The constructors hit this one out of the parking lot with some unparalled clues and fill. :) My favorite is "That's a moray!" (EEL) Ha! Such a great take on an old favorite. Maybe it's been used before; I can't be bothered to check. Even the junky LLC gets an upgrade with the clue "Business letters?"
Some other clever clues I enjoyed (FGGs (tm)):
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (ALIASES)
D as in dates? (DOMINI)
Cozy places? (TEAROOMS)
He's a doll (KEN)
While cute and well executed, I thought the theme was almost beside the point. The puzzle theme itself "parks" two auto makes in parallel Across locations in the grid:
MINI
OPEL
The group of constructors seems to have also hit upon a fasten-ating mini theme featuring the interesting 33A. "Denoting a 3" nail, so-called from its original cost" (TENPENNY), and supported by 40A. Nail (ACE) and 47A. Nail (NAB)
With such an abundance of clever and interesting fill, it seems ungenerous to kvetch, but I did have two minor complaints. IRED (Plenty angry) and TRAC (___ II (Gillette razor)) were not of the same caliber as other entries in today's grid.
~Frannie.
8:02
ReplyDeleteI, too, loved this one. It's a little weird that the top 15 is just a 15 and the bottom 15 is the revealer, but whatever. DONTEVEN!
Spent a little time changing trALALA to SHAnAnA and then, finally, to SHALALA. But not too much. :)
17:18
ReplyDeleteI had trALALA at first, too, and another slowdown was trying TwoPENNY and AhRATS, which led to a hawk at 35D instead of the correct WREN, so a few troubles for me to BUILDSON. Now LETMESEE, I wouldn't mind getting rid of NOISE like EZINES. And OHMYLORD, I'd never heard of the term MOLLS, trying the ill-fated dOLLS initially, but luckily I know of CHRISMARTIN (and was pretty certain of the other crosses). OK theme, but odd choice of cars.
6:30
ReplyDeleteI thought this was very well executed. I had trALALA as well, but was able to make the switch fairly quickly.