Striking! Check out that long diagonal of Is running through from SW to NE - it's appropriately 11 Is long! Then look around at the rest of it, and you'll see nothing but Is. It's a stunt puzzle!
If you'd asked me yesterday what I might think of a puzzle using only the vowel I, I'd bet there would have been a lot of CRINGING, because such a limitation can be STIFLING, but Mr. Charlson somehow managed a pretty TIGHTKNIT grid, and even managed to include a some BLING in the MIDST of it all.
Sure, Otto FRISCH and INI Kamoze are a bit obscure, and BLIN is a variant I've never heard before, but there's not much else that feels very off-putting. PRII (49D: Toyota hybrids, jocularly) is amusing, and even IST (47D: Loyal follower?) is elevated by its clever clue. OK, well, INDS (2D: Unaffiliated voters: Abbr.) is rough, but still, it's not much - and I is the only vowel!
Bruce Haight has taught me to appreciate these stunt puzzles, and I think this is a pretty darn good one. I'm SMILING about it, and I didn't even need any WINING and dining.
FINI.
- Horace
4:43 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI fill GIN / fLING in. Right? Nix.
nice!
DeleteAgreed. After starting with "Striking," I briefly considered writing the entire review using only Is. That, of course, was quickly abandoned.
Delete14:41
ReplyDeleteThe odd entries mentioned by Horace slowed me down a little, but this is, indeed, an impressive feat. TSHIRT and GSTRING took me too long, as did KIR (unknown to me) and its cross IKID (oddly), but the fill was mostly smooth. SLIGHTS, despite its pluralness, is nice. I've never heard of a MINISKI, but I'll accept it.