Clearly the revealer for today's grid comes at 44A: Go out for a bit? (NAP). Because there are 7 Zs scattered throughout, of course!
What a lovely chunky solve today. So much scrabbly goodness! I actually got going in a meaningful way in the SW corner, of all places. I saw 7D: Salt (TAR), and saw that it was cross-referenced with 36D: Outerwear for an old 7-Down (PEACOAT), which gave me both of them. Then I thank reading old Pogo comics for knowing that Callaloo is a kind of STEW. Well, sort of. In the comics, they were continually making "perloo." It struck a chord, I guess.
The entire middle section fell quite quickly with those first letters in place. What a great set of three offset stacked 11-letter answers! 36A: What some pies may be baked on (PIZZASTONES) and 35A: Confounding contraptions (PUZZLEBOXES) account for 4 of the 7 Zs, while the excellent ROI 31A: Chopin piece inspired by a dog chasing its tail (MINUTEWALTZ) supplies a 5th. By the way, the "minute" of the title is not a reference to how long it should take to perform the piece, but rather the French meaning, or small. This in comparison to his Grand Waltzes. Typically, the piece takes 90-150 seconds to complete.
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| BEBE Rexha |
Overall, this puzzle SIZZLED! I love 47A: Sucker for a fictional story line (DUPE) right above 54A: Real-life sucker (VAMPIREBAT). Nice cluing!
35D: As small as two cups? (PINTSIZE) is just plain silly. I love it! AFFLUENZA is a great term.
Overall, it was a pretty RELAXED solve, even though I FWOE'd. I put in AGRoBIZ, and had to search for the incorrect letter. 22A: Roll it (DIE) could be "dough" but not "DoE."
Fun Friday! 6:24.
The mantle is yours today Colum! A struggly, FWOE 8:14 for me, with the same DOE/DIE error as you. That's the kind of mistake that will bite us in the ACPT. (I don't think "Roll it" is all that fair a clue, TBH) Callaloo was new to me!
ReplyDeleteHand raised for AGRoBIZ without reading the clue for DIE. Super clues, fun solve.
ReplyDeleteSadly, my AGRo didn’t AGRI with the correct answer either, but the rest of my solve was ROBUST. Also, Rummikub!
ReplyDeleteI feel seen. So many had the same mistake I did!
ReplyDelete