As usual, I groaned loudly when I saw Quarfoot's name on the byline...but I was pleasantly surprised to have a few gimmes:
16A: Accidental in the key of B or E (D natural). I'm not sure if JimH covered in his music lesson last week.
20A: Three-ingredient treats (S'mores).
23A: Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony is in it (F Major).
37A: Burger replacement (Rehnquist). Raise your hand if you were trying to think of something with tofu as an ingredient. I did only for a second.
41A: Stands in line at an airport? (kiosks). You gotta love a word that starts and ends with a K...at least in the singular.
1D: Tynan player in "The Seduction of Joe Tynan" (Alda)...one of my all-time favorite actors.7D: Rimes with "Blue" (LeAnn)...catchy clue.
26D: 2002 Denzel Washington drama (John Q)...a more recent favorite.
38D: "Mmmm...Toasty!" sloganeer (Quiznos).
Those two Q's made me wonder if they'd not only go up diagonally...they'd also come down. They didn't...but I was able to fill in several more words, just by guessing that they'd start with Q.
22A: Peck parts: Abbr. (qts)...crossing with 22D: It often gets down (quilt).
27A: Noted centenarian of 2000, familiarly (Queen Mum)...with 27D: Pursuit (quest).
33A: Parent's ruse to hush noisy kids (Quiet Game). I only filled in the first word...we didn't play such a game. It crossed at 33D: Rare delivery (quint).
35A: Silence (quell)...with 35D: Guatemala's national bird (quetzal). I had to Google for that one. What a gorgeous bird!40A: One way to wax (eloquent). The other way I know is poetic...but John Q made that one easy to get.
There were some devilish answers in this one, including 15A: Like some cubs (ursine), 56A: Sleuth who "looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan (Sam Spade), 58A: Spellbinding "Batman" villainess played by Joan Collins (The Siren), 11D: Number between drei and funf (vier)...where's Don when I need him?, 28D: Contemporary of Agatha and Erle (Ngaio) and 30D: Literally, "women's boat" (umiak).
A couple of favorite clues...53A: Dodger's dread? (IRS audit), 55A: Do borderline work? (patrol), 3D: End of a loving trio (amat), 39D: It might get you backstage (VIP pass) and 41D: Pecking order? (kiss me).
It's 9:45 and Don just came home. There's much more to this puzzle...feel free to share your thoughts on it.
Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
4 comments:
Took me way longer than a second to give up on the veggie-something-other-than-burger line of thought. URSINE is even harder to get when one's eyes persist in reading the clue as "Like some clubs". Loved the Qs, and they made the overall puzzle much easier once I caught on to the "theme".
Since you asked, it's the 48th Scrabbliest puzzle in the Will Shortz era. Here's the top 100: http://www.xwordinfo.com/Scrabble.aspx
Linda,
It's so good to have you back! I hadn't checked for a while, and here you are. I missed checking in here every night before bed.
I thought this was a very clever and hard puzzle. Loved the stack of Q answers. Took me forever, but I finished. But I had ATM instead of ATV. Duh! Dumb mistake. What kind if engine is an M-TEN? ;)
Speaking of dumb mistakes. Linda, I'm so distracted today, when I went to reply to your email which I just discovered (don't check that account very often), I hit the delete button instead of reply, and I don't have your address saved.
So, here's my answer: yes, it would be fine for you to do that. Thank you! :)
I'll be getting back to my blogs soon, I hope. Sometimes the words just don't flow, so I've been on a bit of a sabbatical myself.
Annielee
Good thing I didn't bet any large sums of money...I really thought this one would be up there, Scrabble-wise.
Mellocat, it's always nice to hear from you...even more so when it isn't your puzzle ; )
Annielee, I'm glad you found your way back here. I'll get my links updated in the next day or so.
Post a Comment