A fun Friday from Mr. Ezersky today. The staggered answers in the middle were particularly nice, I thought, with MADMAGAZINE (30A: Pac-Man was its "Man of the Year" in 1982) (this was my second guess, with no crosses, after "Time Magazine" was too long), DOOMSDAYCLOCK (32A: It counts down to disaster) (first answer, no crosses. It's been in the news a little too much recently.), and DOTHEHUSTLE (35A: Perform a disco dance) (needed a few for this one). I also enjoyed the full AGAKHAN (6A: Muslim V.I.P.), DOLLOPS (32D: Large spoonfuls) (good word), and COERCE (39D: Pressure). And who doesn't love any reference to music (GCLEFS) or beautiful river names (WABASH) (the main tributary to the OHIO)? From the all-knowing Wikipedia I learn that the WABASH was derived from "the Miami-Illinois word for the river, waapaahsiiki, meaning "it shines white," "pure white," or "water over white stones," a reference to the clarity of the river where it ran across the famous Indiana limestone. The same limestone used in the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, Yankee Stadium, and 35 of the 50 state capitol buildings. Balancing out the positive Native American reference is FTROOP.
I was unhappy to learn the word SWOLE (18D: Very muscular, in slang), I know nothing at all about OTCSTOCK, and there were a few other answers to which I gave a little eye roll as I filled them in - IONGUN, ICEMAN, ACETAL, APIA, and ARR, in particular. But HEMMED (23D: Spoke with hesitation) was unusual in a good way, PHOENICIA was fun, and I guess overall I'll give this one a thumbs up.
- Horace
28:39 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteThe ALPH/LOPEARED got me, where I'd entered an "m" for some reason. I tried Time in there for MADMAGAZINE, too, but ran out of squares. I also ran out when I tried "Timberlake" where LANCEBASS goes (I got the __________SS crosses first, and that helped immeasurably. NEUROTIC is nice, and I like the BOBO/BOZO cross. I never heard of LALIGA, but the crosses were fine. I needed all of the crosses for KYLOREN, as that person is not familiar to me (Sue and I are only two films in with our "Star Wars" project). PHOENICIA is great, but yes, IONGUN is particularly bad.
15:05
ReplyDeleteTough in the SW corner for me. OTCSTOCK is a huh. SCARLETA was well hidden. And I was stuck on SPORTSBAR for way too long. I had SP___S___ and thought it would end with "side" or "seat". Wrong on both counts.
Like Huygens I had several instances where the answer I thought of was a letter off: ester for ACETAL, timberlake for LANCEBASS, timemagazine for MADMAGAZINE. None of it would ADDUP. Thus the longer time today.