MUSICAL INTERLUDE
When I saw the title and the circles, I entered the notes of the scale immediately, then went back and started at 1A. Eventually, I found that the notes were to be taken independently, in a way. Including them makes them fit the QMCs that they all get, but taking them out reveals a more standard phrase. "Scarce resources" isn't exactly a stand-alone phrase the way "Amazing Grace" or "the pied piper" is, but in this pandemic period, perhaps it is particularly appropriate.
My favorite theme clue/answer pair today is ... wait, do we need a new acronym for that? Yes. So my favorite C/AP today is "Letting out all the stops to drown out the other instruments?" for ORGANDOMINATION. It's hilarious, and "organ donation" is a good thing. PARASOLMILITARY (Troops who are worried about sun protection?) is good too, thanks to a high silliness quotient.
Other good C/APs are "Bronze that's not winning any awards?" (FAKETAN), "Take into account?" (SAVE), and "What might come down to the wire? (BIRD). QMCs all.
I do not know the Beatles song YESITIS by name, so that was a tricky clue (B-side to the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride"), and it took me far too long to think of the SEAGRAM building. I kept trying to cram "chrysler" in there.
Also, I've recently begun learning Finnish. I am half Finn myself, and we are planning to visit the country whenever we can travel again. Anyway, one of the tools in my multi-pronged learning is DuoLingo, which recently released a beta Finnish course, and this long non-sequitur is just a way of saying that I learned from Duo that MUSTI is a traditional name for a dog in Finland. Of course, that would have been a much harder clue than "Is that really necessary?," but maybe it can be stored away for a Saturday, eh team? :)
Not a bad Sunday. Frannie takes over tomorrow. I'll see you in a couple weeks.
- Horace
I thought the funniest C/AP (will you put that in the glossary?) was ORGAN DO MI NATION, too...it cracked me up. And I also, after getting the first themer, put the rest of the notes in the circles. (I wonder if, without the circles, the puzzle would've have given me a greater AHA moment?)
ReplyDeleteWhen I filled in AMAZING DO GRACE, I was hoping all the theme material would be made of songs altered to accommodate the notes, but probably that would be too much to ask.
A really nice puzzle.
Excellent theme, although the puzzle played very very easy for me today. I've often thought that the NYT has a difficulty rotation for Sunday puzzles as well, but I've not taken the time to plot it out to see if, for example, there's a four-week cycle where the puzzles get harder week by week, only to reset again. Perhaps I overthink things a bit.
ReplyDelete23:02 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteI found this on the easy side, too, but did not fill the circles in until I got PARA[SOL]MILITARY and then looked back at the others. After that, I entered the [LA] and [TI] and continued with my solve. I erred at the NIGIRI/BITTE cross, where I tried an "o" to no avail. I didn't immediately know the Beatles song, either, but it didn't really slow me down much. I don't take a NIGIRI generally, usually opting for sashimi. G[LA]REATGRANDMA was good because: 1) it was funny, and 2) it encompasses both a grandma and a great grandma. Not much to CRABS at in this one.
Favorite answer? GNOCCHI! Mainly because it just doesn't seem like a crossword answer, I guess? Although xwordinfo does have 8 previous occurrences, so it isn't completely unheard of.
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