Ouch. By my rules, if I finish with more than two errors, that's a DNF. My failure mostly came at 43A: Sporty pontiac of old (TRANSAM). See, I had gRANdAM. Those middle letters being correct threw me, and I could not for the life of me get SITSPAT - I kept on thinking it would be parsed as "something AT". Meanwhile, to compound my problems, I misread 49A: Members of familles (PERES) as "families."
By the way, just to be completely clear, a Grand Am is anything but sporty...
That's my sad tale of woe, although you also have to add in putting DIs in for DIG. Really, how did I argue myself in to thinking that sIMP meant "to hobble?"
Meanwhile, the rest of the puzzle went by very quickly indeed. I had basically finished the whole thing (incorrectly, mind you) in under 8 minutes. MALALA was a gimme at 1A, as was CANTOR at 12D. I'm of two minds about 6D: Ones not calling the shots? (ANTIVAXXERS). The answer looks great in the grid, but the clue feels just a little bit off, and the sentiment needs to go the way of bloodletting in medicine.
26A: Nick name (DORATHEEXPLORER) is very nice (Nick being short for Nickelodeon, the channel the eponymous show airs on). The fully spelled out SAINTPETERSBURG is also excellent. Other answers I appreciated include STYGIAN (how vivid!) and IGNOBLE.
CARPAINT feels made up, but okay. 10D: When to start on a course (TEETIME) seems like it could also be "tea time," right?
So I'm a little disappointed in my performance today, but I'll get over it.
- Colum
I FWOE'd. Where you had DIs, I had DIl, so I got limp right, but what's the deal with dil? I sympathize with your sIMP argument. I'm still shaking my head over last week's BP LUS: a KTWO moment if ever there was one. I didn't know MALALA, CAPEMAN, or RAPINOE, which slowed me down in the north west, but that was also the locus of my favorite clue: Shepherds, in the Bible: LEADETH. Ha! ~Frannie.
ReplyDeleteThis one revealed itself by quarters. I had it all except for that "DIS/DIG" thingie. As is often said, one needs just a few letters and the long answers just pop right out! All in all, a great puzzle. ~MLou PS - what is FWOE - surely not Five Ways Old Edwardians!
ReplyDeleteFWOE is our shorthand for "Finished With One Error." It's a little leeway we allow ourselves here at the blog. Don't try to use it at a tournament, though! :)
DeleteDNF
ReplyDeleteMy trouble came in the NW too, like Frannie, but with different problems. I didn't MALALA or CAPEMAN either, nor APPARAT, and even though I thought of the car kind of Jaguar at 14-Across (Jaguar's coat, e.g.), I convinced myself that it was a Saturday "double-mislead" and I "verified" my CAtPrINT answer with hErDETH at 3-Down (Shepherds, in the Bible). Oh woe is me. What a mess...
Other than that, quite a nice puzzle.