Each of today's theme answers features a different metal in a music-related phrase, title, or group name - in other words, METALMUSIC. The sentimental favorite has to be SILVERBELLS (Classic Christmas song with the lyric "City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, / Dressed in holiday style"), but PLATINUMRECORDS is also precious. In a more affordable vein, we have TINPANALLEY (Old New York song publishing locale) and NICKELBACK (Rock band with the 2001 #1 hit "How You Remind Me) - something an unhappy movie goer might request in the aughts of the previous century.
Overall, the puzzle offers an ARRAY of solid fare with nothing that took too much of ATOLL. Often on Mondays, IFILL in the grid too quickly to appreciate the clues as I go, but upon review, one high point was TOTEMPOLES. I also like GOYA (Spanish artist Francisco ____), Edgar ALLAN Poe, and NAAN. Mmmmm, naan. I plan to like OSLO when I visit it.
ACHE is a cool word and AFOOT is fun. For dislikes, can I just say BEARD?
~Frannie.
4:37
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to get under five on a Monday, although it happens rarely for me. Decent theme, and I, too, like SILVERBELLS the best out of the theme answers. No one likes a BEARD. I often wonder what causes one to decide to grow such an item; it seems ill-thought-out, for many reasons, but perhaps that just my BIAS. CLOY is nice, and good trivia on EAGLESCOUT (21 merit badges), but I'd bet that my brother knows that one. ALOT of proper names today, but I'll accept it.
3:59 (messy)
ReplyDeleteIn my haste to finish quickly, I only partly read the clue for 47A "Old New York song publishing locale" - and started the answer with TImes..., only to be changed after the bell. But still, with all that looking around and fixing, my time was still under 4. Of course, three errors would kill me at a tournament, so I've got to start being more careful! March is right around the corner!
I've sometimes considered growing a beard, but once it gets to "scratching length," I quickly tire of it.
Sue would immediately file papers were I to grow a beard. Luckily, I've no interest in doing so.
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