Mr. Hawkins sews up a tidy theme today with expressions making reference to the textile arts. Or at least they could be interpreted as doing so. I question only MOVETHENEEDLE (39A: Have measurable impact), because I think it might refer to audio recording. But that's beside the point, because it still works. I notice only now, sadly, that all expressions are clued in the present tense. As I was solving, I saw that 27A could be filled in as LOStTHETHREAD (if you didn't read the clue, that is), and it took me forever to find that mistake, as I did not know Ma RAINEY. Sigh. Not all that great for me to start the week with two mistakes in two puzzles!
Where was I? I seem to have lost the thread. :)
22D: Net asset? (GOALIE) was amusing, and 38A: Gives hands down? (DEALS) was a nice surprise. And what about 4D: Reactions to buffets? (OWS)? You don't encounter "buffet" as a noun meaning "a blow with the hand or fist" very often, but it's the first entry in the first definition of the word. Or at least it is in my desk-side dictionary.
I was a little disappointed to see the Trojan Horse thrown in with Pandora's Box as simply one of the old MYTHS, because I like to think that really happened. Do they know that it didn't? Well... it certainly seems more possible than Pandora's Box anyway.. we may need a MEDIATOR on this one.
Lastly, I like the little trend of having a proper name right in the middle vertical spot. Yesterday it was Obama, and today we get HAYDN. Both are good.
DEVEIN is gross, and TILERS, PATHS, LEDTVS, EVES, ADOS, and even OWS seem like kind of a lot of gratuitous plurals, but overall, I liked this one just fine.
- Horace
7:20
ReplyDeleteWell, you're a better man than I, Horace. I neither say "bless you" nor acknowledge when someone says it to me. And yes, DEVEIN is gross, and I don't partake of the creature to which the reference was made. And I, too, like to think that there may have been a Trojan horse. I thought of Frannie during this solve; hopefully she enjoyed it. In addition to the theme material, I liked JAPAN and OPERA one on top of the other, as well as PIANOROLL being right on top of RAG. I'm also pro HAYDN and EVITA, and it's funny that the latter is adjacent to JOSEPH (both related to Webber, although JOSEPH is clued differently). SADLY, there were all of those plurals that Horace mentions, which I am ANTI, but for the most part I quite enjoyed this one, even with the CRUD.
4:48
ReplyDeletePro HAYDN, pro OPERA, pro JOSEPH, anti EVITA. Or anything that ALW wrote other than Joseph really.
Nice puzzle. And I'd write a longer review but I'm at the OPERA to see Die Valküre.
ReplyDelete