Fun theme today, and one that aptly describes both the theme answers in the puzzle, and today's review. I'll write the beginning of the review, and then our esteemed colleague, Mr. Amory, will takes over and who knows what he'll write. Something for us to look forward to. For once. :)
Today's theme clues summarize movie plots and then offer a twist on the endings. The answers are the corresponding movie titles with the last letter changed to match the plot twist (which is what, aptly, the circled letters spell out. Aptly!) My two favorites are LICENSETOKILT and ABOUTABOT. TAXIDRIVEL is nice, too, and we've all been there. NOLIE.
Regular readers may not be surprised to hear that I enjoyed the north east corner with AIME crossing AMOUR and with a Spanish TILDE thrown in to accent the foreign language mini theme. I also enjoyed the shout out to the old school Boston area word for soda pop, tonic.
I also liked EARCANDY, USURP, DOWEL, SPEEDDATE, DRAB, SWILLS, and PASTES.
The plural OJS for Tropicanan products isn't ACES, but nothing to open a VEIN about. It took me a long time to figure out the clue "Bon" time (SOIR), but I console myself with the thought that it's a weird clue. :)
~Frannie.
What, it's already time for me to start blogging again? I didn't sign up for this. Oh, wait, yes I did.
No worries. I'm back from a week in sunny Los Angeles (work-related though), so what better to do than write some paragraphs on the puzzle? At first I didn't love this theme, until I picked up on the meta aspect. See, the changed letters spell out PLOTTWIST. That's fun! TAXIDRIVEL was my favorite theme answer.
My favorite non-theme answer was:
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| BRENT! |
Let's have a fun week!
- Colum
Nice review Frances. I never really considered chili to be a stew, but that's exactly what it is. And I'm happy to see "The Big Chill" changed into anything at all, because my high school friends really overdid that movie for me...
ReplyDeleteI really liked this puzzle, which, if you know me, is saying something. Because it seems I dislike about 80% of Sunday puzzles. Sure, somebody could probably prove me wrong by analyzing my reviews over the past few years, but I'm telling you, every Sunday I cringe a little inside when I open up the puzzle, but sometimes, like today, the theme really wins me over. Also, today there's not a ton of junk. It might be because the grid is nicely carved up into sections that only connect with one another through very narrow channels, but I'm not a constructor, so I don't really know for sure.
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ReplyDeleteI, unlike Horace, generally have a nice time with a Sunday puzzle. I usually enjoy conversations with taxi drivers, but TAXIDRIVEL was one of my favorite theme answers nonetheless. I remember taking a cab from Dallas to Fort Worth and having a long conversation with a Liberian driver about topics ranging from Ebola (which was all the rage at that time) to football. I needed far too many crosses for TERMINATORS, IMO. Shout out to ERICIDLE.