Happy All Saints Day! I'm happy to say that once again I get to review a puzzle by Dr. Haight, always a pleasure.
Our theme today is revealed at 59A: Grammatical connector like "is" or "seem" ... or a connector found literally in 16-, 24-, 35- and 49-Across (LINKINGVERB). I'd never heard this term before, but it is straightforward in its definition: a verb that connects the subject directly to an adjective. Thus, "the sweater is red" uses "is" in this way. "The wood feels unsanded" uses "feels" in this way.
Dr. Haight has hidden the word VERB in four phrases in such a way that it connects the two words in the phrase. All four are in common parlance and very recognizable. And even though the letter string is always split the same way (VER-B), the initial word is different in each phrase. NEVERBETTER is the best of the bunch, but I like COVERBAND and OVERBUDGET as well. RIVERBASIN is the most plain of the four, but I'm not complaining. I'm happy to say that I didn't see the revealer coming, so that was a nice "aha" moment.
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| VOLGA River |
I feel like the northern half of the puzzle is woman friendly, with MADAM, ADELE, ALTO, and ADELINE. My "sweet" woman of song is typically Caroline, but not in a barbershop quartet setting. I suppose Juliet's sleeping potion trick gone sour in ACTIV is a little less female supportive.
Things go a bit sour and masculine as you get into the southern segment. Gordon GEKKO and DRNO are neither of them exemplars of feminist allies. And then there's that OGLED. Even the simple HUG gets a little suspect in this company.
Just kidding! Reading too much into the fill, once again. Fortunately, there's the lovely sound of LUTES to tide us over to tomorrow's puzzle.
- Colum
Clever theme! I must say I *do* have a tiny bit of an issue with EEO. Seems like a last-resort thing to me. (from here in my armchair) Otherwise, fun and smooth sailing...
ReplyDeleteEEO used to be all over job ads. Maybe still iis, I don't really know.
ReplyDeleteAs for whether there is another way to make a LINKINGVERB other than ver/b, probably not easily. I mean "olav" ends in v and "erbium" starts with "erb" but I don't think I'm getting very close.
Aren't these sometimes also called copulative verbs? Anyway, I think of this when people - when asked how they are - say "I'm well," and defend it by arguing that they need to use an adverb because "am" is a verb. I like to respond by saying "That's nicely."
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I liked "Frequent flier?" for BIRD. Hah!
Can't "well" mean "healthy", though?
ReplyDeleteWell (see what I did there?), sure it can, but when I ask you how you're doing, I'm not asking if you are healthy. I mean, sure, that's part of it, but if I just came up to you and said "Are you well?" you'd think it was odd, possibly in the same way that I think it's odd when someone says "I'm well" when I ask them how they're doing.
DeleteI like to say "How am I doing what?" I know that's irritating and dumb, but I say it anyway. I'd prefer the question "How's the boy?" We very rarely hear that, though. In general, I try to speak well and correctly in conversation, but the occasional colloquialism will slip past. Certainly, when writing I tend to be much more precise, which I'd imagine is the tendency of most people, texters excluded, of course. A fine, clean solve.
ReplyDelete