Cute theme today of HOMEMADEMEALS. That is, food names using a word for "house" - LOGCABINSYRUP, COTTAGECHEESE, and RANCHDRESSING. I wouldn't recommend serving any of them as an ENTREE, but, well, I see what they mean, and "homemade foods" isn't really as common phrase.
The "slightly off" revealer seems appropriate today, as there were a few other C/APs that struck me as stretched. "Come to an end" for PERISH, "Frolic" for LARK, and "Jettison" for REMOVE. I just thought those were a little too ARTY, as it were. And yes, I realize that one of the aims of crossword cluing is to use tricky clues, and I see how the clues can be interpreted that way, but, well, some trickiness is better than others.
And speaking of trickiness, one particularly thorny cross for me was the R in HABANERA and ORU. I didn't know the dance, and while I have heard of Oral Roberts University, I did not know what city it was in. And it's kind of funny that those two clues were not at all tricky - if you knew the answers. Kind of like "Capital of Latvia" (RIGA) and Kentucky's Fort KNOX.
And ok, here's one more thing - I thought TAILSPIN (Bad situation for an airplane) was very close to not passing the "Sunday morning test." That is, words that would upset your pleasant morning.
So I guess that while I was amused by the theme, I didn't end up loving this one. Hope you had a better time with it.
- Horace
I appreciated this one, particularly for the way the theme entries were clued. If I had to clue the four entries, I'd be struggling, but somebody pulled it off quite well. Hit a snag with HABANERA, as well...I wanted somehow for the letters H A V A N to be in it.
ReplyDeleteI'm using these puzzles now as a guide to my recovery from COVID, which honestly never hit me that hard (thanks double vaxx!) Just whipped thru this one in 3:01. Horace, I'm with you : meh
ReplyDeletePhilbo, I'm so glad you're feeling ok! (As for your time...grr...) :-)
ReplyDeleteI definitely was biased towards HAVAN... could be a certain canine who lives in my house.
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