All props to the Crossword Class and their teachers. I know from the one time I tried to create a crossword puzzle that it's super tough to make a smooth puzzle. On the other hand, I really prefer a Thursday to be more tricksy than today's offering.
The theme is actually very straightforward. The clues are movies whose titles pose a question of sorts, and the answers are other movie titles that answer that question in a cute sort of way. I'm not exactly sure why Dude, Where's My Car? is answered by SALEMSLOT specifically. I get that it's a car lot, but why Salem?
I thought the best was 24A: What's Eating Gilbert Grape? [2019] (PARASITE). That's funny stuff. The other three were fine, but didn't make me smile or anything.
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| COLBY |
There are some good answers scattered throughout the grid. ANOMALOUS is a fun answer which we don't see very frequently. And 12D: Results of flattery (EGOBOOSTS) is another good one. Probably the most surprising is 33D: More than a couple (THREESOME). I realize that this doesn't have to have a salacious context, but who can resist?
For clues I liked, how about 29D: Get a load of this! (LAUNDRY). These exclamatory clues are something that has shown up in the last few years, and I'm a big fan. And it's a nice piece of trivia at 14A: Food staple referred to as "the gold of the Incas" (QUINOA).
Otherwise, this is a fine puzzle that I would have preferred to see on a Wednesday.
- Colum
I found this kinda fun in a goofy way. For once I didn't have to scour the grid looking for my one UI-related typo, and despite making a complete hash of the upper-right for a while (thanks to GOUDA not COLBY, which doesn't even make a lot of sense from a cheese perspective), managed to finish in 6:37...
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Colum, kind of a meh theme. And yeah, Philbo, it took me a while to remember COLBY, too. It's a forgotten cheese, in my book. Who ever thinks - I'm going to go out and get a nice hunk of COLBY? No one.
ReplyDeleteWorking my way through high school and college at a deli, COLBY plopped right in. And I really enjoyed this puzzle. Very much! I had it all filled in and didn't get the theme at all until I read the theme clues carefully...definitely an AHA moment for me!
ReplyDeleteLike Ms. Clark, I was able to pop COLBY right in, though I never worked at a deli, and never go out for a nice hunk of it. And I agree that this is more Wednesday-ish regarding the theme. I knew EFLAT right away for the "Eroica" and having seen both Wayne's TRUEGRIT and the newer one, I have to side with the more recent as the better movie. And it has to be some lot, right? Why not SALEMSLOT? Starting right out with GLAND is not my TASTE, but I really don't have too many complaints about this puzzle on the whole.
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