Classic Sunday puzzle, with a perfect title and a cute revealer - BITPARTS (112A: What eight actors took on for this puzzle?). Everybody loves a rebus, especially one that changes every time it occurs. The hardest one was the only one that's not visible when looking at someone, occurring in O[LIVER]PLATT (102A: "Frost/Nixon" actor, 2008) and [LIVER]ADAR (103D: Real-time tool for meteorologists). I finished with a single R in that cross, having entered "rADAR" for the weather tool. I'm not convinced there is a difference between live radar and radar as clued, but there definitely is a difference between OrPLATT and OLIVERPLATT. So I'll take the FWOE, but I'll complain a bit of inconsistency.
That quibble aside, I enjoyed the overall experience.
1A: Take ____ on the wild side (AWALK) - D. Good song, bad partial.
Best: 5D: What might show participants going neck and neck? (KISSCAM) Gross!
Worst: TAIME (62D: "Je ____" (French words of affection). As much as j'aime le français, je n'aime pas this partial.
I was amused by 11D: Word implied on Opposite Day (NOT), and enjoyed the familiar nature of things like 6D: Cop (STEAL) and 9D: This way (LIKESO). I was a little surprised by the casual inclusion of BONG (52D: Pot holder), but I guess that's the way the world is going. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I was just a little surprised, that's all. I was also surprised to see POCKY (73D: Chocolate-coated snack stick) make it in, but less so.
So, what do we think of OPERA HAT? When's the last time you put yours on? Or ever heard this before? Never? That's what I thought.
As usual in a big Sunday grid, we get some lovely answers like ANTIGONE, MINARET, and POSTDOCS, and a healthy smattering of IST, IND, TIVO, ELO, ILE, etc. I didn't know some of the actors at all, but I enjoyed the rebus aspect, and overall, I give it a thumbs up.
- Horace
44:24
ReplyDeleteThis was 24 minutes filling out the grid, and 20 minutes staring, like Horace, at ORPLATT to try to figure out where a body part comes in to make an actor I've never heard of.
The whole thing was an uphill slog, as these were not actors/roles of any familiarity to me.
I ended up with an error on PORKADOBO, which I had as POREADOBO (with ZONE instead of ZONK). They both might as well be Filipino dishes as far as I'm concerned.
I agree that OPERA HAT was pretty ridiculous. I expect Mr. Agard to assault us with answers like TALIB, now he's hitting us with both cutting edge and stuffy material at the same time.
47:03 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteIt took me a very long time to realize that we had a rebus going, but once I did, I really loved the puzzle, theme and most of the fill. My error came at a different place than Horace: INITIO/JOHN[LEG]UIZAMO cross. I'm familiar with neither the actor nor the phrase at 15D Ab ___ (from the beginning). PORKADOBO looks funny, but I think that Sue had something similar while in PR for two semesters. Really great Sunday puzzle, IMO.
Hope helped with O[LIVER]PLATT. I stared at it, knowing the actor (I could see him in my mind's eye) but unable to come up with the name. Very nice theme. So many body parts!
ReplyDelete