OPPOSITES ATTRACT
This is one of those themes that I find interesting, but not fun. Mr. Niederman has collected a series of opposites, like no/yes, poor/rich, them/us, and found words that can house them. I know that computer programs exist to find words that will contain certain strings, and I don't know if he used any such programs, but it kind of feels like he did when I end up having to fill in things like HEARTOFROMAINE (Caesar salad ingredient) (When I Googled "Caesar salad recipe" in Google just now, none of the first five links used the term "heart of romaine"), ALFREDNOYES (English poet who wrote "The Highwayman") (made famous to me by Phil Ochs), and ENDODONTICS (Branch of dentistry that specializes in root canals). It's fun on a "look what happens in our language sometimes" kind of level, but it didn't add anything to my solving experience.
On the plus side, "Digs in the ice?" was a cute way to clue IGLOO, "It's over here" (END) was new, and "Norman or English king?" (LEAR) was clever. I thought the puzzle was notable, too, for its inclusion of so many Crossword darlings of yesteryear - Jack PAAR, GEENA Davis, Teri GARR, and good ol' ERMA Bombeck.
Frannie's back tomorrow, so it should be a fun week. Enjoy!
- Horace
I didn't get the theme at all while solving, so I just did it as a themeless. Then when I finished and didn't get the congratulatory message, I -- duh -- started looking at the shaded areas...and got the trick at FACE THEM US IC. That helped me find my error -- it was a misspelling of ENDODONTICS. Pretty nifty theme, I think.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Horace here. Clever theme, not so amazing to solve. On the other hand, I've always loved "The Highwayman."
ReplyDeleteI believe 49 down is incorrect. The clue says Nothernmost NBA city on scoreboards and the answer is TOR for Toronto - but Minneapolis and Portland are both north of Toronto.
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