I figured out this theme more quickly than any other this week - with the first theme answer - and my time was faster than yesterday and just a minute slower than Tuesday! It probably helped that in the online version the ends of the four theme answers had oversized boxes. Oversized, making the contained word big, and then "big" itself had to be understood in order for the answer to work.
So - "I can't believe I said that" is answered with MEANDMYMOUTH, and "Hold it, buster!" with WHATSTHEIDEA. Not bad, really.
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| I'm not familiar with the "Luxury hotel chain," but I sure hope to see this place still in business the next time we get to Paris! |
I thought for a moment that ILLALLOWIT (Overruling of an objection) was somehow working as a revealer, but no, it's just a good entry. Same with SOLARPANEL (Something that turns light green?) (Nice clue).
GRANT (50s president) had me fooled twice, because I thought of the 1850s quickly, but then realized he didn't come in until after the Civil War, so I took it out again. But they weren't talking about years, they were talking currency!
Favorite clue - "They may come to light" for MOTHS. So true.
I like the theme, and I like the long Downs (STAYONTASK, HOWONEARTH). I had a little trouble in the South with HORA (Rhyme for "menora" in "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah"), where I tried auRA and toRA (misspelled, I know) before getting it right. HELLO and ORALB didn't help much! If not for that little speed bump I would have been closer to a Monday time. As it was, I finished in 8:37, which felt a little fast for a Thursday.
- Horace
Well double your time, then add a little bit and you get to my 17:48. In Across Lite, the grid is just normal, and I figured that the word "big" just needed to be assumed to make the answers work, which was fine. I figured the theme out with THATSAVERYIF from crosses since I'd tried THATSAhugeIF at first and nothing worked. But then I went to the other theme answers and filled them right in (I'd already had a few of their crosses). GRANT was excellent, as were HOWONEARTH and GITS. Fun enough for a Thursday. Working on the Ravel. I've started with "Bolero," which I recognized right away, since Horace gave it such a glowing recommendation.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost: Happy Canada Day to y'all! A somewhat subdued celebration in the True North today, with the recent discoveries re. "residential" schools and our indigenous communities (oh, and record temps and wildfires out west where my brother lives :( )
ReplyDeletePuzzle was great - I continue to be so impressed with the quality of these puzzles, whose content + theme reveal themselves at just the right rate. No big time-sucking errors for me today - basically ignored the theme clues until it was clear what was going on - and came in at a decent 6:32.
Happy Canada Day! And Happy Saint Junipero Day! Whee! I love this puzzle! I'm glad I read the Across Lite notepad -- I didn't bother solving "in a different format" as was kindly suggested...just imagined those squares mentioned as being, well, enlarged! Loved the fill, too. Fun solve.
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