Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Wednesday, May 22, 2019, Alex Eaton-Salners

0:06:48

I’m sensing a theme this week of very strong themes.
Today we have another novel idea of using the beginning lines of “Blue Suede Shoes” as clues for actual answers. In the song, they’re just – well, I guess I’ve never considered them to refer to anything specific. But now I’ll probably think back to this puzzle every time I hear it from now on. “One for the money” becomes a casual description of a LEATHERWALLET, and BROADWAYTICKETS are a plausible equivalent of “Two for the show.” STOPDROPANDROLL (Three to get ready) is probably the biggest stretch, as that doesn’t happen all that often, but ALLWHEELDRIVE is perfectly acceptable for “Four to go.” (It's close enough to "Go, cat, go"  right?)
No revealer today, but it’s not necessary. What would it even be?
INDUS

There are no non-theme Across entries longer than five letters, but in the Downs we have some sixes, sevens, and even two OCTANT entries: CANTLOSE and MAKESWAR (Launches an offensive). I like any mention of OPHELIA and Hamlet, and TIDAL and WAVESKI are a good excuse to mention that Frannie and I are at the beach today, having taken a rare day off mid-week. It’s not all fun and games, though – we’re meeting some upholsterers for a pick-up/drop-off and then heading straight back home.
Funny to have RUBE and BOOBS in the same puzzle, and wasn’t RERUNS, in the singular, a side character in some cartoon? Was that Linus’s little brother? Or someone on Fat Albert? All those things seem to be blurring together.
Anyway, I APPLAUD the theme, and look OVER the KETT, ETS, and LAI type material.
One last thing, remaining FIDELIS to our local musicians, I will say that BROADWAYTICKETS may now be purchased for ANAIS Mitchell’s show Hadestown at the Walter Kerr Theatre. That is all.

- Horace

1 comment:

  1. 12:20
    I didn't consider Elvis with the across theme answers, and probably won't think of this puzzle if I ever hear that song again. I don't remember the last time that I heard it; decades, probably. I was a little worried about RIIS, but the crosses left no wiggle room, and I was happy to see the smiling pencil once I finished. Thank goodness for BOOBS, or BAHAI would have been trouble for me, too. KIRIN, however, was no problem, nor was KAUAI. Somewhat challenging for a Wednesday, IMO, but far from unpleasantly so.

    ReplyDelete