Mr. Donaldson gives us four theme answers that are variations of things you'd gladly hear your companion say at a bar - although all but one of them (DRINKSONME) could work in a restaurant setting as well. My favorite is the two-parter YOURMONEYS NOGOODHERE. I'll drink to that!
This topical theme doesn't do much damage to the surrounding grid. I enjoyed CRUSH, WRY, NCC (of course), NOODGES (vocabulary-wise), CLOD, and LOCUTION. And, I'm always happy to see a reference to the NETHerlands - even in abbreviated form.
There was also some solid clue/answer pairs:
Big farm workers (OXEN) - nice twist
Country whose name can also be a full sentence (IRAN) - pleasing
They might make lids difficult to close (STYES) - nice misdirection, but I wasn't fooled.
Tiny opening? (MICRO) - ha!
Change of locks? (NEWDO) - fun.
Some of the plurals like DALIS and KENS, and to a lesser extent HEYS, BORERS, and RAHS, I found a little ODDS, but maybe Mr. Donaldson's policy is 'the MOHS the merrier'. :)
~Frannie.
Two errors today: I put in UNSNAp (I should have known George SEgAL, but I'm on the younger side in this here blogging group, as I have been reminded of many times over the years). My other error was more amusing: I saw 31A, and read "friend of..." with RO_ in place, and just filled in an O and moved on. RON was who they were looking for, of course, seeing as how Roo would have been sorely out of place in Hogwarts.
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ReplyDeleteAny bar theme is fine with me. I never heard of Sonja HENIE; I'm sure the kids didn't make fun of her for that name. HATEMAIL adjacent to SNIDEST is apt. I liked LOCUTION all right, but one usually hears "elocution," which means, of course, something slightly different. I'm more familiar with KALEL than RON, but the latter didn't slow me down. Decent Tuesday.