Today, it's a queso four theme answers that incorporate snack items into common phrases. My early favorite was "Don't worry about my cheesy chip" (ITSNACHOPROBLEM), but the more I thought about ICANNOLIIMAGINE ("That Italian dessert truly boggles the mind") the more I LOL'd. In addition to the LOL factor of the answers we get some unusual letter combinations like YAW at the beginning of 42A and the double II in 55A that made the solve a little tougher, at least for me, until I figured out what was going on.
I love the seemingly endless synonyms for JAIL, in today's case Pokey (1D). I also enjoyed how weird TOAT (Perfectly) looks when considered as one word. Both the clue Humdinger and the answer LULU at 10D are real pips.I enjoyed 48A What underwear may do, annoyingly (RIDEUP). We've all been there.
We find a possible pair of Peers in the south east corner with SIRE (Regal term of address) and GUV (British term of address). And a nice hidden capital at 56D John, in Britain (LOO), but, if I'm honest, I wasn't fooled for a minute.
I was surprised to see OZAWA (40D Longtime Boston Symphony maestro) in the puzzle for the second day in a row. Who would have thought it? NO UN.
I hope Mr. Haight won't think I'm a LAOS, but I do have a not-so-FABFOUR:
14A Northern Florida county seat (OCALA)
20A Hwys. (RTES)
37A Bygone Yankee nickname (AROD)
2D Lead-in to cumulus (ALTO)
~Frannie.
13:29
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked ALTO being clued with clouds instead of voice for a change, personally, but I agree with the other entries in Frannie's anti-FABFOUR. I count five Zs, so this puzzle gets an overall thumbs-up from me.
Nobody likes an AROD, but, more than that, "bygone" doesn't at all fit. The steroided pretty boy is, sadly, of our time, not an earlier one. Now, "The Iron Horse" is a bygone Yankee nickname. Ya don't agree, ya can have a pizza me! Fran, your write-up is preferable to a RIDEUP.
ReplyDelete9:39
ReplyDeleteWow, Frannie is killing it with the puns in this writeup. Fantastic. Unfortunately I wish the ones in the puzzle were nearly as good as Frannie's.
This puzzle was mostly meh for me, but "A" for 1A having a J and two Z's. And very nice of Mr. Haight to give us a friendly fill in the blank for it as well.
6:04
ReplyDeleteI chuckled at these themers, and as with tomorrow's puzzle (I'm commenting in reverse), the puzzle references something that came up in conversation with Colum over the holiday. Namely, we were commenting on the fact that CATO the Elder ended all his speeches (supposedly) with the phrase "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed). Ahh, the bellicose Romans... Good times.
Ok there were a few less than fab entries, but you have to romaine calm...it’s no big dill...there’s always next thyme!
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