AS HEARD AROUND THE DINNER TABLE
Good morning everyone! I've been challenged by my honorable co-blogger to solve quickly and post early. Fortunately, I've got two little canine friends who insist on getting a walk by a certain hour, which gives me time on this Sunday morning to follow through.
As I was solving today's puzzle, I was bewildered by the letters in the shaded spaces. They weren't words in their own right, nor did they seem likely to be anagrammable in any useful way. I resigned myself to working all the way to the bottom, where the revealer would make all of it make sense.
And indeed it did, in a most unexpected way! 102A: Vegetarian options ... or what the shaded letters in this puzzle are, phonetically (MEATSUBSTITUTES). I didn't expect phonetics, and the first one is particularly surprising. In order, the meats that are substituted are "goat," "duck," "pork," "beef," "bacon," and "lamb." And let me tell you, I am planning on eating some "bakein" later on this morning, only not the fake kind.
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| SARA Bareilles |
Solving this puzzle moved very quickly (unlike yesterday's), but there are some lovely clues and answers here.
8A: They take bows (ARCHERS) and 41A: They can make a huge impact (ASTEROIDS) are examples of the kind of non-QMC I'm particularly fond of. No need to alert the solver that there's something off about the clue - just leave it out there. On the other hand, 67A: One vs 52? (SOLITAIRE) is a very clever clue indeed.
How about 111A: They may be long and shocking (EELS) - Hah! Great way to spice up a standard crossword answer.
I also liked the pair of adjacent long answers on the west and east side of the grid: OUTOFORDER and SCAREDYCAT, and HOWDAREYOU and ATLONGLAST. Such fun answers.
Fun Sunday. Solved in nearly the exact same amount of time as yesterday's (10:16).
- Colum
Having had my own helping of BAKEIN this morning....not a difficult offering for a Sunday - a rare sub-10 minute solve. Like you, Colum, I got through the whole puzzle before divining the theme. SARA is one of those answers which require full cooperation from the crossers. I thought this was a tidy, fun crossword with an inventive twist!
ReplyDeleteYou should really listen to some Sara Bareilles music! I really enjoy it. She also wrote the music for the Broadway musical Waitress.
DeleteI enjoyed the fill a lot. And the clues are terrific, like the one for SERENA [Star close to Venus?]
ReplyDeleteHi Kelly! Yes, I thought about including that one in the review also.
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