That time is no typo, dear readers. Horace and I spent the weekend at Rudyard Kipling's house in Vermont with friends. One of these friends, I'll call her Elvis, is interested in getting started with crossword puzzles. So, ELVISANDME did the puzzle together, at her pace. Happily, she seemed to enjoy the experience. I tried to get her to write the review, but she said the idea made her feel FAINT.
When we got to 59A, I explained the idea of theme answers in general, but we ended up solving the puzzle without reference to the particular puzzle theme itself (One with credit ... or a literal hint to 17-, 27- and 44-Across, CARDHOLDER). With the grid complete, my friend was able to DISCOVER the theme and the other two credit cards (VISA and AMEX) easily. I appreciate that the three theme answers cross the boundaries of the two words that "hold" them, but I wouldn't call it AONE.
I enjoyed the reminder of OPERAMAN from the 1990s SNL. VORTEX is a nice entry as is SPUD. The only spot of trouble we had was in the south east where Elvis wanted Unc at first, instead of UVA, but a look at the downs cleared that up pretty quickly.
WIE (Michelle of the L.P.G.A.), OJAY (Any singer of the 1973 #1 hit "Love Train"), and INI (Singer Kamoze with the 1994 hit "Here Comes the Hotstpper") made these two solvers say HMM but maybe they were easy GETZ for others. TOGAED is a very odd looking combination of letters. I wonder what the Latin for that is. :)
~Frannie.
5:01
ReplyDeleteNice work getting a new solver into the mix! I found this puzzle on the hard side for a Monday, but in large part that was because I had DISCOVERS___ and couldn't parse it any other way than "discover s..." and that wasn't going to get me anywhere. I just read a very interesting article in The New Yorker about the reason why UNJAMS are necessary.
8:30
ReplyDeleteI, too, found this on the hard side for a Monday. INI, OJAY and DEION are unknown to me, and I'm also unfamiliar with OPERAMAN. Luckily, OAXACAMEXICO, DRYAD, DAVISCUP and ADEXEC were all getable (although I tried WipER instead of WAXER at first, which slowed me down a bit. Decent theme, although it's too bad that MasterCard couldn't have fit in there somewhere. Odd mix of other proper names, not often seen together: SEDAKA, RITTER, CATE, OZZY, PAPI and JONI. I knew WIE from the clue, happily and surprisingly.
8:30
ReplyDeleteI, too, found this on the hard side for a Monday. INI, OJAY and DEION are unknown to me, and I'm also unfamiliar with OPERAMAN. Luckily, OAXACAMEXICO, DRYAD, DAVISCUP and ADEXEC were all getable (although I tried WipER instead of WAXER at first, which slowed me down a bit. Decent theme, although it's too bad that MasterCard couldn't have fit in there somewhere. Odd mix of other proper names, not often seen together: SEDAKA, RITTER, CATE, OZZY, PAPI and JONI. I knew WIE from the clue, happily and surprisingly.
4:51
ReplyDeleteMy time might have been helped by "Elvis's" solve. I was playing guitar and singing songs, and I didn't think I was listening in, but when I hit at least two of the clues, I knew what the answers were. Of course, I also filled in "Unc" when I hit "Sch. in Charlottesville," but you take some you lose some, eh?