I liked "Directive before 'You're on 'Candid Camera''" (SMILE) - another blast from the past, non? I thought the clue "Moving well for one's age" (SPRY) was spot on. I also liked the clue "Word sung twice after 'Que'" for SERA much better than some of the SCI-style clues we get for that one. OOMPH is a great word, as is its fun cross, HOOPLA.
I had a quaver over the ESTOS/ITTY cross in the southeast because I was thinking the answers *could* be ESsOS and ITsY, but I subsequently looked up "these" in Spanish, which, it turns out, is either estos or estas; it's our old friends esos/esas that means 'those." So, that's that. :)
Overall, a faster solve for me today than yesterday (9:41 today), with only the hesitation mentioned above and a little HASH of guessing in the northeast causing a MICRO slow down. I didn't know what the HECHT "Oct. contest for a pennant" was (ALCS) or "Grace's last name on 'Will & Grace'" (ADLER), but I kept a positive outlook through it all and, what do you know? It worked out.
~Frannie.
Nice picture. For the life of me, I can never get the woman's full first name without a cross at the first letter. I guess I've seen too many "____ La Douce" clues in my day. On a related note, I always hate it when she's clued as "Funny Bombeck." Crossword authors shouldn't editorialize, and I never found her columns all that humorous. But, hey, too much negativity. I'm an optimist! This was a nice little Wednesday. Agree, Frances, on the loveliness of OOMPH. That brought a smile; I was expecting "juice" when I first read the clue. I love previously unknown trivia in puzzles, so I enjoyed the clue for LISBON. ALCS is terrific: how can you not like baseball?? Plus, it's a refreshingly seldom-used initialism. ITTY and its evil twin itsy are both poor. Shortz should declare a one-year moratorium on both. Throw in any four- or five-letter Spanish word starting with E for good measure. It occurs to me as I sign off that this puzzle could be a commentary on the Horace and Frances blog vis a vis another guy who discusses NYT crosswords. Keep the SMILEs coming, you two.
ReplyDeleteAw shucks... I wonder how many of his readers also read our blog from time to time? Me, I almost always look at xwordinfo and Diary of a Crossword Fiend (after I write my own review, if it's my week), but I almost never look at any others.
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice one, and the DOWN answers being the "downers" was a lovely detail.
I loved this, thru and thru. Definitely flowed better than Tuesday's - 4:29 for me. I have to confess, @englishteacher59, I did not get your "other guy" reference.. And speaking of "go-to" words, whatever happened to ERNE and its little sibling ERN? Never see those words any more....
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