There was so much I didn't know in this puzzle. MEATSPACE (Physical realm, in cyberpunk), for instance. It's amusing and I'm glad to learn it, but it took almost every cross. IONA (Macbeth's burial isle), SOULTRAINLINE (Longtime dance feature on TV beginning in 1971), ROCS (Elephant abductors of legend), EPUB (Digital book file extension), ELMO (Friend of Mr. Noodle on children's TV), EMIR (The conqueror Tamerlane, for one), DRAGOON (Strong-arm) (as a noun, I guess, not a verb), TECATE (Mexican beer brand) ... these are all things that, without crosses, might never have come into my head. Even PARADISEFOUND (Heaven, sweet heaven) was a mystery because of that clue. Is that from something? Is that a normal way to clue PARADISEFOUND?
And it doesn't help that STOic is so close to STONY (Lacking any emotion).
Things I did know include AMTRAK (Metroliner operator, once) (Hi Dad!), MOTET (Sacred choral composition), CRUELLA ("101 Dalmatians" villain), and FROOT. Funny to see that twice in three days.
I don't know, it all seems so obvious when you write it out. Perhaps it's time for me to hand this reviewing business over for a couple weeks. Stay healthy, wear a mask when you're out, and I'll see you again at the end of the month.
- Horace
23:57
ReplyDeleteI finished most of this puzzle in around twelve minutes, but my time doubled because of a couple of tricky (for me) areas. DIGGS wasn't coming to me, even though I had D_G_S for quite a while, nor was PARADISEFOUND. It didn't help that I had MEeTSPACE entered. In the SW, I was hung up on RAWSCORES and DATACOLLECTION, despite having __WS_ORES and ____COLLECTION! EMIR came in after I got RAWSCORES (I had MOTET off of the clue), and then that corner fell. For nice fill I enjoyed HOMEGYM, SCONCE and TROVES. I didn't love SPOTAD, but there wasn't much else to look askance at. RAT was also nicely clued.
Loved it, although it played very hard for me. The clues are amazing. Didn't know the extension .ePub, but cheated by looking at my husband's phone. Beautiful work.
ReplyDeleteKelly <--#metoo
9:21
ReplyDeleteDIGGS I knew off the clue. Love the clue for 1D: H.S. Course whose textbooks are full of solutions (APCHEM). I think DRAGOON here is being used as a verb, not a noun. METOOMOVEMENT took way too long to get. 2006 seems so long ago!