Today's theme answers are first and last names of famous people who share their first name with "saintly" cities in CALIFORNIA. So we have JOSEFERRER representing San Jose ('San' understood). I've never heard of San RAFAELNADAL, but I've visited San FRANCISCOFRANCO, and I even lived in San DIEGORIVERA as a youth. Good times.
I was happy to be able to drop BRIAR right in (23A: "Pipe type") because Horace and I very recently completed a giant puzzle (706 across and 692 down, according to the blurb) that we received from Games magazine in the 80's. That puzzle also contained the clue "Pipe type." We had B_IAR, but the across for the missing square was "Odd, in Inverness" (ORRA - who knew? not us). BRIAR seemed very likely, but ORRA not so much, so we looked that one up at the end to confirm it. And you know what? Bowls of tobacco pipes are commonly made of briar wood. It seems rather LAX of Mr. Shortz to allow an exact repeat of a clue and answer after only 35 years. :)
I enjoyed the two question mark clues, "Fix a clog?" (RESOLE) and "Company with a can-do attitude?" (ALCOA). I also liked BARGE, MAZE, MOJO, APOP, FOSSIL, and HEREIAM.
~Frannie.
10:37
ReplyDeleteNice time, Frannie, and I didn't know of your living in San DIEGORIVERA. Interesting. I guess I should occasionally seek out the revealer to help with the rest of the fill, but I like being pleasantly surprised, too, so it's a tossup. With all of the skirt style clues in grids, I usually have to wait for that third letter (and the second, in some cases) by getting the cross(es). Today it was MIDI, but mini and maxi are always possibilities.