I enjoyed the clue "They have ears, it's said" (WALLS) because it calls to mind the short-lived but entertaining (as I remember it) show "When Things Were Rotten" from the seventies. One of the characters warns others to be careful when talking about a plot, because walls have ears, and the shot pulls back to a wall covered with ears. Heh. COWS for "intimidates" is a nice C/AP if a not-nice action. TACIT for "Understood" was also good.
In a KTWO moment, when reviewing the puzzle, I got to 37A and thought, I've never heard of the rapper ICET (as if pronounced i-set). Ha! I also hesitated at 51A: "Nicholas I or II" - not because I didn't know the answer, but because of the two possible spellings. Of late, it's been all TSAR all the time, so I thought I'd go with it instead of getting confirmation. Of course, this time it was CZAR. Derp. I will attribute my slightly higher time today of 6:29 to these blips. Sadly, no immediate numerical associations came to mind TODAY.
~Frannie.
Steffi GRAF was the imperious queen of tennis for so long. She was a joy to watch. So I killed this one today - 3:11 - and it would have been speedier had I not guessed PERSONALFORTUNE (hey, plausible, right?) before sussing out the theme. Oh and yes, Frannie, TSAR not CZAR for me too!
ReplyDeleteHand raised for the TSAR That's a word like ABASE (which could be ABASH). Nice theme, though, and very nice construction. 5:51.
ReplyDeleteMe three on the TSAR spelling, and I never went back - until I FWTEd, and then I had to!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the "person's name + financial term" was explained to me, because for a minute there, I thought my own savings plan was ONTHINICE, because who has SILVER?
Apparently this is a positive puzzle because there are plural YEAS and only one NAY.
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