Today's theme did not immediately come to me ; it took a "we" to discover the both of US. At first, I had tried to figure out what the parts of each theme answer (EXCUSESEXCUSES, MARCUSAURELIUS, WALRUSMUSTACHE) had in common with each other, but no, the revealer was, as it often is, quite literal. When I chatted with a coworker about the puzzle, she called up the completed puzzle on her monitor and it was then that the pairs of US jumped right out at us two. The obvious favorite is WALRUSMUSTACHE because it has the words walrus and mustache in it.
The puzzle included an interesting note about KARAOKE (Literally, "empty orchestra"), and, in a surprising twist, we learn that Twizzler's contains RED DYE. Other other clue/answer pairs we OKED include:
Squarish (BOXY) - pleasing all around.
Branch of the Olympics? (LAUREL) - cute.
It's groundbreaking (HOE) - HEHE.
Alternatives to Ho Hos (YODELS) - mmm, Yodels.
It seems to me that SEEME has been quite popular of late. And STU is back, today referenced as the Disco character on "The Simpsons,"which is great, but I also very much enjoyed "Man's name that's an alphabet run" on Saturday.
I say TUT to the word SKED (Slated events, in brief). Also, TNG and OSO are not SUPE as fill. ASTO other problem areas, I thought the "Hamilton climax" clue should have come with a spoiler alert. Anyone else?
~Frannie.
9:23
ReplyDeleteI like TNG on two levels: one for the referenced show and the other for our Singaporean friend. JUG is not often seen in a grid. I'm not a big fan of either of the pair in WALRUSMUSTACHE, nor of the look of the combined result, but I guess that's the best theme answer. Meanwhile, DOODAH has to take the prize for the rest of the fill, although some may like ATRIA or the partial NEURO better. SOCCERBALL was nicely clued, even with the question mark.
7:07 (paper)
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to see the clue, too, and when I saw "...TWOOFUS" at the end of the last one, I was quite concerned. But it all worked out in the end.