I seem to have been on the same wavelength as Mr. Trabucco today, at least for the most part. I was able to drop many of the longer entries right in, which is lucky for me because the short fill and crosswordese are often what help me break into a Friday or Saturday puzzle. But, on reviewing this puzzle, I noticed a DENSE underbrush of three-letter fill that I wouldn't know in a million years such as PKS (Tie-breaking shots in soccer: Abbr.), Most-applied-to school in the U.S. [great use of the adjectival hyphen here] (UCLA - who knew?), 55D. Asia's ___ Darya River (AMU - hunh?), 47A. Chicago airport code (ORD - I should know this one, but I don't), and 46A. D.O.J. branch (ATF - WTF?) :) If I had had to rely on the short answers to break into the grid I would have been doomed. Doomed!
Nice full grid crossing entries WELCOMETOMYLIFE and DONTWAITUPFORME. I also enjoyed PLEASESTOP and FATHEADED.
Other entries of which it could be said IMAFAN:
61A. Plant from another country (ENEMYSPY)
1D. Does some diamond cutting? (MOWS) - another good one for mows!
49D. It may pack a punch (FIST) - Ha!
53D. Thunderous sound (CLAP) - Apt!
54D. Slithery (EELY) - Yay! :)
And how about 33D. Preceder of first (ZEROTH). That's a nice word, although I am having trouble working it into a sentence. I was zeroth in line at the ticket window? I went on my zeroth date with Brad last week? There's a zeroth time for everything!
Very little in the puzzle today UPSETS me. I didn't love ICHECK, which rings a tad self-important to this poker player's jaundiced ear. And MEGADEAL for High-profile merger, e.g. strikes me as a bit ad hoc, but it's really nothing to HARPON.
~Frannie.
Happy Birthday, Horace!
ReplyDelete22:06
ReplyDeleteWow, nice time, Frannie! I came in just about at the normal Friday time for me. I agree on most of the short answer "huh?"s that you noted above. Well, except for ATF and ORD, both of which I dropped right in. PAGAN: excellent. And even ATROIS was no trouble. LANDLADY was nicely clued, as was ZIPON and NORUN. OSOLEMIO and TURNIP also gave me good toeholds. And who doesn't love an ALLOSAURUS? Nothing UPSETS me too much in here, either.
Happy birthday Horace!
ReplyDelete20:05
ReplyDeleteThanks for the birthday wishes! It was a fun one.
I enjoyed this puzzle, too. When I finally realized that they wanted ZEROTH at 33D I laughed out loud. I didn't know whether to hate it or love it at first, but now I totally love it. So daring! It's going on the list of favorite clues of the year!
8:57
ReplyDeleteWhere were these puzzles during the ACPT? This is a great puzzle, with so many fun phrases. I particularly liked 56A: Backspin producer? (REARAXLE).