KARAOKE BARS
Hello again, it's Horace back for another week of reviews. First off, I'd like to thank Colum and Frannie for two fine weeks of work, and I'd also like to thank you, Dear Reader, for checking in with us every once in a while. We appreciate it.
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| Remember crowds? ... sigh ... |
Today's big puzzle takes song titles and clues them with "____ bars? [singer/band name]" As in FLYMETOTHEMOON (Space bars? [Frank Sinatra]), MONEYMONEYMONEY (Cash bars? [Abba]), and SINGININTHERAIN (Wet bars? [Gene Kelly]). Not bad. I admit to not knowing POURSOMESUGARONME or DANCINGONMYOWN, but I was still able to get them with clue and cross.
The theme didn't wow me, so I looked for fun elsewhere and found some satisfaction in entries like UNCTION (Anointment) (you don't see that every day), AIRBALL (Disappointing court result) (nice), IOWA (Geographical name that comes from the Sioux for "sleepy ones") (Great trivia!), and I love the straightforwardness of "Sink holes" for DRAINS. Excellent.
In the "oddities" column, isn't TEA (Offering in china ... or from China) and OOLONG (Traditional Chinese drink) kind of an odd duplication? And I don't like thinking that people give up their IDEALS as they grow older. Why would you do that?
Didn't we come up with a name for the type of clue like "Weight right here!" (SCALE)? We did! Or, rather, one of our commenters, Kelly Clark did. She offered "Imperative" or "Directive" clue. I'm going to go with Directive Clue, or DC. Thanks, Kelly! ... but now that I've made that decision, I wonder if we should maybe go with something more acronym-friendly. I didn't choose "Imperative clue" because it's really more of a false imperative ... so maybe FIC? Hmm... any thoughts?
Overall I enjoyed the trivia (Papal name last taken in 1939 (PIUS)), (Smallest state in India (GOA)), and others, the silliness (Brainy? (CRANIAL), and the theme was fine. Thumbs up.
- Horace
Whee! This puzzle had me DANCING ON MY OWN (because nobody in *this* house would play with me, sheesh), reelin' and rockin' -- if I do say so myself, I pretty much *ruled* the living room with WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS...'course I mixed in some WE WILL ROCK YOU lyrics with it...now where was I? Oh! The cluing! Fantastic! Oh, and I like FIC for [Weight right here!] clues. But what about clues like [It's a relief!] for CAMEO?
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle, I thought.
The funny thing is I didn;t realize that all the clues were "... bars," and part way through I thought it was odd that some of the clues replicated that word. Anyhoo, I knew the Def Leppard song because it just came up on a Peloton ride. Never heard the Robyn song. I liked the theme just fine.
ReplyDeleteI like FIC, also. And the theme was a good one. No real problems WITHIT, and I am familiar with all songs but DANCINGONMYOWN, at least from the name; maybe I've heard it. I don't love OATEN (67A Like some bread and cereal), but I do like that POURSOMESUGARONME is a down answer, as if it's being poured. Nice appearance by YTTRIUM, and we haven't seen our old friend the TATAMI in a while. Enjoyable, if a bit fast for a Sunday (24:13).
ReplyDelete