Greetings Earthlings! Philbo here, back on the blog after a hiatus that seems to have lasted forever. Bear with me, willya, while I find my stride...What a great puzzle to start back with! Among the Across clues we have 11 that are italicized - short and punchy little QMCs, familiar phrases, all of them. But at first glance they don't match the grid. Or do they? Look at 65A: "Yellow submarine?". A Beatles reference? Not at all - it's another seemingly unrelated phrase CHICKENSANDWICH. But look! It does make sense - the clue DOES describe the answer, just in a whole different way. (Hence the "Double Meanings" theme.)
This is so brilliant! Mr. Niederman's managed to do this almost a dozen times. They're not puns...it's just really clever wordplay, and it really tickled my funny bone. I won't enumerate them here - you'll discover them for yourself and I hope you experience the same delicious "aha" moments that I did!
There were other nice touches too. I liked the double "Intl. group formed in 1945/1949" (19A and 106D), and "Iconic role for Harrison Ford" (6D and 10D). HAN and INDIANA - first names - nice touch! A couple of misleading food references were amusing : 74D "Packed like sardines, say" (INOIL) and 81D "Experienced a bit of turnover?" (ATE).
I was going to take issue with 18A "____ polaris" (AURORA), thinking "surely that's not right" - but no, "aurora polaris" is a general term referring to both aurorae, "borealis" to the North and "australis" to the South. File that under "old dogs, new tricks"!
On that note, I'll sign off till tomorrow. It's great to be back!
-philbo
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