Surprise! It's Horace! Colum is on the road all day. I know, because they just stopped in to visit Frannie and me at the beach house, and then they were heading to dinner, and then they had another several hours to go before they reached their destination. So I thought I'd step in. I suppose it would have been nicer if I had thought of doing so at 7:30, when I first did the puzzle, but, well, I didn't.
Anywho, I liked this one quite a bit. SPLITSVILLE (17A: Where a rocky relationship may end) and AREYOUBLIND (57A: Angry shout to an umpire) are good anchors in the NW and SE, but I like to think PUTPENTOPAPER (34A: Begin writing) was the seed entry here. How could it not have been, I suppose? STEAMBOAT (10D: Setting for the first Mickey Mouse cartoon) and SPACERACE (32D: It was launched with Sputnik) were a little easy for a Friday, but perhaps that's just for "solvers of a certain age," like me.
With VLO in place, I dropped reVLOn right in, but no, it was something much more entertaining - PAVLOV. I salivate for good clueing like that... too much? And I loved seeing RETRONYM (38D: "Rotary phone," for one), LUMMOX (44D: Stumblebum), SCORPIO (22D: One who arrives around Halloween), and other excellent fill. And is the NUTPINE where pine nuts come from?
Really, everywhere you look there's quality material here: GASBAGS, GUFF, PIGLET, SKUNK, EMPORIUM, VAGABONDS ... so good.
OK, Colum, if you have anything more to say, speak up now, or forever stay in the comments!
A ORA!
- Horace
Thanks to Horace for the guest review today! We are safely ensconced in our overnight accommodations now, and I am free to comment now. I can't recall my exact time today, but it was around 10:50, I think. I started out poorly with "sass" at 1A, reinforced incorrectly by entering "attitude" at 2D: Something that may be stiff (UPPERLIP, much better than my guess). But it all got sorted out quickly enough when FILEMENU had to go in. I love SPLITSVILLE over BEERBELLY and HANKAARON over AREYOUBLIND. Those are some excellent combinations, and a very enjoyable Friday overall.
ReplyDeleteI assume someone, somewhere, calls it a NUTPINE but I know it as pinyon or pinyon pine.
ReplyDeleteBEERBELLY was nicely clued, although I'm particularly partial to UPPERLIP. Nicely done puzzle.