At first, the puzzle fought me hard, mainly due to clues that could legitimately have several answers, so their answers couldn't be filled in right away. That is impressive, but more importantly, as I stress often, how was the solve? This was a very clever theme, and tight (as Rex mentioned), and involved arranging types of hats that work equally well in two phrases and arranging them so they fit just right in a symmetrical grid. Digging in, I acted out a grandmom opening such a gift on Christmas morning, A maw maw moo moo muumuu, my my! I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t let it go suggested that a frumpy muumuu with cows on it could be a maw maw moo moo muumuu. Then I got tickled ‘cause the pictures that came up on a search all looked like frumpy housecoats. Friday I had the word vacuum on the board for some reason, and I told’em there was only one other fairly regular word that has the double u – muumuu. I tried to make my sensible portion last as I watched everyone else mow through the fries in their jumbo cardboard boxes and was, I kid you not, devastated. I was stunned during last year’s teacher strike when we went to Wendy’s, and my fries came in a tiny little envelope ‘cause I didn’t know I was supposed to to upgrade, to specify that I wanted the Eat Like You Mean It size. “Standard parts of combo meals” – not the large fries, buddy. For a few seconds there I was holding my breath because both LaVerne and Bethy had been known to go off. Finally LaVerne reached and physically pulled Bethy in and in front of her and deposited her (Edna just followed she always just followed) on the pew to her left, maintaining her supreme aisle vantage point. LaVerne didn’t budge, and Bethy hissed some more. (All three had those glasses on, too, the ones that made their eyes the size of silver dollars.) Bethy and Edna stood there waiting for LaVerne to slide over, as Bethy hissed. So right before the ceremony started, Bethy Sherrill and her friend Edna got there, both in pretty much the same kind of dress, different pastel colors. At my cousin’s wedding, Aunt LaVerne got there early specifically to get an aisle seat, and she was in a pastel dress that was, well, grandmotheresque. I’ve never seen the word “rowdydow” before. Is a snood a hat? A rain bonnet? A turban? A TIARA? A crown – one of those velvety tall red ones? I’m purposely not looking in to this so I can chew on it today. But it made me start thinking about what makes a hat a hat. Rex – you’re right about this being an exhaustive group of hats that can be embedded. I can’t stop watching it.Ĭoalmine memorial is spelled with postal abbreviations. Whoever thought to do this had a GOOD IDEA. And thanks, for pointing out my dnf with “roomee.” – “hat trick” – good one! I agree that this was really, really hard. I have no hopes that it will be a great puzzle, but I do have hopes that it will be a Big puzzle. I think it's print-only, so run out and get one for yourself. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the giganto-Holiday-crossword in the paper today. rank that wasn't in "M*A*S*H," I probably don't know it. Were there any LTGENs in "M*A*S*H"? Because honestly if it's a mil. rank) was blargh city, made blarghier by the fact that I forgot the Mets played at Citi Field and so wrote in NYM for 34D: MetLife Staudium team, on scoreboards ( NYG). Weird to not even have a "maybe" on that clue. But do I also have to abide PIUSIIIIIIIIIIII? ( 45A: Pope who supported the House of Borgia) And I suppose the "red-and-white striped box" is iconic where POPCORN is concerned, but not where I see movies. I mean, some of this kind of crud you just have to abide. Seems kind of sad to have CAP in the grid but not let it go Down like all the other hats ( 84A: Easy-to-swallow pill => GELCAP)ĪBAFT ATEMPO IRENIC AGLET LOM ENCE SABE UPCS KOI-EMS-NAH. The whole thing just feels like a 15x15 idea that got inflated to 21x21, with. I'm just not sure there's enough action here for a Sunday. Maybe you could get TURBAN or MITRE to work out, but, like, FEDORA seems impossible (CHAFED ORANGE? FED ORANGUTANS?), as do most of the hats on the long list of hat types I just looked at. Not many hat types are going to work as letter strings inside of longer words or phrases. there's just too much making me go "I guess." and not enough making me go "ooh, cool." As for the thinness of the theme, there's not much to be done there. But I just found the fill and cluing to be forced and irksome all over. Real trouble getting started, largely because of the Willa Cather fiasco. Not sure why this one played hard, but it did (for me). there's just five elements, and the rest of the puzzle is mostly unremarkable, or remarkable only when the obviously beefy constructing software wordlist rears its head with junk like ICANGO INACOMA or INCAPS. I like the theme idea here, and the execution is OK, but.
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