It's good to reach the end of a Monday puzzle and get an aha moment from the revealer. To be fair, I wasn't sure until I reached the end as to which of the longer entries were the theme answers. Also, to be fair, the theme answers are the longest ones in the puzzle, but 35A, 37A, 41A, and 42A were all kind of long also!
The revealer comes at 50D: Reconcile after a quarrel ... or a hint to the starts of 17-, 25-, 52- and 61-Across (MAKEUP). Here used in its other meaning, as the stuff we humans use to adorn our faces. Thus, the BLUSHWINES, SHADOWBOX, POWDERKEG, and LINERNOTES each start with a kind of cosmetic. What is nicely done is how each word is used in a very different sense from the make-up sense in their phrases. The same would be pretty difficult to do with something like lipstick, say.
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| GREY Poupon |
There's a slightly religious air to the fill, with VESPER, PRIEST, and DEACON all floating around.
I enjoyed AMNESIAC and EGRESS. Overall, it's an extremely smooth grid, so kudos to the constructor. The only answer that's not great is the partial IFI, but the song title it's drawn from is so catchy I won't be able to think of anything else musical all day.
My favorite clue today comes at 30A: Disobey James Bond when making a martini (STIR). So roundabout!
- Colum
Oh yes! Sometimes I do these puzzles and ignore the theme, to my own detriment. I do appreciate this clever one! And - DITTO on IFI :)
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