AWOL. :) Speaking of which, I haven't seen an eel in the puzzle for quite some time - unless one slipped by me.
~Frannie
6:23
ReplyDeleteI liked this quip puzzle because the joke is Hi-Larious TM. I agree there's a fair amount of yuck, but I didn't mind. Great review.
I happened to guess LARA/ALAIN but that was only after sARA/AsAIN was in there for a while (but on review Asain didn't seem like a likely name). The cross which nailed me was ALDO/LYS. Although that's partly because I had JACQUESClUSTEAU which is a pretty funny error to make. It didn't seem quite right for the diver guy but only afterwards did I realize I had conflated his name with the bumbling detective.
ReplyDeleteFavorite clue? Probably PEER (as clued). Or maybe SYNC (am I just excited it wasn't clued as 'N ____? Although come to think of it, that's not a horrible clue either).
18:34
ReplyDeleteNo one knows LARA Logan?!?! Shocking. UDDER was a great start to the puzzle, and I agree that the theme wasn't LOUSY. I don't love NEUTER too much (as clued or as usually clued). In addition to the theme, there were quite a few proper names: ALAIN, ARP, EVEL, MCLEAN, ARLO, GIGI, IVAN, ODIE, LARA, CATES and ELSINORE (did I miss any?). I thought this more challenging than normal for a Wednesday.
BTW - this puzzle is by David Kwong, not Swong...
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