I like the look of today's grid, with the northwest and southwest corners cut off, and the scattered single black squares in the middle. It looks a bit like a lace doily!
The upper left corner gave me fits to begin with. I tried "trite" at 3D: Passé (DATED), but took it out after putting SRI in. That gave me DUDS, and allowed me to bypass the various possibilities at 2D: Cab alternative (UBER) - could have been "Lyft," could have been "rosé" or "asti," etc. But what should have been a gimme wouldn't come at 12A: Children's book title character in a green suit (BABAR). So I moved down the middle of the puzzle.
15D: Site of America's first roller coaster (CONEYISLAND) is lovely. 31D: Quality establishments (INNS) is a great hidden capital. These brought me straight down to the bottom of the puzzle.
From here, I worked the southwest corner. 49D: Do business? (SALON) was nice, and 63A: Cone holders (RETINAS) is a great example of misleading non-QMC. I don't particularly like UPTURN crossing UPTOPAR, but I appreciate PORTLANDOREGON as an answer, and as a shoutout for independent booksellers - Powell's Books, in this situation.
At this point I worked up the east side of the puzzle. MAGGIE Smith was a treasure, and I'm happy to say I saw her play Rosalind in As You Like It in Stratford, Ontario, in the 70s. I don't remember that much about it, but I hear she was wonderful.
ICECREAMPARLOR echoed the other business clue. I finally figured out 34A: Style with spotty coverage (POINTILLISM) - hah!, and then GENETICLOTTERY got me back in the Northwest, where I finished off the puzzle.
Lovely themeless. It's been a great week so far. Let's hope Saturday doesn't disappoint!
- Colum
I found this one great fun. The QMCs were particularly excellent. Took me under 5 minutes to complete, nearly my all-time best for a Friday.
ReplyDeleteI too saw Maggie Smith as Rosalind in As You LIke It in Stratford in the '70s. Maybe we were at the same performance - wouldn't that be something!!!!