Nice start today with a stellar NW ten-stack of HACTIVISM (1A: Subversive use of computers to promote a political agenda), IMPRESARIO (15A: One who gets the show on the road), and STAYCATION (17A: What's not going anywhere?) (Something we are decidedly not on!). I got into the corner through the shorter downs, a few of which (CPA, TECS, ISAY) were, happily, gimmes. KRYPTON (4D: DC area?), SIOUX (9D: One signatory to the Treaty of Fort Laramie), and MONEYTALKS (10D: "Mere rhetoric is not enough") are all excellent.
The SE is not quite as impressive, but the triple-stack is strong, and FIELDTRIAL and SEASALT are both fine. I suppose I might as well throw in at this point that we picked up a little SEASALT from the Ile de Ré while we were in La Rochelle the other day. :) (And no - for those who were wondering, we are not going anywhere near TROYES on this trip.)
In other areas, we have the somewhat flat ONESTOPSHOP pinning down the SW, and the tastier CARAMELCORN working hard in the NE. REDEALT (38A: Gave secondhand?) looks odd there in the middle, and it's the kind of "re-," "-er," or pluralized word that can detract from the overall feel of a puzzle, but here it is saved by its excellent clue.
STONED and PARTY seem timely, as we have just begun the Amsterdam portion of our trip. Not that we're here for that sort of thing, mind you. It's all museums and classical music for us!
Two final things: I love the clues 21A: Constitutional for WALK, and 42D: Gray area? for ANATOMY. Very nice.
- Horace
34:01
ReplyDeleteI was bogged down in the NW and W the most, although where TASERS goes, I first tried upSEtS, then poSERS, neither of which helped with MONEYTALKS too much, and it took forever to get REDEALT. Nice that SUE is in there ATLONGLAST. And for once, a French-y clue saved me with a cross: I had kENO for a long time at 27A, but once I figured out TROT, I changed it to RENO because only TROYES would work for the cross (most certainly not TkOYES). Speaking of SUE, she had to OPENWIDE for the dentist this very morning to have work done on her TEETH, and did not like it one little bit.
9:22 (FWOE) - I tried CsT for CDT. Central Standard Time, Central Daylight Time, both seem allowed, per Google. But REsFIN simply doesn't exist, so that's a problem for me. I have no complaints about this puzzle. I love seeing Clement ATTLEE given a shout out, especially after watching The Crown. Also, it felt odd to have LETSDOTHIS at the end of the puzzle.
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