A solid Monday puzzle, plane and simple, with a boat load of solid Monday fare (ADO, RURAL, NIL) plus a few SPATIAL items like ELEGIAC and METTLE. DANK and CYST are evocative fill. BACKLASH and DAFT are also nice.
Theme-wise, the second word in today's four two-word theme answers are said to sound like NATIONALS - people from a specific country: EXITPOLLS (Poles), for example. I didn't think much about the theme as I solved, although I very much enjoyed 39A: "Large props held by contest winners in publicity photos" in and of itself when I entered the answer because I have a fondness for things of unusual size - usually miniatures - but it can also run the other way as with giant pencils, playing cards, and OVERSIZEDCHECKS - the financial kind, to be sure. :) I thought it was interesting that in the southeast corner, NATIONALS is crossed by ETHNIC ("Of a shared cultural identity"), and just below, we find ISMS. Other world locations scattered around the grid include the globe-trotting GOBI, SUEZ, Puerto RICO, INCAS, KOLN, ERIN, and the interesting LISLE ("Cotton fabric named for a French city). I was able to stick all the LANDings and enjoyed the trip. E pluribus unum, baby!
~Frannie.
There's a whole little section in my desktop dictionary (under "fewer") on the topic of "Fewer vs. Less" -- news to me!
ReplyDeleteOh it is a rich topic whether from the "people are using it wrong" perspective or the "wait, exactly how do people use it" one.
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