Today we have an expansion of that classic crossword entry, EIEIO, by the addition of farm animals and the title character, OLDMACDONALD.
Frannie notes that the grid is DENSE with doubles: NOELNOEL, NAENAE, USAUSA, and the possibly thematic BABA and MUUMUU. And there are several two-word answers, too: SHOWME ("Please demonstrate"), GIFTIDEA, NOLOSE (Win-win) (another double!), GETHELP, and ISNOT (Ain't, in other words).
GCLEF (Treble symbol) is noteworthy for its odd beginning. LIANA (Feminine name that's also a tropical jungle vine) is a little un-Tuesday-y, and IERE (French suffix with jardin) is weak even in French.
Apologies for being a little short on DEETS in review today, but I don't know if I've made this clear or not, we're in Paris, and we've got to go EAT!
- Horace
It always seems we've seen something like this when we see EIEIO, which is often in crosswords, but this is the first time for this particular theme, I guess. I dropped GREGG in off of the clue, of course, at 1A and flew through from there, ending in under six, which is fast for me for a Tuesday. Isn't DONTHAVEACOW associated with Bart Simpson somehow, or am I thinking of something else? I thought we'd be seeing a photo of a SHEEPSHEAD in the blog, but I'm much happier with the choice of DEBBIE Harry!
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle made me laugh out loud when I realized the MUUMUU, BABA, and NAENAE (each under their respective animals) were the actual noises the animals make in OLDMACDONALD!
ReplyDeleteAnd, boom! Thanks for this, Colum. Frannie and I were on the scent, but we didn't get all the way there. That is really quite good. Wow. Apologies, Sandy Ganzell, for missing this in my review! :|
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