I haven't had many sub-6 solves in my time, and I think this might be my first when I am responsible for the review. I should be happy, but I am FWOEbegone. For what it's worth, I think mine was a respectable mistake. As the answer to "'Absolutely, positively not!'" I entered NOSIREEBuB, which I was sure was correct, but it turns out BOB is your uncle rather than BuB. But because I had no doubt about my answer and because I was filling in the squares as fast as I could, I failed to check the across clue, even though I know better. You can lead a horse to water ...
And speaking of drink, each of today's three theme answers contains the name of an adult beverage that appears twice, rendering the revealer MAKEMINEADOUBLE deliciously apt. Apt! My preference is for [ALE]XVANH[ALE]N because I don't take a gin drink (LOGGINGINTO), and rum (HARUMSCARUM) turns my head upside down. I think we can all drink to that.
The clue "'Hurry!,' on an order" as a clue for ASAP was like a tonic after a rash of "now" themed clues for the old chestnut. I also liked SOD, FLING, GUSTO, TREAT, VOUCH, DELUXE, LEST, and SVELTE.
I don't mean to wine, but some answers made the overall puzzle feel a little mixy; AEIOU, USOFA, DONEE, and AGAR left me feeling a worse for wear. And in the way that ordering a double seems sensible at the time, more of a thing isn't always better. The high number of three-letter crosswordese answers (OAR, ORE, ORB, FSU, GEO, GAB) left me feeling like I'd had one too many. But, hair of the dog, as the British might say. It's five o'clock somewhere!
~Frannie.
3:27
ReplyDeleteWhat, no mention of rye? My favorite. I'm impressed or perhaps taken aback that 3 of the first 4 across answers were so atypical, especially for a Monday. But I enjoyed the theme immensely.
6:01
ReplyDeleteNot quite a sub-six, probably due to the atypical-for-a-Monday answers, as Colum observed. The theme is great, and I enjoy all of the theme answers in their time, but in order it's: RYE, GIN, ALE, RUM. All educated people agree with that.
4:01
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the juxtaposition of the all-consonant (HDTVS) over the all-vowel (AEIOU).
And it's summer, so I'll put GIN at the top of the list. RUM is definitely last, though. Dumb RUM.