Back in the blogging saddle again, after three weeks of excellent blogging by Colum, Horace and the inimitable Frances.. I found this Sunday puzzle a real beast, with its seeming paucity of black squares, tricky cluing and relatively impenetrable theme. It would have helped if I'd read the theme hint up front - "Pixar Box Set" - but no, that's not how I roll. It did eventually become evident what was going on - single squares scattered around the grid, containing rebus-style words; not just words but titles of Pixar movies. Or so I trust to be true; it also didn't help that I didn't recognize a few of them.
Quite a feat of construction! It's extra material in the grid, allowing for longer clue answers in *both* directions. The initial confusion was immense. In the NW corner, I had HU as the start of "Certain streaming library", which of course had to be HULU-something, but it wouldn't fit, and it took some time to recognize the hidden word LUCA in HULUCATALOG, which crossed with the Baja California resort CABOSANLUCAS. Neat! ("Luca" is a Pixar movie, though? Never heard of it.)
And so it went. I count seven of these rebuses. The fact that they vary in length (from "UP" to "WALLE" and "BRAVE") just adds spice to it.
Notable clues in the connective tissue: "Where to find signs with circles, squares and diamonds" is a clever way to clue SKIAREA. COBOL is indeed "used in government and banking", even though it's ancient and nobody actually programs in that language any more. I noted a doubly-used device in "RARIN' to go" and "SINGIN' in the rain"... For "Primate that exists only on the world's fifth-largest island", I automatically entered ORANG - but no, it's LEMUR. Speaks to my weak geographical skills..
FERRULE is a great word - the "Metal ring that holds a pencil's eraser". It's also what holds on the tip of a snooker cue.
I didn't realize there were actual named characters in the WHERESWALDO books. "Odlaw, Wizard Whitebeard and Woof"? O-kaay. Anyway, when I was scanning the grid to count the rebuses, I thought it was an appropriate clue to have included.
I'll leave you with that. Too many nice clues to enumerate here. Do you agree? Also quite a bit chewier than the average Sunday puzzle, I thought.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend - and happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there!
-phil
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