Another big Sunday puzzle to get through. Complete with names like Tom WOPAT, TOD Browning, ZAK Starkey, ISAAK Brodsky, KIRI Te Kanawa, NEKO Case, Andrew YANG, HOWIE Long, AIMEE Mann, Leon URIS, OMARR Sydney, and YGOR. That last one did me in, as I dropped in iGOR, and never thought twice about it until, when checking the puzzle over, ran into IRONiMAN. I haven't read any O. Henry, and so was not aware that IRONYMAN might be appropriate for him, but irony is actually a word. Ah well.
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| Julia Child's first EMMY award, on display at the Schlesinger Library |
I liked many entries today, including PRETTYUP (Beautify), EPICFAIL (Flop that's one for the ages), and SATYRIC (Lecherous). The pair of CROMAGNON (Early human) and ADAM (Early human) was cute, and I like how it could irritate both believers and non-believers, because if you accept that ADAM was an early human, you might not want to also accept that humans evolved at all, and if you accept evolution, you reject the notion of creation and Eden and all that. Heh. The things you think of while solving... and speaking of religion, when "Ararat" didn't fit at 30-Down "Biblical peak," I needed every cross to fill in the correct answer, HOREB.
The theme got a few chuckles, but not enough - for me - to overcome what I thought was a lot of difficult compromises. GAI (Chicken, in a Chinese dish), OSCAN (Bygone sister language of Latin), REOIL (Take care of, as a persistent squeak), TEM (President pro ____), GAMERA (Giant flying turtle monster of film), and the RESTE.
On the whole, it's been a good week of puzzles, though. Tomorrow, Frannie takes over again, and I'll see you in a few weeks.
- Horace
Definitely a bit of a slog today. Why "All the right moves?" I think because going to the right is going east, as long as you're looking at a compass from above (or you're traveling north), and thus you add an E to the movie titles. My favorite by far was JOHNWIKI. Funny clue and an unexpected switch from "wick" to "wiki."
ReplyDeleteOh, never mind. The title was "All the right movies". Egg on my face.
Delete40:26
ReplyDeleteA bit more difficult than a normal Sunday, especially the OMARR/AMICA cross, where I originally tried an "i" but it just didn't look right. Some humorous entries, and I agree with Horace on YGOR, but thankfully I checked the cross. GAMERA is well-known to me from numerous "Creature Double Feature" viewings in my youth.