22:53
I first realized we were in for a rebus puzzle at 26D. I was pretty sure that "White-water rental" had to be KA[YAK], but I didn't put it in right away. The clue at 41D provided another strong indication when the answer for "Scavengers on Luke Skywalker's home planet" had space for only three letters ([JAW]AS). So when I got to the revealer toward the bottom of the puzzle, it wasn't too difficult to guess what was going on. The third rebus was less obvious to me, but when I got it, I noticed it was a nice double whammy in that both the clue ("Discussing") and the answer (TALKIN[GAB]OUT) within which the rebus [GAB] sits could be considered bonus material. I was wondering if we can we call today's theme a 'threebus' to reflect the number of rebii in the puzzle.
Although the solve went right along, for the most part, I did have a little trouble in the north east due to 11D. "Laugh uproariously" (CACHINNATE). I don't think I've ever encountered that word before. According to Google's Ngram Viewer, it hit its peak popularity in English works in 1857, topping out at 0.0000002145%. Also in that area, before I had many squares filled in I fell for the nicely ambiguous "Nest egg source" and tried 'ira'. Other crosses made it clear that was wrong (HEN was correct), but its wrongness was completely confirmed when IRA turned up at 42D, (Plan with a 'Simple' variety). They never put the same answer in a puzzle twice, except when they do.
A number of excellent clues in here IMPEL me to list and celebrate them:
- "Entry-level workers?" (DOORMEN)
- "Something to squirrel away?" (ACORN)
- "It doesn't cover much" (THONG)
- "Joey who's friends with Owl" (ROO)
- "Not at all fancy" (HATE)
- "Members of a defunct union" (EXES)
- "Resounding comeback?" (ECHO)
~Frannie.
26:53
ReplyDeleteNice time, Frannie. I don't remember when I realized that we had a rebus going on, but I think that it may have been at WHADDA[YAK]NOW. I really wanted oAr at 26D before that since EKING wasn't entirely obvious (IMO) from the clue (25A Squeezing). HATE's clue was excellent, and the NQM-ness of it made it even more so. Throw me in with those never having heard of the once-popular word CACHINNATE. A few of the crosses of that entry were my last squares. I stayed on a SEABEE base once, as an E6 (TSGT) in their on-base hotel, which was quite nice. I had my own room, a mint on my pillow and a VCR, which was a luxury at the era when I was there. There were, however, no DOORMEN or BARONs at the property, and I needed to go to the NCO club for an ALE, which I did.
Can't quite say this puzzle induced me to CACHINNATE
ReplyDeleteAs for "White-water rental" I was the opposite because I had OAR for the longest time. And "talking out" struck me as quite natural, although the revealer seemed clear there would be a rebus in there somewhere and I hadn't heard of a bugoo.
Then I had whaddaknow which granted did seem to want a Y in there somewhere but also seemed like the kind of thing which could be spelled a lot of ways.
So it all worked out and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the puzzle as such, just that solving the above came up with an "oh okay" or "I guess it has to be" rather than an AHA.
On the plus side, liked ACORN, liked the clue for NOR, liked the clue for PAT (a nice way to clue a handy three letter word that I'm surprised we don't see more often), also thought PREOP was fun