Dare I say it? ... This puzzle was for the BIRDS! (sorry)
All flighty punning aside, I'm down with it. A FLOCK of BIRDS hangs off the central FEATHER: FALCON, WREN, RHEA, KESTREL, HAWK, NENE, and CONDOR. I'm not sure I've seen a nested theme like this before, but it flies for me.
And it's not just the clustered center. The theme is in the NW and SE wingtips, and in the clues for PEACECORPS (International service organization with a dove in its logo) and URBANAREAS (Traditional habitats for pigeons), and in SEED (Finch feed filler), BROTH (Chicken stock, e.g.), and "Turkey" (IDIOT). That's a lotta theme!
The grid-spanning entries are both strong - COOLASACUCUMBER (Unruffled) (more theme??) and HORSEWITHNONAME (Desert wanderer's mount in a 1972 hit by America). Well, I say strong... is that song still well-known? It came out back when we were all singing LOLA and "Flicking our BIC."
And speaking of - how 'bout ol' KNOSSOS? (City in ancient Crete with a renowned labyrinth.) There's a blast from the Bronze Age.
Once again, the highlighting function seems a bit off today, as when 1D is selected, both 51D and 4A (MADRE) light up. And when 4A is selected, 1D, 44A, and 45D all light up. Odd.
Favorite clues include "Forest ranger?" (ELK), and "Promising words" (IDO). Always nice when the threes are colorful.
A good Tuesday, I RECKON.
- Horace
What a sweet puzzle! I didn't get the theme until almost the end, which is always nice. And the fill is wonderful! BTW, I think I might've heard HORSE WITH NO NAME on the Memories Station.
ReplyDeleteHORSEWITHNONAME is well known (still) in these parts. Impressive that the theme is so dense, and that the bird names all hang around FEATHER. Brings to mind the famous early "Get Smart" episode ("Dear Diary" from Season 1) set in the spy retirement home where the old professor left a clue centered around "BIRDS of a FEATHER FLOCK together." The solution was nicely math-based and, of course, Max was kicking himself after it was explained because it was so simple.
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