It looks like Mr. Markey heeded Wall Street's urging: each type of bank embedded in the theme answers is broken up across at least two of the words in the answer. The admonishment is APT! SOLDATALOSS spans the most words at three and contains my favorite bank of the ones in the puzzle. People who know me know I am generally a big fan of banks. I like storing my coins therein. I am OK with breaking up big bank conglomerates, but I don't like to break an individual bank, except a snow bank. I love kicking snow banks apart in the spring when they start to melt. But I OGRES.
The two long down answers, CRIMEWAVE and FIREDANCE, were both strong. And it was nice to see good ole MERV Griffin make an appearance. He was a fixture of the television of my youth.
 |
| By Yodalica (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] |
There wasn't much I was ASSAD to see in here, although the non-theme fill was somewhat heavy on the crosswordese (OAS, NEA, TSA, EKE, ILIA, EMU, AGA). Maybe the cluing could have been a little bit SLYER. Perhaps that's what tomorrow's puzzle will bring.
~Frannie.
4:21
ReplyDeleteEasier than yesterday! C'mon. GIVESPERMISSION is the best themer here. The audacity. The cojones, as it were. Too soon?
6:00
ReplyDeleteI, too, was faster today than yesterday. And I liked this one just fine!
Nice wordplay there, Mr. Amory. Ahem!
Yesterday may have had two 16s, but today's has three 15s spanning the grid. Impressive!
9:27
ReplyDeleteYes, speedier solve than yesterday here, too. And I agree with Mr. Amory regarding the bold GIVESPERMISSION. Amazing, but oddly, and perfectly, acceptable, and not at all LEWD (is that the first appearance of that word in a grid?). Nice that SEETO and EYE are adjacent.