Friday, June 12, 2020

Friday, June 12, 2020, Robyn Weintraub

6:32

WHATSSOFUNNY, you ask? Well, a ton of stuff in today's puzzle, crafted by the incomparable Ms. Weintraub. We here at HAFDTNYTCPFCFA look forward to her byline, and cheer our luck in getting to blog on her puzzles.

In terms of clues, let's start with 5D: It always turns out the same (COPIER). Look at the brilliance here: no need for a question mark, because it's describing exactly what a Xerox machine does: turns out copies. I love it!

Other great clues:

9D: Some monsters call it home (SESAMESTREET). Indeed they do. Indeed they do.

47A: Jet setting (HOTTUB). Hah!

51D: Porter, for one (COLE). I had a strange feeling when I saw the clue that that would be the answer, but forced myself to get three of the four crossings first.

34A: Not go it alone? (RIDESHARE) - I don't like QMCs nearly as much, but that's good.

36A: Scratch (out), as a crossword answer? (EKE). This made me chuckle out loud. What a great way to elevate a classic bit of crosswordese.
HAHA
Meanwhile, other great fill include Ms. REYNOLDS, who was so excellent in "Singin' in the Rain," CHITCHAT, FREEWIFI, AFTERPARTY, and everybody's favorite CROISSANTS. Especially when you're staying in Le Marais in a AirBnB and walking over to a lovely little patisserie... Mmmmm...

<falls into a rĂªverie...>

Um, where was I? Oh, right. Let's just say, whenever Ms. Weintraub pens a crossword, IAMSOTHERE.

- Colum

2 comments:

  1. 11:48
    I LIKES it. Nice review, and it's so true about her byline. When I saw it this morning I said aloud to Frannie - "Colum will be happy about this!"

    Was it just me, or did anyone else think, maybe just for a second, that "Event that might last until the wee hours" would have something to do holding it in during a long car ride or something? No? Well, that's probably for the best...

    And again, it's probably just me, but sometimes seeing crosswordese like TOR, with the mountaintop clue, is kind of comforting. Perhaps it's that IMOFF a bit, I don't know.

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  2. 15:55
    Yes, amusing review, Colum. Instead of HOTTUB, I tried airhUB off of the last two crosses, but obviously that didn't work out too well for the remainder. Lots of great stuff in here including ONEG, SPACE and MICROSCOPE. And I enjoyed the clue for ATSEA as that's usually clued with being a bit addled. A little bit of a slowdown came for me in the SE, where I tried IllbeTHERE instead of the IAMSOTHERE, which was a much better answer and far more friendly to the crosses. Now that you're UPTOSPEED, I guess I'll ENDON that note.

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