What a can of corn the revealer was today! TORAH, to be pronounced as "TOR! ... Ah..." or something like that - said that way because the letters TOR have been inserted into four common(ish) phrases. "Can of corn," for example, becomes CANTOROFCORN (55A: Synagogue singer with hokey humor?), which is strangely linked to the revealer. I suppose KEEPITREALTOR (45A: "I don't want this house after all"?) could be linked the religious theme as well, but I think maybe I said enough about my religious beliefs in my last weekly stint of blogging. AMENS! :)
The only theme answer "original phrase" that I was not immediately familiar with was in CAPTORINHAND (21A: Kidnapper who gets arrested?). I see now that "cap in hand" is an alternate version of "hat in hand," as in "He went cap in hand..." asking for money. I think that one's on me. I should probably have been able to figure that out.
As is often the case, there are some interesting long Down answers in the grid. My favorites today are TIMEBOMBS (36D: Ticking dangers), BARONESS (40D: Margaret Thatcher, e.g., in her later years) (not for the Maggie reference, but for the fine word itself), and the unusual AWCOMEON (5D: "You've got to be kidding me!"). ONBUTTONS (12D: Things in the backs of Macs) was very strange, but this Mac user enjoyed it when he figured it out.
Overall I enjoyed this solve. There was plenty of OOMPH in the middle-length fill, too, with LARYNX (47D: Need to speak) (tricky clue!), GNASH, ASKEW (15A: Like a necktie at the end of a long workday, maybe) (Tell me about it!), and SANDRA (10D: Oh, what an actress!) (Guffaw!).
No rebus, but still a fun Thursday.
- Horace
6:47
ReplyDeleteI thought after the first two theme entries that the word that had the -TOR added to it had to end in -AP. Adaptor? Chaptor? Tapped door?!? Clearly the actual plan worked better than mine.
19:23
ReplyDeleteSmooth puzzle, and I never heard "cap in hand" either. I didn't like the sports reference on BEATTHERAPTOR; a bird reference would have been better for me, given my general aversion to sports. After many crossword solves, though, people like MIA Hamm, Orr, Ott and Alou are now well known to me (Orr was anyway, as I often attended Bruins games with my father back in the days when Bobby was playing). I loved the LARYNX/STYX cross, for obvious reasons, and do very much enjoy a BENTO box.