I finished the whole thing today before I understood what was going on. But I wasn't really worried about it, because things looked odd right away, and then they got very odd, and with the italicized clues, and it being a Thursday, well, I guess I'd have been more worried if things didn't look odd.
So anyway, what we've got here is a variant of the old kind of rebus, where you look at an answer like NNNNICSCIENTIST and break it out into [four Ns]+IC scientist, or "forensic scientist." Which can answer "One performing a palm print analysis." Likewise "Pizzeria supplies" is answered with TOMOOOOOOOO, which we now know means "tomatoes." And I can't decide which of the final two is my favorite - "Attendees," with its absurd string of Ds, or the "Adorable sweethearts" - the "cutie patooties." OK, maybe that one. I wonder if that was the seed inspiration for the whole thing?
So, an amusing theme, but that's not all! The fun started right off the bat with 1A "Good or bad vacuum review?" (SUCKS) and ends with the cutesy SUDSY (In a lather, say). And is TOSSERS a hidden commentary on "Ones playing cornhole?"
"High number?" was a cute clue for YODEL, but I thought "Something used to improve one's English" was a bit of a stretch for CUE. I mean, how are you going to get any English to improve without the cue in the first place? Something used to improve it could conceivably be "chalk," or "striking the cue ball off-center," but of course, those would not work with the crosses...
Nice shout out to my old friend gin with JUNIPER, and ICANTEVEN ("This is just ... too much") is nice and current. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable Thursday, and a great start to the Turn.
- Horace
Wow. Just. Wow.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Thursdays in a long time! I got it when I finished TOMOOOOOOOO. And laughed out loud. I actually started in that corner with the acrosses and only realized four lines up that there were four Os in a row.
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