Saturday, July 8, 2017

Saturday, July 8, 2017, David Steinberg

0:22:39


Boy that SW corner was a bear for me today! I so wanted “craft fair” (CRAFTSHOW) (29D: Outlet for artisans), that I took out REMOULADE (30D: Cousin of tartar sauce) over and over again because of the double A it gave at 53A: In prime condition (HALE). I kept thinking “a one” might work… Oh well. And who knew Confucius wrote ODES? Anyway, I spent a good seven or eight minutes down there trying to sort things out. If only I'd been SMARTER.


You know how sometimes puzzles just roll along and you don't get very worked up about the answers? Well, this was not one of those puzzles for me. This was the kind of puzzle where I had strong reactions to a lot of clues, both good and bad. On the plus side, I loved PROCTORED (9D: Supervised), TURPITUDE (43A: Wickedness), and REMOULADE (30D: Cousin of tartar sauce). And while I thought ADAMSAPPLE a very nice entry, I did not enjoy the clue at all (17A: What can't hold still during lectures?). It just seems a little too too, does it not? And entries like DECADESOLD (13A: From quite a while back), RAPBATTLE (10D: Climactic scene in the Eminem film "8 Mile"), and BEERDARTS (12D: Pub game) all rubbed me the wrong way. What the hell are "Beer Darts?" Isn't the game just called "Darts?" 

1A: Contemptible sort (ASS) - D. I enjoy the occasional edgy answer as much as the next guy, but starting the puzzle with a mild oath just seems so crass. Combine that with PERP walk, TRYST, and BCUPS and you've got a real sleazy feel in the starting corner.
Favorite: AMENITY (37A: Free Wi-Fi, e.g.) - because I'm sitting here "borrowing" such an amenity from someone right now!
Least: DDRIVE (42D: Certain PC storage area). Yeesh! 

I also didn't love FORES (40A: Links words), and I've never heard of MELO or OMARR. But as I always say, complaints of not knowing are groundless on a Saturday. 

Overall, I guess I just didn't like this one much. I hope you had a better time with it.

- Horace

4 comments:

  1. 36:10
    Wow, tough crowd. I liked starting with ASS, and even TRYST and BCUPS didn't rub me the wrong way. I mean, this isn't for kids, is it? I didn't like SLIDERS (gross) and I'm glad that I looked at the crossing of ORIENTEER and LOTTA because I put in LOTsA at first. I enjoyed the ILLPASS/YOUREON pairing. Gretel fits right in where BOPEEP belongs, but when I entered it, I was bothered because that's not a fairy tale, and happily the crosses soon corrected that little snag. ODEON is nice, as is the GENOA/ROMA pair in the SE. I never heard of MELO or OMARR either. All-in-all, I'm on the thumbs-up side for this offering.

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  2. 16:00
    CarMELO Anthony is the Knick. I can't help with OMARR.

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  3. 14:50
    There were a number of answers I liked, including TURPITUDE and ORIENTEER. Is a CEILINGFAN only to be used in the summer? I wonder. What I didn't like was the extreme disconnect between the west and east halves of the puzzle. HEADSTAND seemed so unspecific for the clue of breakdancing. I had never heard of OMARR, but it was only when I replaced the R of NrA with the B that the second half of the puzzle came into focus.

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  4. 36:43
    Took quite a while to work out the SW corner for me also. REMOULADE and WINEPRESS mean nothing to me. I am clearly not in the demographic of New York elites at which these puzzles are targeted. OPIE, PERP, and NOPROB were the clues more at my level of understanding.

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