When I'm not on blogging duty, I do the NYT puzzles online, which is a faster but somewhat less satisfying experience; solving with pen and paper lends itself to a better appreciation of theme, clever clues, and overall construction. Today, as I worked my way through the grid and put little tick marks beside my favourite clues, I felt like my cup runneth over - such great cluing today!!
My entry point was Soprano RENEE Fleming, right in the middle of the grid. Immediately below that, the grid-spanning "'I've done better" was obviously NOTMYFINESTHOUR, except, as it turned out, it was actually NOTMYFINESTWORK - my only misstep today.
Back up at the very top, the high-quality clues began immediately. 1A "Dad's pop, perhaps" (CREAMSODA) took me a while to "get" - I thought it was a questionable generational reference, but no, it's a branding thing. Right below that, I needed most of the crossers to figure out 15A "One might be used to launch promotional materials" (AIRCANNON - brilliant!!). And right below THAT, 17A "That's not the whole story!" (PLOTPOINT) was very clever.
I could narrate practically the entire grid like this. 7D "Bulb that becomes translucent when heated" (ONION). 23D "Stories of college students?" (DORM). 34D "Man's name whose first four letters spell a word describing its last letter" (RINGO) - also very clever! 31D "Fair weather followers" (SNOWBIRDS) - indeed - a whole contigent of Canadians can be classified this way...
The only thing approaching a "nit" for me is Hall-of-Fame football coach WEEB Ewbank at 43A. A tiny bit of a reach, no?
A fitting finale at 61D "Sound made when something snaps into place?" (AHA) - a suitable anagram for AAH, the sound I made upon completing this puzzle. Well done Ms. Hoody, well done indeed!
It's been a slice this week! And now, over to Horace's capable hands.....
-philbo
It's always exciting to see Katie Hoody's name in the byline, and as you have so ably shown, she delivered again. So many good clues! Also, any fan of American football knows the name WEEB Ewbank. Even I, a casual fan, dropped it in off the clue.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to taking over tomorrow. Feels like it's been a while! :)