Here's something I don't get to say often enough - I loved this Sunday puzzle. I got FREEZEACROWD (24A: Make lots of people stop in their tracks?) pretty early on, and when I did I smiled and I laughed out loud a little, and I told Frannie that this was going to be a good one. And it was. I mean, come on, who doesn't love a speech impediment? I'm kidding, of course, but come on, FELONIOUSMONK? MIFFBUSTERS? This stuff is gold! I'm literally LOLing as I type!
But if I can get serious for a SEC, I was really INAFIX in the NW. I thought I was DONEFOR, but I asked Frannie, and she helped out with TOXICITY (23A: Deadliness). I had nothing up there but SKYE (and btw, is that a redundancy with ORKNEY? No wait, Skye is in the Hebrides.). She also gave me ACTS (1D: Doesn't just sit there) (I was stuck on "goes" or "does"), which finally gave me CHIPMUNK (20A: Theodore, for one). I was never, ever going to come up with that one, I'm afraid. Alvin, maybe. Theodore, no. What's the third one's name? Aren't there three?
1A: Relieves (ASSUAGES) - B+. It's a good word, and it stumped me.
Favorite (non theme) - 42D: About which you might ask "One lump or two?" (CAMEL)
Least: GUIDER (6D: One escorting)
Answers I dropped in without crosses: ECCEHOMO, TEENWOLF and LANDOFOZ.
Looking this over again for the review, I like it more and more. Excellent Sunday.
- Horace
The whole puzzle was relatively easy except for that NW corner! Even after I got the SIXCHARACTERS... bit, it took a long time to figure out TOXICITY, which opened up the rest. Which is sort of silly because initially I was pretty sure that answer was going to end in ____CITY. Hate GUIDER. I wanted "rate" at first for 2D: Flat, e.g. Then later I was stuck on the idea that it was referring to an apartment.
ReplyDeleteYou must have dropped in KAREN with very little in the way of crosses as well!
I was not as enamored of the theme as you (in particular that pair of long down answers seemed like a lot of real estate to give up for that particular pun, which I felt missed the mark in any case). But MIFFBUSTERS and FELONIOUSMONK are excellent.
22:11
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed this one, with the exception of SIXCHARACTERS... which I did not really understand. And the title was a nice touch as well.
36:17
ReplyDeleteI don't really get the SIXCHARACTERS... thing either. I did, though, enjoy the puzzle even though it was a bit of a fast solve for a Sunday. I'll add one word to the "don't like" list: ANGELENO. Is that said? We just added a Carpenters song to our YBH Party Mix, but KAREN would have gone in right away regardless. Sue guessed "Jesus," not realizing that "Carpenters" was capitalized. I don't think he was famous for his singing, but I'm unsure.