Today's puzzle reminds me of the great Monty Python sketch set in a courtroom, where one of the witnesses, a detective, breaks into song about his choice of occupation, had he not gone into police work: "If I were not in the C.I.D., something else I'd like to be. If I were not in the C.I.D., a window cleaner me! With a scrub, scrub, here..."
You get the point.
Mr. Pink selects five well known people and reinterprets their last name as a verb describing work in another profession. I'm impressed that all five have last names consisting of five letters ending in -S, such that you can just say their name, and it works. Thus, ROSAPARKS cars, or SEANCOMBS hair. It's a nice selection of celebrities as well: two women, three African American, and only two old white men. I've always been fond of JEREMYIRONS for his portrayal of Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune.
My error came today when I entered HOORAy instead of HOORAH and didn't check my crossing. It's almost as bad as guessing at "eta" vs "etd" or "alii" vs "alia." Or "esto" vs "esta." There's a lot of this sort of thing one comes across when one does enough crosswords. (My older daughter feels one shouldn't use the impersonal pronoun anymore. One disagrees.)
I very much approve of ABSCOND and FOMENTS. Nice words. I have very little to complain about in this puzzle, with the exception of 10D: Responses to mumbles (EHS). I just don't think you can make that plural. Otherwise, nice work!
- Colum
8:09
ReplyDeleteEHS is weak, for sure; I tried EmS at first, but HOORAm doesn't work at all. I don't mind an old white man too much; I hope to be one someday. DROWNS is nicely clued, but are we supposed to say SHORTIE any longer? And isn't it "shorty" in any case? Overall, decent Tuesday.
6:33
ReplyDeleteWhat is one to do if one has not "one" to use? I thought the young people were all about impersonalizing pronouns! Well, what do I know, I'm just an old white man myself... No sense that such an one as I should BLEAT and RANTAT LES POUTY CLASSES. AHEM. That sounds maybe worse than I AIMS it to. Maybe I should just get some SMARTS and shut my AIRHOLE.