Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Wednesday, September 12, 2018, Jeffrey Wechsler

12:35 FWOSLDETY

Despite another puzzle whose theme and consist were practically tailor made for me, I still FWOEd - with a slightly less dumb error than yesterday. I misspelled the names of both Philosopher Lao-TsE and Prime Minister SHINsOABE in one stroke. It looked legit but apparently it wasn't. :)

I relished the theme - literal translations of French food items. Once I got to the revealer, FRENCHCHEF (Julia Child's PBS show, with "The" ... or one associated with the answers to the starred clues), the four theme answers went like hot cakes. BOUILLABAISSE was new to me - translation-wise. I'd never really thought about it before, perhaps because I've never had it before. I don't take a fruit de mer.

In addition to the French menu items, a number of other entries combined to give the puzzle an international zest:
"____ und Drang" (STURM)
"Food that comes in rolls" (SUSHI)
"Like about 17% of the land in Holland" (RECLAIMED) - I wonder if the statistic applies literally to Holland, or The Netherlands as a whole.
"Ancient Icelandic literary work" (EDDA)

There were some other tasty small bites as well:
"Pricey bar" (INGOT)
"Example of change" (DIME) - nice one, but I wasn't fooled.
"Rose no longer seen in fields (PETE)

I also liked SHUN, PEP, and, of course, ASIMOV.

TAFTS

The puzzle had, perhaps, too liberal a sprinkling of abbreviations, partials, and three-letter fill (EMT, LAS, SAO, AAA, et al.) to earn a five-star rating, but ASWITH all matters of taste, de gustibus non disputandum est.

~Frannie.

2 comments:

  1. 6:11
    Brilliance in blogging demonstrated by Frannie, once again. I aspire to the above. I too almost got stuck with TZE / SHINZOABE. There are so many accepted transliterations of Lao-Tse's name. Tsu, Tzu, Tse, Tze. Even Laozi, according to Wikipedia. Nice article, worth taking a gander at.

    I particularly liked 17A: Notable feature of Chicago (WIND) and 55A: Notable feature of San Francisco (FOG). Very nice.

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  2. I wasn't tripped up by TsE, well that's not right, I wasn't tripped up only by TsE. TsE is what kept me from running the alphabet at AVoO.

    As for FOG, we're not supposed to tell people about that. If they know about the fog, how are us San Franciscans supposed to make money selling sweatshirts to tourists?

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