My week does not appear to be my week, if you see what I mean. I am FWOEing all over the place. Today, my ignorance of world capitals crossed my distaste for horror movies, leaving me with ABIDJoN and MARIONCRoNE. No bueno. While solving, I didn't think about theme, but in discussing it with Horace, he noted that the last names of each of the Oscar-winning or -nominated roles (2 wins/3 noms) were all birds. Had I realized that sooner, I like to think I wouldn't have FWOEd. NERTS.
I noticed a lot of name dropping in the grid. From ANITA to TOMKITE, I count ten answers that are clued as human names - twelve if you include ENID and LEO. That's 16%. I get 10% for yesterday's puzzle. Is that a statistic they track on XWord Info? :)
There was some clever cluing with 14A. Checkout lines? (UPC), 38A. East ender? (ERN), and 42D. It's sometimes chocolate-coated (LABRADOR). I didn't mind RIDIC, as I find myself saying that quite often these days, especially at work. :) SKEWING and SWANKY and STANK are swell.
I was less ENAMELS of TRIAMINIC, ENHALO, and MORE for "Else". Does that make me a RATER?
~Frannie.
8:28
ReplyDeleteAnother crossing guess, another lucky correct letter. This time it was ABIDJAN and JAG. I didn't get the meaning of the clue at 63D: Tear until just now. As in "going on a tear / jag". That makes sense, but at the time I was thinking of a droplet due to weeping vs. ripping. I did see the theme, although there are actually 5 theme answers, including CLARICESTARLING. I love that their full names are included. And all 5 are crossword worthy, for sure. Although is TOMKITE a bonus theme answer?
I also appreciated RIDIC, and not NUCLEIC and TRIAMINIC to round out the odd collection of answers ending in -IC.
Five is the correct number. I updated the review. Also, nice call on the TOMKITE bonus.
Delete17:10 (FWTE)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the name MARIONCRANE, and tried MARIONshANE there, misspelling CLARICESTARLING and guessing hATER instead of RATER. Those are reasonable errors, IMO. Not the best Thursday. I guess MASERATIS is OK, even though it's plural. ARMCURL is rarely seen and BATHMAT, thankfully never (except for now). But I don't want to CRAB or BEMOANS the puzzle too much, as it was fine in the end.