10:34, FWOE
By the time I got to the clue for the revealer at 51A: "Cry while doing a stunt ... or a hint to 2-, 7-, and 12-Down" I had enough of the puzzle completed so that the answer (LOOKMANOHANDS) and the theme came to me all in a flash and I LOL'd. I've got to hand it to Mr. Trudeau for coming up with this idea and carrying it off so successfully. He was able to come up with three theme answers which have no hands, each in a different way: WATERCLOCK, GHOSTSHIP, and my favorite, TOUGHCROWD. Ha! It looks to me as if there's a sort of shrugging smiley face shape in the grid to boot. ENEWS flash: I just looked at XWord Info to see if IRENEADLER (see below) was a unique answer - it's not - but all three of the theme answers are! As is ALLTOOTRUE. Apparently, Mr. Trudeau has this puzzle constructing business well in hand.
I was surprised and happy to see IRENEADLER in the puzzle (Woman in a Sherlock Holmes story). Surprised because the name seems a little obscure, but happy because literary names are much more in my wheelhouse than sports figures.
Seeing the letters FWOE up at the top there, you may be wondering how things got out of hand. I'll tell you: poor guesswork. I am not familiar with OSHEA. Jackson, Jr., so for "___ queen! ("Fabulous!") I guessed YeS, thinking OSHEe was possible. When I got the "keep trying" message from the app, I reconsidered, and swapped E for A. It seemed immediately obvious that OSHEA was a better guess than OSHEe. I only wish I had realized it sooner. DRAT!
While it's true that the smiley face shape necessitated some stacks of short answers like NCO, ACC, and ALT, I'm not complaining. I think the puzzle MERITED a show of hands.
~Frannie.
7:41
ReplyDeleteAn odd Wednesday for me as I completed it in a shorter time than the Tuesday one. Amusing theme, and like Frannie mentions, well carried out. I don't know OSHEA either, and don't understand "YAS queen!," but I guessed the correct letter there. I tried SAlsAS at 46D, but was saved from a FWTE by LOOKMANOHANDS (and BUENO). The clue for TGIF was amusing, as was the clue for FETAL. I can see the shrugging smiley face suggested by Frannie. A WATERCLOCK doesn't seem like too accurate a device, but I suppose if made with care, it would work OK.
6:32 (FWOE)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I recognize the name IRENEADLER now, IRINaADLER didn't look so bad to me, I guess, that it made me change my answer BLaH for "Ugh!" Ugh!
But yeah, this was a fun one. :)