I didn't look at the revealer as I solved today's puzzle. It filled itself in without any action on my part. I did have to apply myself to complete the four theme answers themselves, however, and at first glance they left me unmoved. But, in the context of the revealer, BREXIT (Subject of a 2016 U.K. referendum ... or a hint to 16-, 25-, 41-, and 55-Across), they won me over. Each theme answer is a pair of words illustrating a literal BR exit. The first word contains the letters BR and the second is the same word from which the BR has exited - ha! The pair that gets my vote is BREYERSEYERS (Ones considering which brand of ice cream to buy?). CEREBRALCEREAL is also a fine runner up. HOMBRESHOMES was a bit of a stretch - and difficult to say out loud - but it's all for a good cause.
I was intrigued by the new-to-me NORMCORE (Fashion trend that involves comfortable, regular-looking clothing). Finally, I'm on trend! Well, I probably was when it was a trend. I looked it up on the World Wide Web and it appears to have peaked a few years back, so it's probably no longer INSEASON.
Nice that Gypsy Rose Lee was mentioned in the clues. I recently enjoyed one of her mystery novels - more of a period piece than a page-turner, IMHO. Also, how about Duran Duran? Remember them? I did. Which helped me in the south west, a section that included the excellent TAMARIND. One thing, or rather character, I did not remember was Ally MCBEAL. I misread the clue at first and wasted my time trying to think of a real ATT like Clarence Darrow or Thurgood Marshall. Derp.
GUITARSOLO and RAISESHELL are good long downs. I enjoyed both INEVER and ISAY. I like BEST when it means defeat.
Not much to campaign against in this one. HUAC, ACL, and EMT aren't the strongest candidates, but I still think this puzzle's a winner.
~Frannie.
9:10
ReplyDeleteI don't generally remember reading about the HUAC referred to as that particular acronym; usually I saw it spelled out, but it's fine. I noticed that the two that Frannie liked best of the theme answers were food-related. I thought that BRITCHESITCHES was pretty funny. AMBLE is a nice word for a pace, which threw me off for a little bit, but under 10 for a Wednesday is fine by me. I tried RAISEScain at first where RAISESHELL belongs, which slowed me down a little, too.
At first I was parsing BRITCHESITCHES with "itches" as a verb, and it wasn't quite matching up with the clue, and I was all ready to..... well if "itches" is a noun it all works.
ReplyDeleteHUAC is familiar to me, especially in writing I think. According to Google hits it is more common than the spelled out version.