This is a very amusing theme. I love the revealer (BUBBLESUP), and then the way it's imagined in the theme answers, where the letters O are removed from their normal position and sit at the top of the answer. Each theme answer is a "carbonated beverage", and each has exactly 2 Os in them, so props for consistency and careful selection.
I'm not convinced by OOLEMNSDA (lemon soda). I've seen limonada / limonata, a lovely carbonated lemon soda to be found in Europe. I've certainly seen lemon flavored seltzer. But I'm not sure I've experienced it as written. Maybe I shouldn't be so nitpicky - after all, OOCHAMPAGNECLER (champagne cooler) is not a brand name either. Only...
Huh. That doesn't google either. I mean, I believe it's a thing, only the only thing that comes up is the bucket you keep your ice in to cool your champagne.
Okay, anyways. We can all agree on OOCKEZER and OOJLTCLA. Note though, to add to the difficulty here, there are no Os anywhere else in the puzzle!
So my errors. Well, you see, I was convinced that 9A: Ancient Mexican (OLMEC) was OLtEC. That caused problems. And when I entered CrUnCH for 22A: Like a winning play in the final seconds of overtime (CLUTCH), I was in trouble. I figured it all out, but after the closing bell. I was not clutch, as it turns out. Sad tweet.
How about the FILL? (That's the first time I've ever been able to do that!)
I liked MALLRATS and SLYWINKS. CATTREAT I looked askance at, but it's been a long time since I've had a cat, and it turns out to be a real thing. EEEWIDTH on the other hand... Hmmm. You AMUSE me with your daring, Dr. Haight.
ANDSO to bed. Only it's just now 5:40, so that's hours off.
- Colum
27:55
ReplyDeleteWell, not a great solve time, but no errors. I was ground to a halt in the north with RIOT, ANOS, WICK (very funny) and their crosses. I kept wanting lAbDATA (RAWDATA) and was going back and forth from TSK to "bad." And I completely misread 6D Part of a competition (INIT), where I kept trying heaT and meeT, to no avail. That section cost me around ten minutes. Another three was spent in the south with MEME and PRAT (the ends of ALMA and GIFTSET weren't coming to me too quickly). I don't know of Sen. BENNET, but that's a fair Thursday entry, as were all of its crosses, but I'd heard of the other proper names (JANET, MEARA, CATHY, KYLE and CAAN). I'm not speaking, of course, of the proper names that don't refer directly to a person, even ABES or ANDRE, since they reference money and a movie. Anyway, I enjoyed the theme and thought it well-done.
Thanks Colum,
ReplyDeleteLemon soda googles pretty well actually, at 750K when in quotes, but champagne cooler not so great. However, a LOT of drink recipe books have champagne cooler recipes so that helped. You're not the only one who had trouble with that puzzle- I wish I had suggeseted easier clues for BENNET, ALMA, and IN IT.
Yesterday you called HOT STOVE a partial, but a partial is something like IN THE or AS WE. HOT STOVE is pretty obscure, but it's a real and complete phrase IMO.
Hi Bruce! Thanks for commenting. I feel like it should be hot stove league, but I can see what you mean.
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