Sunday, February 6, 2022, Stephen McCarthy

SCI-FI SHOWDOWN

Hello, Dear Reader, it's Horace back with you for another week of reviews after two splendid weeks from Frannie and Colum. As Colum said, last weeks puzzles were really top notch. And the week before that? Well, all I remember from that is Frannie's amazing reviews. 

Today, the good construction continues with a classic Schrödinger puzzle! In the middle of the grid, we are faced with the clue "The better of two major sci-fi film franchises?" and we must make a choice. I think one could argue that - since we first come upon three clues that support the choice of STARWARS, Stephen McCarthy is secretly trying to tell us his preference. Me, I like to believe that he saves the best for last, and really supports STARTREK.

It's cool, though, that the three STARWARS-supporting answers - REBELALLIANCE, DOORDONOTTHEREISNOTRY, and HANSOLO match up so beautifully and symmetrically with THEFEDERATION, SPACETHEFINALFRONTIER, and MRSPOCK. That's really lovely. STARWARS does seem to get one additional clue with "It's a ____!" (TRAP), the famous Admiral Ackbar line. But then, you only get that answer if you go with STARTREK, so maybe it's a consolation prize... 

With such a strong theme, you might feel that the fill hardly matters and ends up suffering, but today that is not so. I was so utterly fooled by the false capital in "4D: Apple device" that I even doubted AVATAR (Many a video game player has one), thinking that it might have to start with H so I could make 4D "phone." But no, the "Apple device" is a simple PARER. And speaking of capitals, does "79D Sound of a Jaguar" really need one to force the answer PURR? Sure, a Jaguar car does PURR, but don't the big cats also do something similar? They must!

I thought briefly of how "Q preceder?" might tie in with STARTREK, but eventually the crosses showed it to be LGBT. "Waste of an election?" (CHADS) took me a long time, as did "Points all around?" (LOCUS). Tricky!

I laughed to learn the golf slang SNOWMAN for an 8. I'm guessing I never heard that because I've never shot an 8 while playing frisbee golf. :)

This was a fun, clever Sunday. Which is your favorite franchise?

- Horace