Themeless
Have you seen Diane Lane's "Unfaithful" before? If not, you should immediately netflix it after solving this puzzle, which has quite a few answers evocative of the erotic thriller: TWO TIME (8A: Be unfaithful to), STAMINA (43D: Lasting power), STARE, ENDEARS, AGITATO (3D: Energetically, in music), ACT, ENTRE nous (51D: Just between us), TRYSTED (44D: Had a rendezvous), IMMORAL (12D: Iniquitous), TOUSLE (8D: Dishevel), ERRED, RUER, and of course our twisted LEIS.
Ali Farka Touré's "Ai du" is heard during the steamy foreplay and the bathtub scene. Last time Melissa linked Touré's son's version of "Ai du". So good. His "Diaraby' used to accompany me to sleep.
Nothing striking about this puzzle. Once again, too many affixes (S, ER, etc), which render the puzzle highly solvable but unappealing and unsatisfying. I think I crave some exotic themeless.
I did get stumped by letters M & F in two pockets of the grid today. MEGAERA (15A) was completely foreign to me, and I did not know anything about composers/operas, so I wobbled and wobbled and finally went with letter L (among H, L, M, N, P, T and W) for SMETANA, and it turned out to be an expensive mistake.
I also totally forgot about SKIFF ( 26D: Small rowboat), so I had trouble obtaining SFAX (38A: Tunisian port). That's a tough F, isn't it? I was totally screwed here. How can F follow S?
Some of the answers sound so made-up to me, so iffy:
33A: Worthy of confession: AVOWABLE
7D: In an impish manner: RASCALLY
38D: Most composed: SEDATEST
Are you OK with them?
ACROSS:
15A: One of Furies: MEGAERA. The other 2 are Alecto & Tisiphone, the "terrible winged goddesses with serpentine hair, who relentlessly pursue and punish doers of unavenged crimes". And they carried "torches and whips" to torment the bad evildoers. This is William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Remorse of Orestes"(or "Orestes Pursued by the Furies"). He stabbed his mother to death, no wonder those Furies were furious.
16A: Shell's crew member: OARSMAN. I would have penned in OILMAN if there were only 6 BLANKS (48D: Empty spaces). Bravi to those tenacious Irish who stood up against the Shell Crown.
17A: Medicinal concoctions: ELIXIRS
22A: Irregularly worn: EROSE. Would not have got ORNE (10D: Caen's river) without the E from EROSE.
27A: Ms. from Cadiz: SRTA. "Ms"? Why so vague today? "Miss" is too hot to handle? And another Spanish word is DIOS (42D: Deity in Madrid).
28A: Fertilizer ingredient: NITER
35A: Balbo and Calvino: ITALOS. Dimly remember Calvino. Not familiar with Balbo. Probably a gimme to those ITALOphiles.
37A: Deuterium discoverer: UREY (Harold C.). New to me. Got it from the down fills.
39A: Moisten: DAMPEN. Lots of "EN" combination in today's grid.
42A: Thaws out: DEFROSTS
52A: "Six O'Clock" painter John: SLOAN. No, no, the painting is titled "Six O'Clock, Winter".
57A: "The Maltese Falcon" co-star: ASTOR (Mary)
60A: Nuclear cease-fire: TEST BAN
64A: Following a course: ON TRACK. Straying with me! Do you dare?
65A: Feminist Gloria: STEINEM. I always associate her with the "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" one-liner.
67A: Filaments: THREADS
DOWN:
1D: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. Simply too ERUDITE (62A: Learned) a clue for me. Unattainable M intersection with 15A: MEGAERA.
2D: ___ Jaffa, Israel: TEL AVIV And 56A: Israeli statesman Abba: EBAN
3D: ___ Romana: PAX (Roman goddess of peace). The Greek equivalent is "Irene".
13D: Conductor's title: MAESTRO. Or Alan Greenspan's title given by Bob Woodward.
36D: Nerve parts: AXONS. The impulse transmitters.
40D: Eisenhower's boyhood home: ABILENE (KS). Not a familiar place to me. Wikipedia says that the Greyhound Hall of Fame is located there.
41D: Harasses: MOLESTS
63D: Buy the farm: DIE. Is "Buy the farm" a common phrase? I've never heard of it. Maybe it's just an Asian thing, but I really dislike seeing "DIE" clued in such a depressing way. I wouldn't mind if it's clued as the movie title "DIE another Day". There are hundreds of cheerful ways to clue this "Casino cube".
C.C.
Have you seen Diane Lane's "Unfaithful" before? If not, you should immediately netflix it after solving this puzzle, which has quite a few answers evocative of the erotic thriller: TWO TIME (8A: Be unfaithful to), STAMINA (43D: Lasting power), STARE, ENDEARS, AGITATO (3D: Energetically, in music), ACT, ENTRE nous (51D: Just between us), TRYSTED (44D: Had a rendezvous), IMMORAL (12D: Iniquitous), TOUSLE (8D: Dishevel), ERRED, RUER, and of course our twisted LEIS.
Ali Farka Touré's "Ai du" is heard during the steamy foreplay and the bathtub scene. Last time Melissa linked Touré's son's version of "Ai du". So good. His "Diaraby' used to accompany me to sleep.
Nothing striking about this puzzle. Once again, too many affixes (S, ER, etc), which render the puzzle highly solvable but unappealing and unsatisfying. I think I crave some exotic themeless.
I did get stumped by letters M & F in two pockets of the grid today. MEGAERA (15A) was completely foreign to me, and I did not know anything about composers/operas, so I wobbled and wobbled and finally went with letter L (among H, L, M, N, P, T and W) for SMETANA, and it turned out to be an expensive mistake.
I also totally forgot about SKIFF ( 26D: Small rowboat), so I had trouble obtaining SFAX (38A: Tunisian port). That's a tough F, isn't it? I was totally screwed here. How can F follow S?
Some of the answers sound so made-up to me, so iffy:
33A: Worthy of confession: AVOWABLE
7D: In an impish manner: RASCALLY
38D: Most composed: SEDATEST
Are you OK with them?
ACROSS:
15A: One of Furies: MEGAERA. The other 2 are Alecto & Tisiphone, the "terrible winged goddesses with serpentine hair, who relentlessly pursue and punish doers of unavenged crimes". And they carried "torches and whips" to torment the bad evildoers. This is William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Remorse of Orestes"(or "Orestes Pursued by the Furies"). He stabbed his mother to death, no wonder those Furies were furious.
16A: Shell's crew member: OARSMAN. I would have penned in OILMAN if there were only 6 BLANKS (48D: Empty spaces). Bravi to those tenacious Irish who stood up against the Shell Crown.
17A: Medicinal concoctions: ELIXIRS
22A: Irregularly worn: EROSE. Would not have got ORNE (10D: Caen's river) without the E from EROSE.
27A: Ms. from Cadiz: SRTA. "Ms"? Why so vague today? "Miss" is too hot to handle? And another Spanish word is DIOS (42D: Deity in Madrid).
28A: Fertilizer ingredient: NITER
35A: Balbo and Calvino: ITALOS. Dimly remember Calvino. Not familiar with Balbo. Probably a gimme to those ITALOphiles.
37A: Deuterium discoverer: UREY (Harold C.). New to me. Got it from the down fills.
39A: Moisten: DAMPEN. Lots of "EN" combination in today's grid.
42A: Thaws out: DEFROSTS
52A: "Six O'Clock" painter John: SLOAN. No, no, the painting is titled "Six O'Clock, Winter".
57A: "The Maltese Falcon" co-star: ASTOR (Mary)
60A: Nuclear cease-fire: TEST BAN
64A: Following a course: ON TRACK. Straying with me! Do you dare?
65A: Feminist Gloria: STEINEM. I always associate her with the "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" one-liner.
67A: Filaments: THREADS
DOWN:
1D: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. Simply too ERUDITE (62A: Learned) a clue for me. Unattainable M intersection with 15A: MEGAERA.
2D: ___ Jaffa, Israel: TEL AVIV And 56A: Israeli statesman Abba: EBAN
3D: ___ Romana: PAX (Roman goddess of peace). The Greek equivalent is "Irene".
13D: Conductor's title: MAESTRO. Or Alan Greenspan's title given by Bob Woodward.
36D: Nerve parts: AXONS. The impulse transmitters.
40D: Eisenhower's boyhood home: ABILENE (KS). Not a familiar place to me. Wikipedia says that the Greyhound Hall of Fame is located there.
41D: Harasses: MOLESTS
63D: Buy the farm: DIE. Is "Buy the farm" a common phrase? I've never heard of it. Maybe it's just an Asian thing, but I really dislike seeing "DIE" clued in such a depressing way. I wouldn't mind if it's clued as the movie title "DIE another Day". There are hundreds of cheerful ways to clue this "Casino cube".
C.C.
