BACK ON THE CHARTS
It took me rather far too long to figure out today’s theme
of one-named singers. From DION to DRAKE, and from CHER to BRANDY, they run the
scale from old to new and from well-known to, well, less well-known. I was
surprised, as I reviewed this, by just how many Mr. Madison was able to cram
into this grid. I was also somewhat interested to see that HONOLULU, which contains LULU, also contains ONO, and that BECK is
drawn from the musical performer Dave BRUBECK.
And PRINCE isn’t exactly hidden in LITTLEPRINCE.
Kind of makes it a little less perfect, but I guess it’s ok.
There’s very little over seven or eight letters that isn’t
also involved in the theme, so there’s not a whole lot to talk about.
1A: Top (ACME) –
B-. Mostly in the Bs for its reminding me for the second day in a row of Looney
Toons.
Favorite: 113D: It’s inspired. (AIR) That’s an inspired clue!
Least: ALII (6D:
Others of ancient Rome?). We have heard some defense of this form in the
comments, but I argue that it is never found outside of crosswords. Et alia is
the common expression, and there is no justification, in my opinion, for using
the masculine variant. Have we ever seen “et aliae?” It’s been used once –
Wednesday, March 18, 1981, under Eugene Maleska. (Thanks xwordinfo.com!) And
“alii” has been used 229 times. I call gender-bias!
AGOUTI (69D: Guinea pig relative) is pretty obscure, and LANED, ONYXES, ASAMI, HEISTING, and ARCTAN are all a little crosswordsy. I didn't love it.
- Horace
I finished with one error, where DOUGIE crossed ADRIANA. I put an R there. Seemed plausible. The theme is fine, but I would have preferred the names more hidden, like in ACCORDION. Some fun clues, but a whole ton of less than stellar fill. Not my favorite Sunday either.
ReplyDelete40:43
ReplyDeleteARCTAN isn't crosswordsy. This puzzle took a nice amount of time, so thumbs up from this quarter. Who wouldn't love a puzzle with an ACCORDION? I didn't love HEISTING or MAPPER, but at least we have DRANG and FANTASIA.