Cece and I solved today's puzzle together on our porch in the lovely late Spring weather. I am such a fan of screened porches. I wish we'd had the ability to build one on our house earlier in our Albany existence. But then, there's no use in looking backwards like that. Enjoy what you have while you have it!
And we certainly enjoyed today's puzzle while we were solving it. There were some uh-oh moments early on when we had next to nothing in the NW and N sections. JAWS was our first entry, but the mistaken Jovial at 5D: Cheerful and self-confident (JAUNTY, much better) shut that down.
Fortunately, the center W section opened things up. I am particularly fond of the clue and answer at 40A: Small organic food producer (HONEYBEE). I love this sort of clue, making you think it's talking about some type of local farm, when in fact it's referring to an insect. Also nice in this area is 51A: Honor ... or a goner (TOAST). The rhyming touch is sweet.
EURYDICE is such a great entry, both in terms of the Greek myth involving Orpheus (a main character in the Sandman comic books, coming out some time soon as a series on TV), and because it looks good in the grid. But we had to move into the S section to gain further traction.
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| George TAKEI |
54A: Space out? (ESCAPEPOD) is good, but not great. I really wanted ESCAPEkey, as if it were a way out and "space" referred to a computer keyboard. But that's definitely worse than the actual answer. But this corner had three very nice stacked 9-letter answers, in addition to maybe my favorite clue of the puzzle at 48D: Cars for cats, say (TYPO). Hah! Oh, by the way, does Netflix still do DVDS? And what are those things anyway?
We worked our way north from there, ending in the NW, where we had started. I'm not a fan of things like SPELTOUT. Using Britishisms feels like a cheat, even if it allows for the other excellent triple stack of 9-letter answers. INEEDANAP seems like it comes up most weekends nowadays. DONTJUDGE is good, and 18A: A child who's lying might make one (SNOWANGEL) is very nice indeed.
So, a fine middle puzzle in the turn. Great week so far!
- Colum
Nice commentary, Colum. I'm on the same page with all the main points, including (and possibly most includingly of all) the end of the first paragraph. :)
ReplyDeleteThat HONEYBEE clue was great. And the 9-stacks were strong. I loved the NW, and I read the SE as a story - REALITYTV is OVERRATED and I need an ESCAPEPOD.
Almost FWOE'd with EURiDICE, because I was once hired to shoot rehearsals for a ballet production of "Orfeo ed Euridice" in Boston, but I took the time to STOPBY the cross this time and saved myself.
10:56 Philbo. Bring it. :)
Funny you got snagged on JAUNTY, Colum, as I had JOCOSE in there for an annoying while. Loved HONEYBEE! Oh and SNOWANGEL was very gratifying when it finally revealed itself - I was fully misled on that one, trying initially to fit in something like UPSTORIES.
ReplyDeleteLoved The Truman Show when it came out. Always root for my fellow Canadians!
7:46 Horace. Take that!!! :)
On to Saturday's puzzle, which awaits as it's past 10 pm.
Nice!
DeleteHmmph...22:58 for me, and it didn't seem tough or anything, but there you go. And yes, Colum, Netflix offers a DVDS plan, which we use still. Some movies aren't available on streaming, but we've talked of dropping it regardless since there is just so much to watch now that *is* available. A fine Friday.
ReplyDelete