Today's theme answers suggest what might happen if common types of orders in the clues are disobeyed, creating a fun set of clue/answer pairs of opposites. My favorite was 65A Disobey a pecking order? (STEALAKISS). Ha! Disobey a standing order at 49A (HAVEASEAT) was also nice. There was no shortage of other commands in the puzzle with 7A Exhortation after "Supplies are limited!" (CALLNOW) and 16A "Follow me!" (COME) at 16A.
In addition to the funny theme clues, I enjoyed 44A First lady's man (ADAM). I also liked both clue Jaunty and answer PERT at 13D.
My food COMA (1A) started at Thanksgiving and isn't over yet, although, I am resolved to take action (see above) and start disobeying my brain's food orders.
I noted five musical clues, creating a mini theme if you will, including LYLE Lovett, RAP (genre for 21 Savage and 50 Cent), Maestro Seiji OZAWA, ARIA (musically named Vegas hotel), and STANZA (One of four for "The Star Spangled Banner").
As I was looking over the puzzle while writing the review I noticed that AMELIA and the first six letters of EMAILALERT are anagrams. Wacky.
Overall, I thought this was quite a good puzzle with a well-executed and entertaining theme, solid fill with only a few abbreviations, and some interesting trivia. Who knew the VOLGA was the longest river in Europe?
I take it as a good omen that my first puzzle to review in 2018 contains EEL (Fish with more than 100 vertebrae in its spine, 43A). Here's hoping for an EELy good year of puzzles and puzzling.
~Frannie.
4:51
ReplyDeleteFunny theme. I would have preferred "Disobey a bussing boycott" for STEALAKISS. Hah! I slay me...
4:06
ReplyDeleteA fine Tuesday. I noticed a minitheme centered around ASIA, with TAIPAN, OZAWA, and OSAKAN rounding out the bunch.
Fine, agreed.
ReplyDeleteNice clue for LENS. Pretty familiar answer but the clue was a pleasant misdirect for me, who was just thinking of waterfalls.
Also really liked STANZA.
Oh, and 11:17 (typicalish for Tuesday).
Delete7:57
ReplyDeleteAlso typicalish for a Tuesday. I enjoyed the theme and mini-themes, though I'd hesitate to include RAP in the music one, perhaps substituting The MET instead. I thought Frannie would call out ISBNS/PCS/ISPS/DSL/WIRE. Maybe another mini-theme is given by ONTAP/NAPAVALLEY/[Samuel]ADAM[s].
4:57
ReplyDeleteI can never quite figure out why I feel a little sluggish on Tuesdays, but I guess if I don't know where Ang Lee was born, or a maestro named Seiji, I'm going to have to spend a lot more time on the down clues than I would on a Monday.