I had an incredible amount of difficulty with the NW corner today. Nothing would go in. Stared at it for at least five minutes before getting KEYIN. I'll argue that NUTLIKE is completely out there, while SUPE is rough. And why is 2D: Gut feeling? answered by KNOT? Do people get a knot in their gut? I would never have thought of that. On the other hand, I do appreciate POTTY mouth. I'd wanted mOTor for a while.
So... I guess it's THEIDES of March, huh? In honor, there are four phrases in the long down answers that begin with "I'd". I don't love IDTAKETHAT, which sounds a bit ad hoc. The other three are very strong, with my favorite being IDRATHERNOT.
It was odd to come across ACAIBERRY in the full form, rather than the partial we typically find in the puzzle. I tried TAXevadER at first, which also slowed me down. There were multiple occasions in solving this puzzle where I wondered if a rebus was in play, but sadly no.
How excellent was it that ENSUE crosses ANTECEDE? Not that I'm particularly fond of either answer.
Maybe next weekend I'll drown my sorrows with Horace and Frannie at the ACPT BARSCENE.
- Colum
12:15 (FWOE) - On paper!
ReplyDeleteBoy, this went well. Except for that one error. D'oh! I put in qUATRO for 41A: Dos y dos, and never went back. This was an excellent lesson for me. I left the last letter of ETALII blank until I knew the cross, and I went back to change GAYPARis to GAYPAREE because nothing made sense, but I never went back to check 25D. Ah well... and yes, if this happens too much at the ACPT, there is a bar, and I will be visiting it. I usually post at least once from in there. :)
25:47
ReplyDeleteI entered, and then removed, SUPE at least thrice. I then erroniously KEYINed logIN, and was not at all familiar with a SKINK, so was extremely unsure of that, but finally, with the crosses, it was the only option. Like Colum, TAXevadER was my first attempt over there, entered before getting the connection to the revealer for the downs. (Nice that the theme answers are all "downfalls.") Despite the lack of a rebus, I really enjoyed this challenging Thursday. I'll be enjoying the BARSCENE tomorrow (Saturday) in that Irish hotbed, Clinton.