I thought I was going to blaze through this puzzle when I entered 1A: U.S. Holiday beginning in 2021 (JUNETEENTH) right off the clue. And in fact, I had three-quarters finished super fast, but that last corner... ooh boy. Took some time.
It's a lovely chunky grid with large corners, each with triple stacks of 10-letter answers. ARISHAPIRO deserves his status as an outstanding reporter. Why should a MALTESECAT be blue and a Maltese dog be white? Answer me that, pundits!
The SW stack is not as strong, although MOOCHEDOFF is a great answer. ALPHAVILLE I'd barely heard of. A German band from the 1980s, they're still around. Perhaps I should try some of their music. And SLEEPINGIN is something I can't seem to do any more. Ah, the halcyon years of the 1980s, when I was just a lad...
58A: TV bar with frequent health code violations overlooked by the city's mayor (MOESTAVERN) could only have one answer, amirite? ONTHEFENCE and DESERTROSE are very nice answers.
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| EVILDEAD 2 |
The real trouble came in the NE corner. I had very little going into this section. I guessed that "Something that isn't assumed" must be REALNAME at 24A, but a silly guess at 16A: Cousin of the Spanish chirimÃa or Italian piffero (OBOE) put me back. I tried Oreo. Seemed a little odd at the time. In retrospect, "piffero" should have clarified the woodwind aspect here so I could replace one crosswordese with another.
Meanwhile, 21A: They form lines for their work (POETS) was difficult to see, and POSTMALONE was not going to come to my mind any time quickly. Fortunately, I got SETSEYESON which clarified my earlier mistake, and it all fell after that. I love the clue at 12D: Props for some plays (OBIEAWARDS). Hah!
So that's another week of blogging done. You can't say you weren't entertained. Or at least not so I can hear it. Tomorrow Horace takes over.
- Colum
Tough one for me today. It took over an hour for me to finish. POSTMALONE is not someone I know, nor is ALPHAVILLE (unlike Colum, I won't be trying their music), so those along with many difficult crosses made for a real slog.
ReplyDeleteGee, I really liked it. Lots I didn't know, but I think the crossings were fair. Love the cluing, too. Thanks for the week, Colum!
ReplyDeleteOoh this was a hard one. I took forever in the NE corner, just like the rest of you guys. I confess to being flummoxed by OBIEAWARDS. 15:24 in the end - gotta take the bad with the good... :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. I was surprised to be close to Philbo's time yesterday, and today I finished in 14:11. It's not going to happen often, so I guess I might as well mention it when it does. :)
ReplyDeletePOSTMALONE was more well-known to me than WAYMO or ALPHAVILLE, but as Kelly said, the crosses were, mercifully, fair. That NE was my last place too, and I had laySEYESON for too long. Sigh. Good one!