It took me quite a long while (ok, maybe a minute or two) to understand what was going on with today's theme. The circled letters at first didn't make any sense. Well, "evil," of course, did, but I read "oz" as an abbreviation for ounce, "dre" seemed like an odd collection of letters, and even "who," pronounced as if simply plucked from "whole" meant nothing to me. I spent time trying to make these fragments sound like a PARADOX when compared to the more normal "evil," "ruth," and "no." Finally, it got through my FATS head that the "aural hint" was that PARADOX sounds like "pair of docs," and then it all made sense. Sheesh!
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| I might have tried to re-work that wording. |
So anyway, now that I've dragged you through that sad story ... the Dr. theme isn't bad. Three are fictional (Dr. Evil, Dr. Who, Dr. No), two are real doctors (Dr. Ruth (Ed.D., Columbia), and Dr. Oz (MD, U. Penn)), and one is the gangsta rap superhero Dr. Dre. All are plenty famous for a puzzle.
What's more, I really like the "containers" they are found in. I don't think I've ever heard DEVILSDOZEN ("Satanic" nickname for the number 13) used before, but I find it amusing. I also did not know that the DREADNOUGHT was the predominant style of "W.W. I-era battleship," although I had heard the word. And that's THEWHOLETRUTH.
Left-right symmetry today. Always a little odd. The best of the long downs is HOMEDESIGN (Subject for House Beautiful magazine). TWEETSTORM as been ruined by our moronic previous president, VAPEPEN is something that should never have been invented, and REVENUE (Cash in?) despite its lovely clue, is too corporate.
WRAITH, GENXER, ELAPSE, and EXTORT, on the other hand, are all fine.
- Horace
I had to explain the theme to Cece after finishing the puzzle myself. Fun concept, and impressive to come up with those three theme answers each with two doctors' names in them. Very much a Wednesday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMy team of 6 coworkers couldn't figure out the PARADOX!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I read PARADOX as "pair of docs" immediately. I'm sure I've seen that pun before, probably multiple times.
ReplyDeleteAs for this puzzle, I basically had a WHALE of a time. Plus SLAV, PASTA, and others. Maybe I was in a good mood or otherwise predisposed, but I just enjoyed a bunch of the answers.
Sheesh, REVENUE is too corporate? My goodness. Even small mom-and-pop businesses have it. I'd say maybe EXEC is too corporate, but its clue was good. GAR and TEETH are close by, but separated by DELTACO, with which I am unfamiliar. And I, like Horace, have heard the term DREADNOUGHT, but never knew its reference. Enjoyable Wednesday at 12:38.
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