Another Oscar-related theme today, with familiar phrases that all contain words that are activities related to movie-making - shot, extra, crew, cut, score, and take - clued in a way that makes it obvious. The best has got to be ALITTLEEXTRA (Movie munchkin, maybe?), but WORTHASHOT (Suitable for moviemaking?) is also strong. We get a piece of bonus fill in BEST ( ____ Picture (Oscars category)), but what's TONY (Broadway award) doing there? Is it oblique bonus fill, or is it just throwing us off the scent?
I'm not too familiar with the term MOIL (Drudgery, in older usage), nor could I immediately come up with BILOXI, AIWA, ETONIC, or ESAU. On the BRIGHTSIDE, though, I find the word LURCH (Move suddenly and unsteadily) interesting, and I also enjoyed ITSOK, HIHAT (I tried "snare" at first), and MARSHY.
SKIER (Chairlift rider, perhaps) gives me an opportunity to let you know that we're on our way out of Innsbruck today. I'm actually writing from aboard a train! At Logan airport, on the way over here, we were somehow randomly selected to receive TSA PRE √, but there's none of that nonsense necessary when riding the rails. We've got plenty of leg-room AREA, free wifi, a cafe car, our luggage is all readily accessible, and we can EXHALE and watch the lovely scenery roll by. Ahhh...
Nice start to the week.
- Horace
6:50
ReplyDeleteA few of the answers weren't quite as obvious as normal on a Monday, which was refreshing. ADFEE actually took me a few seconds, for example. I spent a total of seven months in BILOXI when I was in the service, so that town is extremely familiar to me. Good thing, since we needed the cross for BCUP. I liked having the ONE/ZERO pairing in there, and when I see a Z in the grid, I check to see whether we have a pangram, but no. We seem to be missing a Q. So close....
Thanks Horace!
ReplyDeleteShould we have clued SARAN as "It's a wrap!" ?
Bruce Haight
A nice Monday crossword that caused no major struggle. I did make one mistake at the ends of ETONIC and ALEC. I wrote in "X" instead of "C". The theme was fun; I like puns. They are a nice diversion from the stuff we have on the news. Favorite answer: CHALK. I used a blackboard at work.
ReplyDeleteIAN
That X or C question is often a toss-up for me, too, when I see ALE_.
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