Two daughters in a row? Unheard of! Today’s blog post is brought to you by me, Phoebe. Unlike Cece I have no idea if my name has ever been mentioned on here before, but I do know for a fact that I beat my sister’s time, so that’s what’s important.
Today’s theme is something near and dear to my heart: backwards car brands. As someone who memorized every breed of car in the Consumer Reports at the age of 10, this theme was highly exciting to me, although truth be told I didn’t actually notice or use the theme until almost all of them were filled in. Once I noticed the backwards “SUBARU” inside LAURABUSH (28A), it was smooth going to fill in the L in “TESLA” and finish the very clever 17A: FALSETEETH (“They often come out at night?”), which was also my favorite clue today. I'm always happy to see a “HONDA” represented, even though my own Honda definitely HADNOHOPE (47A) after I totaled it a month ago. “KIA” was also quite helpful since I didn’t know KUBLAIKHAN (62A) was spelled with an I. Yikes! Plus we all want to lease an all-new Kia Sorrento…even though it’s such a new brand…
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| "Oh, Hello!" |
Some of the other difficult clues for me were FLEABAGS (20A), a term I didn’t know and now only associate with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I also struggled briefly with TENTACLE (57A), since I was very stuck on “Skier’s conveyance” (57D) being “LIFT” instead of TBAR, a term I don’t know since I find skiing to be EVIL. I was particularly proud of myself for getting ELIDED with very few crosses, and my favorite reference was definitely to THEBOXER by Simon and Garfunkel, which I only knew as “the Jewish-sounding song” from the ages of 5 until 15. I have to say that I’m TIRED of the poker clue ANTED, a phrase I learned from crosswords and still have never bothered to google, though I would not go so far to say I SNEERED at it.
Overall, I found this puzzle very enjoyable and I finished in 6:27. NEATO!
- Phoebe
Phoebe! How cool! Of you! To comment today! I'm with you on T-BAR...sometimes it's clued as a "quaint" or "dated" term which still wouldn't help me since I've never used one. But still, I learned T-BAR from crosswords. ANTED or ANTE doesn't bother me since in my misspent youth I often played poker. (It means you have to put in no matter how much money the dealers asks of you, JUST in order to play the game, sheesh!) I, too, loved THE BOXER...still love that song, it makes me cry. Liked the puzzle a lot. Thanks so much for the write-up!
ReplyDeleteAhoy, ahoy, Phoebe! I'm with you on the KUBLAIKHAN spelling. I guess I only knew it from Coleridge, who does not use the I.
ReplyDeleteLIke Ms. Clark, I've ANTED many a chip, but unlike the both of youze, I learned what a TBAR was the hard way, by falling off of one and then living in fear each time I had to get towed by the butt up to the top of the bunny hill. Good times.
You beat my time, too, Phoebe (7:47). Nice that you were a consumer of Consumer Reports by 10 years of age, but you've got to get pokering so you can say you've ANTED for chrissake. I, personally, have owned a VW Bug, a couple of Buicks, a Dodge, an Oldsmobile, a few Fords, and a couple of Hyundais, none of which appeared in this puzzle. Of the four makes represented, I'd most like a nice [ALSET], hoping to get one before I need F[ALSET]EETH. Nice review!
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