Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Bruce Haight

0:06:53

Hi, Horace here. Frannie has a very busy day today, and we know Mr. Haight likes to have his reviews completed in a timely fashion, so I'm going to hammer one out now, and maybe Frannie will be able to make it 10% funnier when she gets a free moment.

And speaking of 10% funnier, I'll start with the notes Frannie left me for this review, which began (and ended) with the following:

"Theme - hilarious"

As usual, she is right on the money. I believe her favorite was EWEGUISE (53A: "____ and those crazy sheep costumes!"), and mine has to be BUTTWEIGHT (17A: "____, do these jeans make me look fat?"). Both of those are, to iterate, hilarious. Hilarious and clever. The three also-rans are also good, but not quite so much so:

AISLEBEE (25A: "____! The flight attendant just swatted a bug!")
BUYCHANTS (36A: "____, would you like to purchase some religious music?")
CZECHPLEAS (62A: "____! Petr, I'm begging you again to let me get this!")

After all this punning, I'm left wondering whether EYEROLL and maybe even SCREAMO are bonus theme material. Heh. Kidding! I didn't find any of it even an ITTY bit ICKY.

As for the more quotidian trickery, I was successfully misdirected by both 1A: Lid attachment (LASH) and 10D: Windows strip (TOOLBAR). I enjoyed the vivid BLAST (22D: Quarry noise), the picturesque TRESTLE (40D: Part of a bridge), and the always welcome BELTS (22A: Big swigs). Not the hitting kind, mind you. The holding-up-your-pants kind are fine, too, I suppose. But the drinking kind is best.

Anywho, this proves once again that Mr. Haight would be an amusing person to DOLUNCH with. And if he comes to the ACPT again this spring, we may, in fact, try to make that happen. (Hi Bruce!)

A mood-elevating, mid-week treat.

- Horace