It's a Sunday rebus! An old school rebus, that is, where numbers and letters are used to represent other things. As in 23A: 13579 AZ (ODDSANDENDS). The numbers are odd, and the letters are the ends of the alphabet. And 56A: AT hot dog hot dog RA (FRANKSINATRA), which should be parsed as "franks" (hot dogs) in between "AT" and "RA." That one's a little more crazy, but that's just how these things usually are. They used to run regularly in the old Games Magazine. Ahh... Games Magazine... good times. My favorite is BREAKINGASWEAT (94A: Per spire). Classic!
I enjoyed the theme, and I also enjoyed a lot in the fill. Especially BEANERIES (25A: Hash houses). I had never heard either term for a cheap restaurant before, but I will endeavor to start using them both on a daily basis. I know, for example, that Huygens et uxor recently dined at Eleven Madison Park, which I will disparage as a beanery when next I see them both. I can hardly wait! And just below that we have the evocative SALTMARSH (29A: Brackish coastal habitat), which makes me long for April, when we can open up the beach house again. ... stupid winter...
Let me know what you think of CRENEL (49A: Opening in a battlement) and NANKEEN (79D: Durable yellow cotton cloth) if you have a moment. These are two words that not many people would know off the top of their heads. I sure didn't. They are clued with straight definitions (what else could you do, I suppose), and although I could eventually guess CRENEL based on the adjective crenellated, I didn't have much to work with on NANKEEN. I have since learned that it was originally made in Nanjing, which makes sense now, but while solving, it was all just letters. Kind of tough that it crosses RENE Caovilla, an Italian shoe designer that I have never heard of. To choose that particular RENE, instead of RENE Russo, for example, was an odd choice. Why cross two very obscure answers? Anyway, the two words I've never heard before don't bother me. The choice for the name kind of does. I guess I like learning new words more than I like learning about people - although I do find that his shoes are one of the oldest fashion shoe lines in existence, and they're still quite popular with big celebrities. OK. Maybe it's not so obscure a name to everyone...
Anywho, I enjoyed this one. Wait, one last comment about the fill - Since when is there TANTRIC yoga? I've obviously been doing it all wrong.
- Horace
OK - I remember, sorta, knowing NANKEEN - certainly wasn't sure of the spelling! No idea about CRENEL - and BREACH didn't work for very long.
ReplyDeleteYes, tantric yoga - since 1970 with Yogi Bhajan in LA. I even tried it in the early 90's in Portland, OR. The "white" version was taught with Kundalini yoga. I now do "yoga for seniors".
These rebuses were clever and each one seemed to have a different twist. Great stuff!
~MLou
Loved the rebuses. I thought FRANKSINATRA was the best because of the twist in the parsing. I laughed out loud when I figured it out. My leas favorite was LONGOVERDUE because the "due" was represented by a homonym, "do," rather than by a synonym or other cleverness. I agree with you about NANKEEN crossing RENE, although what other Italian name could it have been. CRENEL is much more acceptable for me, just because of "crenellated," which comes to my mind easily, in any case. Shout out to SHRAPNEL, another answer that felt in my mind like it wouldn't be long enough to fit in those 8 boxes.
ReplyDelete