MERGER MANIA
The mashup theme today combines words inspired by two companies into recognizable entries. The first word is a specific product name, the second is a word that is simply associated with the brand. The "result of a merger between Quaker Oats and Greyhound," for example, is LIFECOACHES. Life cereal being, apparently, a Quaker Oats product, and coaches being another word for buses. DRIVENUTS (Google and Planters) uses a Google brand name and a thing sold by Planters. SINGLESBARS (Kraft and Hershey's) gets even looser, with "bars" representing chocolate. It's fine. I mean, I wasn't bothered by it while solving, but as I review it, it seems a little thin.
Outside the theme, this had quite a few nice answers. TURMOIL (Mayhem), MIGRANT (Bird like the Canada goose or arctic tern), SCEPTERS, ... HOTELIER (Member of the inn crowd?) was fun, and I loved the SW corner with BARESALL, ANIMATION, GETINHERE, and SWELTERED.
There were some names I didn't know: JABOUKIE Young-White, CELESTE Ng, GUIDO Cavalcanti, NED Washington, BLAIR Waldorf, James ABRAM Garfield, and AQUILA (Eagle constellation), for example. And speaking of names, I was amused by the clue "Man's name that spells a fruit backward" (EMIL). And in a similar vein - how 'bout "Word that, when spelled backward, becomes its own synonym" (PAT). Heh.
You've got to go pretty deep into the definition of BENT to get to something like "Natural talent," but if it can be defended at all, it's fair game, right?
I'm not going to PAN it, but it didn't exactly thrill me. Let's end with a fun C/AP - "Where heroes are made" (DELI). That's a good one. :)
- Horace
Yikes! That NE corner defeated me, alas. I blame my ignorance, of course. TONE POEM is new to me. If I'd gotten that, I probably would've gotten JABOUKIE from the crossers. And I blame my dull-wittedness too -- the clue for USS stymied me, duh! It's a great clue!
ReplyDeleteJABOUKIE is completely unknown to me. This took me quite a while, and like Kelly, a good deal of it was spent in the NE. I had OBviaTORS in there at 11A where OBJECTORS goes (I know it doesn't work), which didn't help one little bit. Yes, USS had a great clue, and I had no idea where the constructors were going with the birds for MIGRANT. STELMO took too many crosses since we see him referenced quite often. Overall, a nice diversion for a Sunday, which is what I enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle much harder than the typical Sunday faire. It took me most of a vacation to muddle through it and I still missed 5 letters. (Including two in the NE corner... I somehow ended up with "DANEPOEM.") But, it led to finding this wonderful blog, so it was well worth it!
ReplyDeleteThat is SO cool, Greg! I'm glad I found this wonderful blog, too! The people here are so kind and funny and...well, as you say? Wonderful! Thank you, Horace and Frannie and Column...and all the regulars! Don't be a stranger, Greg!
DeleteKelly <---wondering if she included enough exclamation points ;-)