How do they come up with these themes? Just when you think you've seen it all, in comes something like this. Mr. Boroughs takes plural words that end in -IES and finds ways to reparse them into two words, with silly clues to explain the new way of thinking of them.
The best is 17A: "It's worth only 20 cents," "It has Abe Lincoln on it" and others? (QUARTERLIES). So good. So ludicrous. I also liked 40A: Terse summary of Alec d'Urberville's fate? (spoiler alert!) (CADDIES). I'm trying to think of other novels where the jilting man is offed, and not coming up with any examples. Thoughts from my literate readers?
The other theme answers are also good, although they don't hit it out of the park like those first two. I am impressed that each case uses a different final word, such as "pies" and "ties." I don't think there are too many other words that would lend themselves to a similar process, so nicely done, sir.
 |
| Parker POSEY |
Other fine answers in the puzzle include PARSECS, which it turns out is a very complex calculation related to the parallax movement of stars, but which calculates to 3.26 light-years, or 30.856 x 10e15 meters. I also enjoyed CAMPINESS with its reference to the excellent John Waters, as well as MOUSETRAP, a game of great enjoyment from my youth.
Fun Tuesday, at 3:40.
- Colum
Well, that was fun! I think my favorite theme entry is PREP PIES. And I love that MOUSE TRAP is clued as the game...brought back fun memories!
ReplyDelete