Always nice to get a rebus on a Thursday, and today's has a second trick, which is to use the rebus to complete the Across answer that ends directly below it. Each is triple-checked. For example -
"Sustainable water receptacles" are RAIN[BAR]RELS, and that same "bar" rebus begins the answer to "One with the grounds to serve you?" ([BAR]ISTA). Then, you eventually come to the clue "Place to order sake and sashimi" and you find that SUSHI fits, but you think, "OHMY, that's odd. I would have said "SUSHI bar." And if you're like me and Mr. Kingdon, you forget about it and move on, until you get to the next set of rebus answers. When you encounter "Strip of computer shortcuts" and have TASK, with another of those "bar" rebuses sitting right over the K, and then you're SUR that something else ISUP. I started to worry that maybe I had the rebus wrong, or it had to be positioned differently... Finally, the revealer RAISETHE[BAR] explained the trick, and everything was hunky dory.
In the fill, I was a little surprised by HAMSTEAK. That's not a term I've used or heard. I'd equate it with "chicken steak," I guess, in that I don't think it's a thing, but who knows? I've heard of tuna steaks, so maybe any slab of meat can be a steak. Or non-meat. Mushroom steaks? But also in the food category, I like any reference to EGGNOG. Mmmmm....
I liked the old-fashioned STEAMOPEN. Such a well-known idea, but how often has that actually been done? And is MOES a part of the theme? :)
One of my brothers just visited Graceland earlier this week, so ARON (Elvis Presley's middle name) was fun to see.
Solid Thursday, a lovely debut puzzle (Congrats!), and a fine start to the Turn.
- Horace
No comments:
Post a Comment