I love a good old silly theme. Make me laugh, and I will be on your side.
In today's theme answers, the letter Z is added to common words, names, or phrases, and the result is clued wackily. So "antigen" becomes ANTIGENZ, and then is clued with "Not a fan of postmillenials." Similarly, SANTAFEZ is clued with "Cap worn at a Shriners Christmas party?" You get the idea.
Others include:
STAYINGPUTZ - Obnoxious houseguest?
BOWSPRITZ - Bit of water splashed on a ship's front?
and
MOCKINGJAYZ - Making fun of Beyoncé's beau?
Using all those Zs could cause problems, and we do end up with ZICAM (Brand of cold and allergy relief products), which I have never heard of, and SEZ ("____ who?") which is weak, but the other Zs are used well, and Mr. Larson even throws in one more at the end with "Appropriate letter to end this puzzle on" (ZEE).
Right, so what about ZEE rest? Everything flowed well, and there were a few highlights. Namely, the old-fashioned but still amusing "Song one might flip for" (SIDEB). But the old-fashioned STEELIE (Marble made of metal) was a bit of a surprise. Am I right in thinking that no one has said STEELIE out loud in a normal conversation to refer to a marble since maybe the '40s? But I digress...
You know, I'm not 100% sure I understand "Half an orange?" Is it RED because that's half of RED and yellow, that make orange? Let me know if you have another idea.
OK, what else? Up top we have the fun clue "Handle that goes up and down?" (OTIS) :) and I enjoyed "Flies, maybe" for ZIPPERS. SOG, though, (Soak), is odd. Is that a verb? To SOG? Merriam Webster calls it "Chiefly dialectical," and they put that dialect abroad, in England. Perhaps that's why I'm not familiar with it.
Anywhoo, as I said up top, make me laugh, and you're all right in my book. Fun Wednesday.
- Horace
"ZEE". I should have just left the last letter unfilled, as an (admittedly futile) gesture of protest..... I think you must be right re RED. I had SOP in for "Soak", as "SOG" is weird. I guess if something is SOGGY, then it is full of SOG.
ReplyDeleteI too had to search for SOG. I thought the theme was fun, but am uncertain about the fact that in two cases you have to say the Z as a separate letter (as in Jay-Z) and the others you don't (as in "putz"). Still, any time you get the word putz into a puzzle, you know you're on the right track.
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