Today's was standard Monday fare...an easy theme, better than decent theme answers, and some interesting nontheme fill.
The first word (or part of word) of the six theme answers all rhyme...and each starts with S.
16A: Appetizer with sweet and sour sauce (spring roll). I just had dinner, but that makes me hungry. I love spring rolls.
26A: Deadly long-tailed fish (stingray).
48A: Monotonous voice (singsong).
63A: Gangly guy (stringbean).
10D: Goliath's undoing (slingshot).
33D: Make-or-break election bloc (swing vote).
Three multiword answers in this one...2D: Even, on the leaderboard (at par), 5D: Merely suggest (hint at), and 17D: "Oh, I see" (got it)...and a fair share of three-letter words. The best of them...69A: Wood in archery bows (yew). The best clue for one is at 47A: All U.S. senators until 1922 (men)...simply because I didn't know that and it's good information.
Favorite fill includes 20A: Puccini heroine (Tosca), 22A: Take turns (rotate), 24A: Dangler on a suitcase (ID tag), 31A: Schiaparelli of fashion (Elsa), 35A: Interlocks (meshes), 37A: Bride's bounty (dowry), 58A: Young cod for dinner (scrod), 3D: Slow, in symphonies (largo), 6D: Ray who created the McDonald's empire (Kroc), 7D: Custardy dessert (eclair), 9D: City where Galileo taught (Padua), 14D: Weapons stash (arsenal)...scary as it is, 27D: One of the Allman Brothers (Gregg), 45D: Lamebrain (moron)...makes me think of some of our elected officials, 54D: 11- or 12-year-old (tween), and 56D: 1920s art movement (Dada).
Fellow blogger Green Genius has told us repeatedly that Mata Hari [see 63A: Mata Hari, for one] was much more than a spy. You can read what he has to say about it here.
Time to wrap this one up so I can nestle (49A: Get cozy) with Barnabas in the big chair. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
4 comments:
I didn't know that about 1922 either, and here is the official Senate page where the list of (just) 35 women who have served resides. (Almost half of those are in office today!) The senator from 1922 only served a day, filling a vacancy, and it wasn't until 1931 that a woman was elected in her own right.
wow...did not know that a women was not elected in her own right was not elected until 1931!..I agree lamebrain(s) is a good charterization of elected officals especialy in the area of economic policy!!!
Bob
Here's a theme tidbit I discovered after completing the puzzle...Lynn used EVERY one-syllable word of the form S(BLANK)ING in common parlance. Maybe doesn't make the puzzle more interesting, but an impressive factoid, nonetheless.
Good catch, kratsman...I didn't see that one at all.
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