It's funny, isn't it, that in order to cram in a famously long word, the width of the puzzle had to be shortened by a square. ANTIDISESTABLI SHMENTARIANISM (Opposition to the removal of ... state support from the church) is something I have heard many times (from people just wanting to show that they had memorized a long word) but never really thought much about. In fact, this is the first time that I have ever really considered the specific meaning of the word. So thanks for that, Gia.
SESQUIPEDALIAN (Having many syllables ...) is one I have never heard before. I remember when I was little we celebrated the sesquicentennial of something or other ... I can't quite remember what ... but that was 150 years, and "one and a half feet" doesn't really work for "many syllables." Maybe speakers used to be very lazy, and if they had to say anything over a single syllable they would get exhausted, so "one and a half" was enough to mean "many."
OK, let's move on. OBSTREPEROUSLY (In a noisy and unruly manner) is one that I actually did know. Maybe from SAT prep - the same reason I still know words like "dearth," "plethora," and "INURES."
I've never read IVANHOE, or MARY Shelley's famous work, but I have HADABITE of POTATO.
Wow. Did I just make that stretch? It's almost like cluing IRAN with "Country whose name looks like something a marathoner might say." Perhaps it's time to go.
- Horace
Fun review, Horace! What an odd Tuesday puzzle. When I started filling 57A, I was certain I'd done something wrong. But instead I hadn't noted the ellipses in the clues. Love the clue for 10D: Type that leans right (ITALICS).
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable! Agree - I'm a little dubious about 'SESQUIPEDALIAN'. I didn't know DAMASK was reversible. And the reveal of ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM was a great chuckle moment!
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