My time: 6:17, about a minute faster than average.
Theme: POLAR OPPOSITE, which indicates that the answers along the opposite edges are antonyms of each other. So on the northweat corner you've got WORK and WET, and if you follow the diagonal to the southeast corner you have PLAY and DRY. Likewise with ABOVE at the middle north, BELOW in the middle south, etc.
This theme didn't excite me much. It definitely shows some word arrangement skills, but the cluing isn't very clever. EASY is "like a Monday crossword;" HARD is "like a Saturday crossword." I know this is an easy Tuesday, but ho-hum! Why not a little more thought into the clues so the opposite nature of the answers isn't so straightforward? Maybe something like 'It's a _____ knock life (Annie song)' and '______Rider (1969 counter-culture film)'?
Instead we have "rainy" for WET and... wait for it... "not rainy" for DRY. Boooooring. I get that the clues themselves are opposites of each other, but that's the problem. That's boring.
Okay, moving on.
Days of Grace is a 1993 memoir by tennis great Arthur ASHE, with Arnold Rampersad. I will say that this is a fresh clue for a very common crossword answer.
I have never heard of twentieth-century French conductor and composer PIERRE Boulez. Luckily his first name is a common French one.
I needed a little help remember Gare de l'EST, the Paris railway terminus. It was the departure point for the first Orient Express to Istanbul.
Similarly, only after crossfill was I able to remember DAKAR is the capital of Senegal. Seen a gal? Get in DAKAR and drive after her!
I didn't know that ADDERS are known for having zigzag patterns on their backs. In Poland the snake is called żmija zygzakowata, which translates as 'zigzag viper', due to the pattern on its back.
"Some French wines" is RHONES. Côtes du Rhône came up on August 29 as a designated wine appellation.
Clever clue: "Things that may be broken when moving?" is LEASES. "Pic picked in a parlor" is TAT.
That's the end of this one, which I found pretty meh. I hope tomorrow brings a little more zest in the clues.
No comments:
Post a Comment