Ask and ye shall receive, or so they say. After complaining that yesterday’s Friday themeless was too easy, I got a lovely challenge for a Saturday, thanks to Ms. Weintraub. I went through most of the grid with very little I could call a certainty other than LAOS, SST, and CRIMEA (which I took out). I finally got an actual toehold in the SW corner, what with DNA, NONE, and CEOS.
This grid was filled with tough clues:
43A: Coach (BUS) - such a simple clue, but so open to multiple interpretations.
42A: Form of relief (ALMS) - needed almost all the crosses for this one.
21D: Uncommon notes (TWOS) - referring to paper money here. I didn’t get it until just now.
Also, there is a ton of wonderful long fill. ICANRELATE next to PHONEDITIN, adjacent to HASNTACLUE. I had several incorrect choices at 1D: Things seen that aren’t there (HOLOGRAMS). Both “illusions” and “delusions” fit in there, sadly. Only the first is actually a correct interpretation of the clue. A delusion is an incorrect interpretation of reality, an illusion is an incorrect visual (or other sensory) perception. Thus, paranoia is a delusion, but a hallucination is an illusion, as is vertigo, by the way.
Taking off my neurology hat now.
HITTHESPOT, LOSESSLEEP, TOPLOADER... so much goodness here.
Fun clues:
45D: Texting alternative? (OTOH) - nicely done.
16A: Character in “Monster’s, Inc.” (COMMA). Fell for it again. I put in “Sully,” an actual character, but took it out immediately because the Y at the end didn’t look like it would work.
And that’s it from me in 2019! Happy New Year to all, and see you in 2020.
- Colum
I loved it...and like you, I also fell for the COMMA clue! The whole puzzle is a joy...and Happy New Year to you, too!
ReplyDelete22:06
ReplyDeleteA good time for me on a Saturday. I'm number three on falling for the COMMA thing, but unlike Colum, I don't know the movie well enough to name any character. How many different ways can the ILIAD be clued? We get another nice one today. LETHE is definitely Saturday fill. GALLOPS (38D Speeds through the Downs, say) had me thinking of solving a puzzle, so that was some excellent misdirection. And crosses saved me from an FWOE at 21D because I'd entered dRY at the across, but luckily TdOS didn't look quite right, so I changed it to WRY. Until I read Colum's review regarding TWOS, I was thinking of music and common time, but thought that was a terrible way to refer to 2/4 time (and what is a two note anyway?). I'm glad that this was referring to paper money instead; much better.