I wouldn't exactly call this puzzle a SNAP for me. I'm a little rusty after three weeks on holiday! Most of the puzzle went right along, though, including the theme answers. The clue for the revealer at 62A, plus a quick glance at nearby theme answer 52A PUNCHBOWL (Party vessel with a ladle), made short work of FIGHTCLUB (1999 Brad Pitt movie hinted at by the beginnings of 17-, 21-, 39-, and 52-Across. I hadn't yet completed 39A at that point, "Like some magazine perfume ads." I wanted to put in COMPLETELYAWFUL, but it didn't quite work with the downs. :( SCRATCHANDSNIFF goes better with the theme, too, I suppose. :)
EOSIN (36A. Certain red dye) seemed a little esoteric for a Monday, but I didn't actually have any trouble with it thanks to the down answers there, whereas I did get hung up for a time in the top right corner. I've never heard of Port St. LUCIE, Fla., and 3D. POULT (Fowl raised for food) didn't spring to mind. For some reason, I was thinking psST for "Word repeated by tapping a microphone" - probably because it's the the French word for TEST - kidding!
We do have some real French entries today, including 46A. Faux ___ (PAS) and 51A. Female friend of François (AMIE). Old and new Romans made appearances (ETTU, DIEM, ARTE) as did the Woman of the Haus (FRAU) to round out a mini Indo-European language theme.
There was a liberal sprinkling of abbreviations and partials throughout (OFA, PCB, TBSP), but most were, at least, less commonly seen (OBLA, BMOC, DIY). I was happy to see EELS in my first puzzle of the week!
~Frannie.
4:43 (FWTE)
ReplyDeleteI put in POULe and LUCIa, leaving me with eaST as the word repeated while tapping on a microphone. Seemed odd, but there you go. It was odd.
4:40
ReplyDeleteOMG! I bested Colum's time! That's probably the first and last time for that for me, but I'll take it. Not that there's a competition, it's just that I was expecting Colum to be in the threes, and I'm a bit surprised, is all. EOSIN is something that I'd never heard of, but all of the rest just flew in and, as Frannie mentions, the crosses made very short work of EOSIN regardless. Loved SURLY (it went along with the theme) and PLUTO, especially clued properly as it was. Does OFFS also go with the theme? I even enjoyed the two long downs: ALLOCATE, which we don't see every day, and OUTTOWIN. Fun and fast Monday.