FAN CLUB
Hello, faithful readers! Colum here, taking over after two weeks of fun reviews by Horace. Guess where I'm definitely not blogging from. That's right, Paris. I'm not in Paris. Just good old Albany. No fancy, baguette eating, opera watching, Seine strolling blogging here.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
But hey, we don't need to be spreading the HATES around. In fact, this puzzle is all about really enjoying things. Our theme is taking standard phrases and reinterpreting the first word or two as a synonym for finding pleasure in something. The clue then takes that something and (mostly) creates a new semi-scientific name for it. Thus, 21A: Geometrophiles... (LOVETRIANGLES). Because they enjoy geometric shapes. Get it?
My favorite by far was the grid spanning 63A: Dextropodophiles... (GETOFFONTHERIGHTFOOT). Hah! That's ludicrous... ly good. I also chuckled at 79A: Autotumulophiles... (DIGTHEIROWNGRAVE). It's a lot of fun seeing words like "fancy" or "like" reinterpreted in this way.
| Lake Victoria |
I found the fill to be equally satisfying today. 2D: High wind (OBOE) got me today, but then I had to smile when I reached 86A: High winds (GALES).
Some fun long answers, like WANNABES, STINKEYE, STRAGGLE, and WHATNOTS. TSETSEFLIES are only welcome in a puzzle, but in their full form look good. I have never had an ITALIANHERO in my life. It's a sub, and that's all there is to it.
30D: Private affairs? (ARMYLIFE) feels slightly off, but maybe that's because the poor fellow got a DEARJOHN letter (79D: Announcement of a split decision?).
Fun Sunday, and a good start to Thanksgiving week.
- Colum
This puzzle is utterly fabulous...from the title to the theme entries to the fill words to the clues. It made me giggle, it made me laugh, it made me happy to be solving it!
ReplyDeleteI've had more ITALIANHEROs than is probably good for me. In fact, I've even made them with all Tofurky products of late; a nice, vegan version. Anyway, my favorite theme answer, of course, was the first of the bunch, LOVETRIANGLES, but I also quite enjoyed Gastrophiles... FANCYRESTAURANTS. I've read all of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but don't recall the quote to WATSON featured in the clues. The puzzle on the whole went pretty quickly for me, with no notable slow areas.
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