Rough start today with FRIGGA (Goddess played by Rene Russo in "Thor" crossing GOA (Indian state on the Arabian Sea) and GUS (The Theater Cat in Broadway's "Cats") (Thanks for adding "Broadway" there...). I knew GOA, but not the cat, but I should have guessed the double letter in the across instead of going with the more cat-like pUS (eww, sorry... not very cat-like) for the Down. Oh well. The trio of Downs, however, was lovely (FLING, RONCO (!), IGLOO), and I guess that, along with ATTHEALTAR (Bad way to be left) maybe, was enough to force Mr. Fromm's hand.
Aside from my own small problem in the NW, this was a clean puzzle with some lovely fill. I expect some will find UNGULATE (Having hooves) as unknowable as GUS or FRIGGA was for me, but I loved seeing that one. CRUSADES (Single-minded pursuits) and CHUGS (Slowly moves (along)) were also good in the NE.
The triple-stack in the middle was decent, if not scintillating. Today, along with the usual MPG, APA, and EEE-type crosses, we got the fun GRUBBY (Squalid), the nicely-clued RECITE (Rattle off), and the excellently-clued MCC (Three CDs?). What? Shouldn't that have been something like "set?" No, it's Roman numerals. Hah! And another one that I wasn't thinking of properly at first was JINGOISTS. It's not country music superfans, its superfans of a country. Nice.
** Added note: I totally missed the mini-theme in the triple-stack! Three military ranks are stacked at the start of each entry. That adds a nice touch. Thanks xwordinfo.com! (I guess I should wait until after I've had my coffee to start on the puzzle review!)
Lastly, doesn't it seem a little like someone is trying to educate us about Jimmy Dorsey's old standard SORARE? It's showed up enough times in the past few months that I no longer struggle with it, which is, I guess, a good thing. Now maybe I should take the next step and go and listen to it.
I liked the puzzle overall. So far so good on the turn. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. Happy Friday!
- Horace
9:06 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI put in UNEASe instead of UNEASY. I was wrong, and I am mature enough to admit it.
In other news, I enjoyed this puzzle, with UNGULATE being my favorite entry.
35:56
ReplyDeleteFRIGGA is completely unknown to me, but the rest of the puzzle, despite my glacially slow time, went relatively smoothly. ANTIGONE was nice, and I actually dropped it right in. Shame that that poor PRIVATE is sandwiched in between the GENERAL and MAJOR. I tried inTHElurch instead of ATTHEALTAR, but the crosses fixed that up for me. MCC was my favorite, once I understood the excellent clue.