I really enjoyed this puzzle. It wasn't easy for me, as you can see from my time, but solving the tough ones engendered a lot of "oooh, that's what they meant"s and felt like a triumph.
GODZILLA at 1A (Fictional character with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) was a great start, followed, down below, by another fictional fabulosity QUEEQUEG (Friend of Ishmael). That section ended high on the hog with "What might come after a cow or a sheep? (EIEIO).
The entire bottom half of the puzzle went pretty smoothly. I even got ORDINAL for "Part of many a street name" even though you don't see that very often around these parts. The south east featured the excellent fill (and delicious) TZATZIKI (Sauce made with yogurt and cucumbers) and 46A: Weather phenomenon portrayed by Chris Farley on "S.N.L." (ELNINO) made me laugh just reading the clue.
The south west had some great stuff, too:
51A: Good to go? (TRAVELSIZE) - apt!
34A: One involved in mass production? (ALTARBOY) - ha!
33D: eBay feature (CAPITALB) - duped again, as is often the case with these kinds of clues, but this time, only until I looked at 61A: Storage units (BYTES)
39D: Cold evidence (SNEEZES) - no question!
So, as you see, it was all rainbows and unicorns until I got to the north east. That section had some real LULUS. Things went wrong from the top, as they often do. I patted myself on the back for remembering "essie," clued in Wednesday's puzzle as "Big name in nail polish," and confidently dropped it in for today's 9A (Nail care brand). UHOH. 100% wrong. I didn't know MOHAVE from the clue, I was working the "crazy" angle for 17A: Disturbed, maybe (no surprise there, I suppose), and "Strobe stuff" had me staring at the grid like a deer in the head lights. Not to mention ODOR for "Repute," CRATE for "Junk heap," and TRANKS for "Zookeepers' rounds, informally" - all tricky turns of phrases and OED definitions that kept me DAIKON. In sum, a puzzle full of PITH and vigor, like EVERYONE likes. :)
~Frannie.
11:42
ReplyDelete2 Qs, 5 Zs, 4 Ks, 1 X, 4 Ys. Oh the Scrabbly goodness. I just loved this puzzle, from QUEEQUEG to GQTYPE (oh that was excellent), to TZATZIKI? Wow. I am confused however, by 39A: Closes, in a way (SHAKESON). Does anybody have an idea how this relates to the clue?
I thought it referred to "closing a deal," as with a handshake.
DeleteOf course! I couldn't see it at all.
DeleteAh, now I get it, too.
Delete40:36
ReplyDeleteI am also somewhat confused by SHAKESON. Is that some sort of slang for "catching up" to someone? Anyway, I, like Frannie, loved this puzzle, though I felt it a bit difficult. QUEEQUEG went right in (although not quite the proper spelling until I got a couple of crosses). That gave me IQS and AGTS, but nothing else in the NE, which I saved for the end. It's great that XENONGAS is in there in its entirety, and who doesn't love a Porky Pig reference with THATSALL? I also loved the clue for EVERYONE (12D Critic or comedian, it's said). I tried SNiffle where SNEEZES goes, but then had some trouble with crosses. ORDINAL is excellent, and who knew that the OED took 70 years to complete? TRANKS is an unknown term to me, and I don't care to see it ever again, but a shout out to SPAMALOT. Finally, it may not be well-known to this blog crowd, but I was an ALTARBOY for around 9 years or so, the last five being while I was an atheist.