Today we ROLLTHEDICE. Four randomly-spaced (though shaded) four-square boxes containing the letters D-I-C-E. Each time we encounter one, we need to roll through the letters clockwise in order to complete the Across answer. So we get:
INSERV[ICED]AYS (Times when teachers go to school but students don't) - Never heard of these.
SAU[CEDI]SH (Vessel for dipping at a dinner table) - First of all, no one uses these. I guess maybe I've heard of them, and I suppose they might have used them on Downton Abbey, but no one in my acquaintance has ever used one of these.
REVERS[EDIC]TIONARY - (Reference that arranges words by concept rather than alphabetically) - Again, this is a thing that I have never seen or used. I guess, like the so-called sauce dish, I am familiar with the concept, but it's not a real-world thing, as far as I'm concerned.
SHAVE[DICE] - (Cousin of a sno-cone) - If I were to call it anything else, which I wouldn't, I would call it "shave ice."
So that's four for four on the complaint list. It's funny, I didn't see it coming, but this review suddenly looks like a pan. While I was solving, however, I had NOIDEA that would be the case.
I do like ARISTOTLE (Pioneer in syllogistic logic), VALHALLA (Locale in Wagner's "Das Rheingold"), and GRATIS (On the house). "Counterpart of sin" is a great clue for COS, and EINE and MEIN remind me of my recent stay in Austria. Ahhh... I remember it like it was only three or four days ago... I also like it anytime somebody calls pants TROU. So that's all good.
There's a little bit of EAN, AER, and RGS, and nobody likes an ORG chart - makes the workplace seem too much like a FIEF, but I'm going to be NICER about that stuff since I was so hard on the themers.
- Horace
11:03
ReplyDeleteLike Horace, I never heard of a SAU[CEDI]SH or a REVERS[EDIC]TIONARY, but the other two were fine. I remember, especially, the INSERV[ICED]AYS quite fondly. Also, once I filled in the first two theme answers and saw what was going on, I looked for the revealer and filled that right in. I loved BELAY in addition to the answers (especially COS) that Horace mentions; any "Star Trek" reference is welcome IMO. Also, I noticed that the name of one of the constructors is said by some famous knights.
A Thursday crossword without a rebus is always welcome. The shaded squares hinted at some kind of gimmick, but at least it had one letter per square. I liked it, especially the revealer. It reminded me of playing board games as a kid. Video games were non-existent then - well, there was Pong. I liked the two sci-fi references. I am glad my INSERVICEDAYS are behind me now. As a mathematician, I like the trigonometry reference. While on the subject of references, I had no idea there was such an item as a REVERSEDICTIONARY. I did not finish the crossword; the 3x3 corner in the second quadrant gave me trouble. I do not know any Japanese, CCS still has me stumped, and ORG escaped me, even though I have seen plenty of them.
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