It's drinks season at the NYTX! Just this past Sunday we had the "If the Spirit Moves You" puzzle, and today we have the theme of DRINKDRINKDRINK! I don't know "The Student Prince," but it hardly mattered. The toasts are positioned symmetrically throughout the grid - some vertical, some horizontal, in kind of an unusual pattern. It was a surprise, for instance, to see theme answers at 5A and 62A. I like it!
Elsewhere, we have quite a bit of dated material - NEHRU (16D: Kind of jacket), MARIS (48D: Roger who set a home run record in 1961), EMAC (40A: Early 2000s Apple product), ROK (29D: Korean War soldier) (this is new to me), KCAR (38D: 1980s Chrysler offering), and ALICES (26A: "____ Restuarant" (hit 1968 album). APPOINTEES and MARKETED are a little bland, but I liked TIRAMISU and OVERWEIGHT all right. REDSHIRT (35D: Hold aside for a year, as a college athlete) is not a term I know.
1A: Speedway event (RACE) - C-. Boring clue.
Favorite: I guess GODIVA (45A: Bare-naked Lady)
Least: IDI (61A: Uganda's Amin). I'd like to never think of him again.
Like on Sunday, I appreciate the boozy theme, but the overall puzzle wasn't really IDEAL. Not even the mini-Italy theme of AMALFI and San REMO could save it.
Onward!
- Horace
14:53
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that saved me with EMAC was the fact that there's no such thing as a "ridshirt." I didn't know the toast KANPAI even though we've been to Japan; I guess we never toasted with a native. I enjoyed the drinking theme, as I usually do, and was happy to be reminded of a KCAR. I even liked MIDST, which was a tough one since I had the MID__ and so wanted middle in there; it's awful when what one wants doesn't fit. This past Saturday, we here at the YBH and around the Pond GOTWET as we enjoyed our sixth annual Paddly Whack, where in addition to the DRINKDRINKDRINK at the five stops, we also enjoy many culinary delights as well as a poker run. I didn't see any bloggers there this year!
5:31
ReplyDeleteI agree with Huygens - REDSHIRT was the only way I got EMAC. I know the term well. I liked the dessert minitheme (TORTES / TIRAMISU) and the lawyerly minitheme (TORTES / TRIED / APPOINTEES / NONET). I just saw a man wearing a NEHRU jacket walking in the hospital (he was in fact subcontinental Asian), so not so out of date. ADONAI was not difficult for this atheist of Jewish descent.