Hello, everyone! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday in August. Summer has flown by, and I’m rather excited for the weather to cool off (*crosses fingers*). I’m also excited for the U.S. Open and soccer and football and and…! My sister and I placed second at trivia last night with the name “Team Coco,” so you know we’re rooting for Coco Gauff to win the U.S. Open. I’ve now been at my new job for a month or so, and I’m really loving it. I’m amazed at how much I enjoy going to work; I got to call a client the other day and tell her she was granted asylum, and that was pretty incredible.
Anywho… on to the puzzle!
Relative difficulty:Fairly easy
THEME:BOW TIES (With 61-Down, accessory worn by 19-/21-, 26-/29-, 45-/49- and 54-/56-Across, as depicted four times in this puzzle's grid)
- KRUSTY THE CLOWN (19A: With 21-Across, "The Simpsons" character who is a children's TV host)
- COLONEL SANDERS (26A: With 29-Across, fast-food spokesperson with a goatee)
- CHARLIE CHAPLIN (45A: With 49-Across, silent film star who portrayed the Little Tramp)
- THE CAT IN THE HAT (54A: With 56-Across, title Dr. Seuss troublemaker)
Word of the Day:ICE WINES(31A: Vineyard products made with frozen grapes)—
Ice wine is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing for a more concentrated grape juice to develop. The grapes' must is then pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet juice. With ice wines, the freezing happens before the fermentation, not afterwards. (Wiki)
• • •
This puzzle was pretty cute. At first, I thought there were insects crawling over the puzzle, before realizing that those were, in fact, bow ties that nicely cinched together the two parts of the theme answers. The design element of the puzzle really tied things together (see what I did there?), and none of the theme answers were especially hard to get. My least favorite was definitely THE CAT IN THE HAT (54/56A) because of the way it was separated; the other answers made sense, but breaking this answer as THECATIN and THEHAT looked quite odd. I was also super bummed that The Doctor didn’t appear in the puzzle!! The Eleventh Doctor (in the incredible TV show “Doctor Who”) is known for his epic bow ties and for saying, “Bow ties are cool.” (Which they are). Some of the fill was fun, but some was pedestrian. The SW corner, in particular, did nothing for me. The only answer that stood out there at all was CD TRAY (45D: Retractable feature of a PC or stereo, once), and a reference to a bygone, not-exactly-central feature of electronics isn’t especially a highlight for me. I got a bit tired, too, of the CAN I (22D: "Please?"), WILL DO (15D: "I'm on it!"), and ARE TOO (47D: "Am not!" response) type answers. See also: YOO (66A: "____-hoo!") and ELSE (68A: "What ___ is new?"). One of the central answers is NICE (36D: "Sweet!"), which feels rather basic. And, I have a vendetta against SELF HEAL (37D: Herb named for its medicinal properties). I’ve never heard of this, and the idea of that being an herb makes very little sense to me (even if a Google search tells me it’s kinda sorta a thing).
On the other hand, OCTUPLES (3D: Grows eightfold) was a fun word, DISRAELI (42A:
British P.M. before Gladstone) is a good old name to have in the puzzle, and I always love seeing TONI (20D: Morrison with a Presidential Medal of Freedom). PHO (23A: Dish eaten with both chopsticks and a spoon) is a fun word, too. EYE (24A: Camera lens, essentially) was nicely clued. TANG (55D: Zesty taste) and TART (56D: Fruity pastry) were symmetrical and played off each other well, and I got to learn all about ICE WINES (31A). I also let out an audible chuckle at SPF (53A: Block number, for short?), PLOT (1A: Feature of a garden or novel), and ABACK (5A: One way to be taken). Maybe it’s the margaritas we drank at trivia night talking, but I do think there were some clever and fun clues/answers in the puzzle!
All in all, this was a nice debut from Michèle Govier.
Misc.:
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Misc.:
- Mini marijuana theme in the puzzle, anyone? With CBD (10A), TOKE (58D), and sort of the SELF HEALing herb (37D).
- For 43D, I started running through all the symptoms I get when my allergies hit — runny nose, itchy eyes, breathing issues, etc. Funnily enough, the allergy symptom I don’t get is a RASH (43D: Allergy symptom).
- I initially saw 33A:MIO as being a Spanish word and started to break out the Spanish I’ve been relearning. I’ve got my little 18-day streak on Duolingo, and I’ve been reading a book in Spanish that I know well, watching a Spanish TV show, and listening to some Spanish lessons on the Metro. Maybe I’ll finally be fluent in, like, eight years.
- I know there’s no soccer connection in the puzzle, but hey, did everyone see the Liverpool game on Sunday?! The Reds went down 1-0 in the 25th minute and then three minutes later went a man down when our captain/star defender got a red card. Then a Liverpool player scored in the 81st minute. And he scored again in the third minute of stoppage time, to give us a 2-1 win. It was wonderful.
- I shall leave you with Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor:
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