Very nice theme today, all put together by a perfect revealer - THATSLIFE. The other three themers, two of which are grid-spanners (!), describe three different things called Life. I love it, and I like the nod back to Sunday's theme with the first one, BOARDGAME. The BREAKFASTCEREAL has always been a favorite of mine - not really top-tier, like Freakies, Fruity Pebbles, or Cap'n Crunchberries, but still, I would definitely reach for it over many other sweetened cereals. Today, it's all Kashi Cinnamon Harvest all the time, though. Mmmm... with the unsweetened coconut milk... mmmmm.
Where was I? ... I loved seeing MELDS (19A: Card groupings in canasta), because I used to love playing that game (back when I was still eating all that sugary cereal), but it is part of a healthy DOSE of old-skewing material: ETTU, ERAT, OMAR, CARA, MRED, ENDORA, and PAAR.
Another oldie but goodie was BATPHONE (36D: Gotham City hotline), and I also enjoyed FRAGRANT, ELECTRIC, CRABCAKE, and ZEALOT. Boy, how 'bout that clue for REO (27D: Competitor of the Essex or the Hupmobile). Seems almost Saturday-level! Lucky for me I never saw it. :)
Remember ZIMA?...
So I enjoyed the theme, and there was a lot of good mid-length material. Thumbs up!
- Horace
Good point about PAAR skewing old. For me it is primarily crosswordese, secondarily someone famous for walking off the set in a huff, and only after that a staple of TV programming.
ReplyDeleteBut I was perplexed by "at one with". I wanted it to be "be one with" but it seems like both of them Google well, so I guess I just need to be more flexible.
3:55
ReplyDeleteThis definitely skews old, you BOOB, but that sits well with me. I mean, RHEA Perlman?