Your average quip puzzle takes longer than a straightforward themer, I've found. This is a fun quotation, and I suppose whenever you find a one-liner that neatly fits into symmetric pieces (5-14-13-14-5 in this case), a constructor is semi-obligated to undertake said puzzle.
Ken Dodd, stand-up comic, the "last great music-hall entertainer," was born in 1927 and died this year in March, performing nearly up until he passed away. Does that make him a contemporary or a relic? Either way, the quip is strong enough to stand on its own.
I made two misguesses that slowed me down. The first was 55A: Potential Emmy nominee (TVSTAR). I tried TVShow. I like my answer better, especially nowadays when stars of television shows are so rarely TV only. The other came at 53D: John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter served in it (USNAVY). I had US___Y and put in USarmY. Wrong, and I knew it was wrong, but sometimes you can't help yourself.
The construction of the grid leaves us with few outstanding long answers. I very much enjoyed WHOVILLE as well as SUBURBIA. 39D: Kind of off-season baseball "league" (HOTSTOVE) leaves something to be desired as a partial.
Some cute clues:
37A: It's not free of charge (ION).
31D: Bank charge (FEE) - because of the comparison to the above.
8D: What's within your range? (OVEN). Although not in my case. My stovetop and my oven are separate.
And just to finish out, I thought it was a pod of whales, not a GAM. But when I Google it, I see both are acceptable.
- Colum
7:54
ReplyDeleteFunny, I grew up with GAM as one of the first pieces of trivia I knew. And then when I learned that "pod" was also acceptable, I thought it cheapened the whole "name of a group of somethings" thing. And now when someone says "a murder of crows" or whatever, I just snarl and say "sure, some people call it that..." No. I'm not bitter or anything...
Another knee-jerk reaction that I have is to say that "quote puzzles" are usually no good, but this one is pretty darn funny. Hah!
I'm the same way with whales except that I learned pod first and only later ran across GAM. I was skeptical of the whole murder of crows thing all along, so I guess I didn't have many illusions to dis, but I'm glad to hear there's someone else who doesn't buy into it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I guess quote puzzles take longer for me too, at least this one did (23:25).
Oh and HOTSTOVE is more confirmation that baseball is the sport for crosswords. Perhaps because it has so much language around it, with at least one baseball dictionary having been published.
9:38
ReplyDeleteI started with pod, also, for whales, and am only now coming across GAM (which I thought was an old-timey (pre-MeToo) way to refer to human female legs). I never heard of HOTSTOVE, was surprised to see PYGMY, and would like to express displeasure at YORKER, if I may, and OSIS. And has anyone, anywhere, ever refered to the city as STJOE? But I'm not complaining, because I, too, actually enjoyed this one quite a bit, thoroughly not expecting to when I saw it was a quip-based theme.