Let's just say that this week has been more stressful than most, so I'm happy to have the crossword puzzle to turn to in order to escape the difficulties of life for a few moments.
Or more than a few moments, in the case of today's puzzle. Some various guesses I made put up roadblocks to my completion. For example, at 35A: It doesn't follow (NONSEQUITUR) I put in NONSEnsical. Which is correct but not as correct as the actual answer. I also had ABASe instead of ABASH, which made HAWAII much harder to see. Finally, I had ANdnOw for 27D: "Moving right along ..." (ANYHOO).
That middle set of three answers is excellent. The lynchpin is ANTHONYBOURDAIN, an amazing man whose life came to a tragic and premature end in 2018. However, he absolutely lived by his quotation. I also enjoyed 39A: Swear words? (SCOUTSHONOR).
Crossing these answers is 21D: Coach for the bench players? (PIANOTEACHER). Hah! Very clever. PHOTOCURRENT is not as great an answer.
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My favorite clue is 56A: Present time, for short (BDAY). This is a great example of a non-QMC. And no question mark is needed, in my opinion, although I can see some thinking it would be necessary because of the punny nature of the reinterpretation of the first word.
With GETBACK and the very nice pair of "One might be drawn" clues (Answers: STRAW and BATH), this was a fun Friday themeless that played harder for me than usual.
- Colum
8:16
ReplyDeleteI liked this one too. Seemed like it might be almost a tribute puzzle to Mr. Bourdain, what with the ROMATOMATO, OYSTER, PENNE, UDON, and maybe even BUSBOYS. But probably not.
Lots of good, tricky clues. Fun!
FWOE
ReplyDeleteGreat fun, and went surprisingly fast for me...my one error was spelling NON SEQUITUR wrong, a careless mistake.
14:53
ReplyDeletePretty fast Friday for me, too, and yes, I loved seeing QUOTIENTS in the grid. And ROMATOMATO for that matter. Funny that ___HEAVEN and LENT abut. I had a slight slowdown because I tried Evite where ECARD belongs and, like Colum, entered ABASe off of the clue, and so didn't see HAWAII for far too long. I'm fine with sci-fi aliens being HUMANOID. Asimov did a nice job explaining why it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to try to create some elaborate species in his forward to "Nightfall," I believe. He said let's just all agree that they're vastly different than we are in every aspect, and that way we can get on with the story, which is the most important thing.