WITH EASE
What?
It's my week to blog?
Oh, hi, everyone. It's Colum, just getting the news that I'm supposed to be posting the reviews this week. Sometimes it kind of sneaks up on you!
The first I heard about today's puzzle was a text from my older daughter, saying "TODAY"S CROSSWORD WAS SO DUMB"... Now, I haven't checked in with her to get her hot take, but here's mine. I don't mind it. The title says it all: take a standard two word phrase, add a long E to the end of each word to make a new phrase of two words, clue it wackily, and hilarity ensues.
To be honest, I don't think I chuckled much at all while solving. But I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of figuring out the phrases. I think I liked the first and the last of the theme answers the best. 23A: Kitchen at a barbecue restaurant? (CHILIFACTORY) and 110A: Acolyte with a bad temper? (TESTYGROUPIE). It starts with two good base phrases ("chill factor" and "test group"). Then switching "chill" to "chili" is good fun. And the resultant phrases are definitely silly.
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| HOGAN |
Boy, I had a ton of trouble in the NW corner. It stemmed from multiple difficulties with 30A: It's in your blood (GENE). I thought of "sEra" and "hEmE" first. Taking "blood" too literally. Also, I really wanted Outcast instead of ODDDUCK (with those odd three consecutive Ds).
I love IFYOUWISH and ITCANTHURT one right on top of the other in the eastern section of the puzzle. INSTINCTS looks great in the grid as well. Three of the four long down answers starting with I? What are the odds?
I tried to type in CAPisce for CAPEESH. I like the genuine Italian more than the Brooklynese.
And my favorite C/AP in the puzzle is 54D: I'm toast! (BREAD). Yes. Yes, you are.
- Colum
Wow, that daughter of yours is a tough crowd! I didn't mind it too much, either, although I wouldn't normally associate chili with a barbecue. We tend to have it in the colder weather when we're apt to light the wood stove; Sue likes to cook it on there. I didn't mind the answer, just didn't love it. NOSYBESTIE was good because it comes from "knows best" which starts with a different letter. Tricky. And I liked HIPPIEBOOTY, too, having visited the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. I didn't know Jhumpa LAHIRI, but the crosses were fair. And I tried putting Outcast in where ODDDUCK goes at first, too, but quickly took it out as nothing was working with it in there. Always happy to see CARL Sagan mentioned; hardly a month goes by when someone doesn't bring him up in "Astronomy" magazine as being a major influence in their choice of career. Amazing. PROOFS would have been better-clued with either the math definition or the alcohol definition, but we'll take the yeast, I guess.
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