Today's theme incorporates old-school rebus-style clues for five answers. I didn't understand it at first, because "Di" appears within "Godiva," and I was looking for something that just wasn't there. By the time I got to the middle, with the "Art → Calculus ← Spanish" clue for MIDDLECLASS, I figured it out, and then THIRDPARTY and LASTLAUGH were drop-ins.
I guess I'm not terribly wowed by this theme. It wasn't immediately obvious to me, but still, once it was figured out, it felt a little flat. Maybe that's just me.
My favorite entries are CHEETO (Cause of some orange fingers) (Been there!), SNAKEOIL (Fraudulent medical treatment) (loose definition of "treatment," but I love the term), and THEMAN (Oppressive authority, informally). SEMINUDE (Shirtless, say) reminds me of a friend who used to add "in the nude" after things that other people said. As in [Person One] "I had a great time at the amusement park yesterday" [Friend] "... in the nude." It's fun. Try it at work!
I'm sick of seeing ITD ("____ be a shame ..."), but I don't want to complain too loudly about it until I've made a puzzle or two myself. See also: ILIA.
Some nice QMCs in "Bird's-eye view?" (BILL), "Tap alternative?" (PSST), and "Take the wrong way? (FILCH) (steal also fits there...). On the Non-QMC side we've got the timely "Vaccination site" (ARM) and "Pair at sea" (OARS), and my favorite clue is kind of a mix of both - "Silence of the lambs? Just the opposite!" (BAA). Haa!
A fine Thursday. Not great, not bad. Fine.
- Horace
p.s. Jeff Chen over at xwordinfo.com pointed out a feature that I totally missed, which is that the theme answers form a kind of sequence, "first, second, middle, third, and last." I guess that adds to the overall effect, but having middle in the middle, while cool in a way, makes it so that "third" should really have been "fourth." Know what I mean? It's another layer of theme, but for me, it doesn't really work.
Now as for me, I really enjoyed this puzzle in the nude. Oops, sorry...that kinda thing can be catchy! Anyway, for me, the deceptive simplicity of the theme...it's purity, if you will...is gorgeous. And the theme clues are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHa! See, it's fun! :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, the more I thought about this one, the more I thought it was cool that five ordinals were gotten out of just three clue words. It deserved better from me, I think.
Thanks for commenting! ... in the nude.