Constructor: Roland Huget
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Sound Bites— Theme answers are foods that are connected to sounds.
Theme answers:
- TOOTSIE POP (17A: Chocolaty candy on a stick)
- CAP'N CRUNCH (28A: Breakfast cereal with a naval officer on its box)
- GINGER SNAP (46A: Brittle, spicy cookie)
- SOUND BITES (59A: Broadcast news snippets....or an apt description for
Word of the Day: ROUE (35A: Dissolute sort) —
A man devoted to a life of sensual pleasure; see RAKE.
Roué originated as a French word and gained momentum when it began to be used in reference to the libertine companions of Philippe II, France's regent from 1715-1723. Roué means "broken on the wheel" in French and ultimately derives from Latin rota, meaning "wheel." Since the wheel being referred to was an instrument of punishment, the French were implying that such dissolute beings deserved this punishment. By the end of the 18th century, English-speakers added "roué" to their list of synonyms for a rake, libertine, debaucher, lecher, etc.
(Merriam-Webster)
• • •
Well, this is another Annabel Monday where I'm gonna talk about how I had a rough time with the puzzle and then read the comments to see whether this was a universal thing or whether most people solved it in two minutes. :P I swear I feel like I've gotten much better at puzzles in the years since I've started blogging, but this one really was one of the harder ones I've had in awhile. I demoted it to Medium after realizing there was almost no obscure celebrity fill, but seriously ETERNE, IN SITU, and UVEA on a Monday? (For the record, I kinda don't like "___ in poetry" clues--I get what they mean but no two poems are the same, and the same goes for two poets!) And I couldn't help but feel Rex's spirit bubbling up inside me when I filled in ANO instead of AÑO. I think I might be getting a little grouchier with age, lol. And while I'm grouching, since when does RENT become RENTS in that context?Why is TAKE IT presented/clued like it's some kind of slang saying?! NOPE, I need to calm down and eat some CAP'N CRUNCH. Speaking of which, the theme kind of fixed this for me, if only because "a naval officer" is possibly the funniest way to describe CAP'N CRUNCH. And more importantly, it was a lot more Monday-appropriate. Anyway, do you guys like GINGER SNAPS? I feel like it's one of the most controversial cookies--I know people who won't touch them. Personally I love them. They're almost as good as candied ginger...mmmmmmmmm.
For real I appreciate that there weren't a bunch of celebrities, I'm so over puzzles where I feel like I'm missing out because I didn't watch all the soaps on TV in 1983.
Bullets:
- ROADMAP (52A: Plan going forward, as for these) — I don't think I would be able to survive if I had to live on only these instead of GPS-es. My most recent adventure was when I was trying to get to Brandeis to go to their Shabbat services (long story, but basically, I have friends there and wanted to say hi, plus they have amazing matzo ball soup)...and ended up taking a wrong turn and not getting there until they were doing the concluding prayers. Whoops. I still got to eat the matzo ball soup though.
- SMELT (33A: Put through a blast furnace, say) — Okay so I was looking up stuff about smelting to write about this and like...
- This is liquid gold, supposedly. Is this not the coolest thing ever? It makes me want to learn to do this. No, go out and build my own metal foundry or something--
Why, thank God I saw this before being ruined by my own hubris.
- GASBAG (23D: Long-winded sort)— Is this really a thing people say? I was so frustrated when WINDBAG didn't fit here, but I've seriously never heard GASBAG. Is it a UK thing, maybe?
- RIOT (51A: Hilarious person)— Oh man, this was the name of my favorite band's sophomore album when I was in high school! Paramore's kind of...loud....but their music still goes pretty hard honestly. Unless that's just nostalgia.
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. (I know you're always making fun of me for always being tired but I really am this time, dear readers, I have to get up at 7 tomorrow to go shadow a classroom for my education class, and I have like a billion things due this week. Please help.)
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