Everybody's favorite Thursday puzzle type - the rebus! And a multi-rebus at that. I knew there was something afoot at 17A: "Social media fad that went viral in 2014" because I couldn't get ICE[BUCK]ETCHALLENGE to fit. A little further along, however, I got [BILL]MAHER (TV host once with an "Explaining Jokes to Idiots" segment) and things started to make cents. Once I figured out that even though 'fur'OR might be a reasonable guess for "Ado" at 38A, 'fur'CHOWDER was a non-starter, I was able to throw in [CLAM] and get the rest of my ducats in a row. I had the most trouble with the northeast. I didn't know ANN Wilson, lead singer of Heart, and at first I couldn't make heads or tails of 10D: Part of a diner showcase, until PIE finally hit me in the face.
At first, after completing the grid, I was a little puzzled by the revealer FIVEDOLLARWORDS because the rebii seemed to be $1 words rather than $5 words, but when I mentioned it to Horace he explained that I had mis-parsed the answer. What seemed a little like a minor incongruity turned out to be perfect when understood as 'five (the quantity) dollar words' ([NOTE], [BUCK], [BILL], [SINGLE], [CLAM]). Ha! Now that's using your cabbage!
If I have one bone to pick, it's the cross between 21A: Jack of Rio Lobo" and 9D. "Tryst locale". I almost FWOED because I didn't know Mr. ELAM and I had entered [NOTE]LLhOTEL instead of the correct and excellent [NOTE]LLMOTEL]. D'oh!
~Frannie.
18:12
ReplyDeleteA hotel is a little fancy for that purpose, Frannie. I do, indeed, love a rebus puzzle, and this was one of the greats. I'd have FWOE'd were VOX (which I'd not heard of) not crossed with BOXER (66A Jabber?), which is an excellent QMC. I've not heard of the term [SINGLE]TON, but I have heard of [SINGLE]SBARS, so that saved me and taught me a new term. No real junk in here, although I guess that BOR, SSE, DEG and LAH come close. Talking about threes, I thought that RAD (36D Dope) was exellently clued.
Of course, I meant "excellently" clued. Sorry.
DeleteI'm not sure I have heard of a "no tell motel". I mean, it makes sense and.... well this is all a long winded way of saying that I had iPADS instead of [NOTE]PADS . Now an iPad is a perfectly good place for a to-do list, but well I'm not claiming an "ill motel" is a thing, or that I was prepared to settle for only four rebuses (having correctly parsed the revealer), or well I don't really have any particularly compelling excuse other than "I didn't think of the answer" and oh I did warn you this comment was long winded, didn't I?
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ReplyDeleteYeah, I've never heard of a [NOTE]LLMOTEL either... ;)
(Just kidding, Frannie!)
Fun puzzle. I know of [SINGLE]TONs from Frannie's dad, who was a great card sharp.
Also - this was another excellent review, Frannie. If we ever win a Webbie (and I fully expect we eventually will), it will be thanks to your third of the posts. :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent Thursday! I loved the progression of the rebuses in my mind: something about bucks; names that start with B; hmm, I don't know . . . I also had IPAD and ILL MOTEL for quite a while. Also confidently filled in TAKEthEhIT and stayed with it until I finally parsed that abomination Manhattan CLAMCHOWDER.
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