Theme: None
Total blocks: 27
Total words: 70
This grid looks unbelievably open and balanced. I wonder if it's because of the 27 neatly placed 7-letter words. And it only has six 3-letter words, probably the least I've seen in a TMS puzzle.
I did not like seeing ICE BOAT (3D: Winter craft), ICE AGE (62A: Glacial periods) and AGER (56D: Last of a teen?) in one puzzle. It does not look elegant to me.
I wish ECON (22A: M. Friedman's field) were clued as "Paul Krugman's field (abbr.)". He won Nobel prize in Economics this year and he certainly deserves a place in our puzzle.
I really like topical clues, you know, "I can see Russia from my house!" comic clue for TINA FEY amuses me. And I think "Obama's daughter" is a perfectly fine clue for "SASHA" yesterday.
Across:
8A: Skunk: POLECAT. I wonder what's the origin of "panda". We just call it "bear cat" in China.
15A: Play place: REC ROOM. I was thinking of the theater play.
16A: Prayers: ORISONS. Dictionary says that ORISON is a "doublet of oration" etymologically. What is a doublet?
18A: Organic compound: PENTANE. New word to me.
19A: Nightclubs: CABARETS
21A: Spiny-finned fish: MULLET. I only knew the awful hairstyle MULLET. See this picture. But aren't all the fish "Spiny-finned"?
25A: Clan sub-divisions: SEPTS. New word to me. Only knew SEPT as seven in French.
26A: Flat fish: SKATE. Came across this fish clue a few weeks ago. So ugly.
32A: Deprives of vigor: EMASCULATES. I thought of emaciates, but it's one letter short.
43A: Group of whales: POD. Last time when PODS was clued as "Movable classrooms", I thought it referred to "School of whales".
46A: 112 letters: CXII
47A: Jack-in-the-pulpit: ARUM. How can I remember this word? A RUM?
48A: End of land or sea?: SCAPE
55A: Loss of muscular coordination: ATAXIA. The prefix A means "not", and TAXI is a Greek suffix meaning "order". New word to me.
57A: Sweetbread: PANCREAS. Omigod, really?
59A: News: TIDINGS
61A: Author of "Gigi": COLETTE. Ha, gimme for me. COLETTE once said: "I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer".
64A: Square dance leaders: CALLERS. New definition of CALLERS to me.
Down:
7D: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. Would not have got his name without the crossing fills. I wonder what SMELTANA mean in his native language.
9D: City near Provo: OREM
10D: Chemist Pauling: LINUS. Holy moly, he is a two-time Nobel prize winner. But the only LINUS I knew is him.
11D: Crime novelist Loren D. __: ESTLEMAN. I googled this novelist. Feels like a consonant is missing from his name. Why not PESTLEMAN or NESTLEMAN?
12D: Colliery: COAL PIT. I did not know the meaning of "Colliery".
13D: Bening of "What Planet Are Your From": ANNETTE. Know Bening, who once claimed that the Columbia "Torch Lady" was modeled after her. Have never seen "What Planet Are Your From".
14D: Dreaded African flies: TSETSES
35D: Type of electrical cable: TRIAXIAL. I guessed. How is it related to cable coaxial?
37D: Of the ischium: SCIATIC. Hip related. Foreign to me. I did not what "ischium" is.
38D: Unusual stuff: EXOTICA. So close EROTICA in spelling.
39D: Fortress: CITADEL
40D: Altar constellation: ARA. Have not seen "Coach Parseghian" clue for a long time.
44D: Sleep inducers: OPIATES
58D: Last book of "The Alexandria Quartet": CLEA. No idea. Ink mentioned "The Alexandria Quartet" last time when we had LIVIA (clued as "Durrell novel") in John Underwood's "America's Major Wars" puzzle. CLEA is the name of a bi-sexual painter.
C.C.
Total blocks: 27
Total words: 70
This grid looks unbelievably open and balanced. I wonder if it's because of the 27 neatly placed 7-letter words. And it only has six 3-letter words, probably the least I've seen in a TMS puzzle.
I did not like seeing ICE BOAT (3D: Winter craft), ICE AGE (62A: Glacial periods) and AGER (56D: Last of a teen?) in one puzzle. It does not look elegant to me.
I wish ECON (22A: M. Friedman's field) were clued as "Paul Krugman's field (abbr.)". He won Nobel prize in Economics this year and he certainly deserves a place in our puzzle.
I really like topical clues, you know, "I can see Russia from my house!" comic clue for TINA FEY amuses me. And I think "Obama's daughter" is a perfectly fine clue for "SASHA" yesterday.
Across:
8A: Skunk: POLECAT. I wonder what's the origin of "panda". We just call it "bear cat" in China.
15A: Play place: REC ROOM. I was thinking of the theater play.
16A: Prayers: ORISONS. Dictionary says that ORISON is a "doublet of oration" etymologically. What is a doublet?
18A: Organic compound: PENTANE. New word to me.
19A: Nightclubs: CABARETS
21A: Spiny-finned fish: MULLET. I only knew the awful hairstyle MULLET. See this picture. But aren't all the fish "Spiny-finned"?
25A: Clan sub-divisions: SEPTS. New word to me. Only knew SEPT as seven in French.
26A: Flat fish: SKATE. Came across this fish clue a few weeks ago. So ugly.
32A: Deprives of vigor: EMASCULATES. I thought of emaciates, but it's one letter short.
43A: Group of whales: POD. Last time when PODS was clued as "Movable classrooms", I thought it referred to "School of whales".
46A: 112 letters: CXII
47A: Jack-in-the-pulpit: ARUM. How can I remember this word? A RUM?
48A: End of land or sea?: SCAPE
55A: Loss of muscular coordination: ATAXIA. The prefix A means "not", and TAXI is a Greek suffix meaning "order". New word to me.
57A: Sweetbread: PANCREAS. Omigod, really?
59A: News: TIDINGS
61A: Author of "Gigi": COLETTE. Ha, gimme for me. COLETTE once said: "I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer".
64A: Square dance leaders: CALLERS. New definition of CALLERS to me.
Down:
7D: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. Would not have got his name without the crossing fills. I wonder what SMELTANA mean in his native language.
9D: City near Provo: OREM
10D: Chemist Pauling: LINUS. Holy moly, he is a two-time Nobel prize winner. But the only LINUS I knew is him.
11D: Crime novelist Loren D. __: ESTLEMAN. I googled this novelist. Feels like a consonant is missing from his name. Why not PESTLEMAN or NESTLEMAN?
12D: Colliery: COAL PIT. I did not know the meaning of "Colliery".
13D: Bening of "What Planet Are Your From": ANNETTE. Know Bening, who once claimed that the Columbia "Torch Lady" was modeled after her. Have never seen "What Planet Are Your From".
14D: Dreaded African flies: TSETSES
35D: Type of electrical cable: TRIAXIAL. I guessed. How is it related to cable coaxial?
37D: Of the ischium: SCIATIC. Hip related. Foreign to me. I did not what "ischium" is.
38D: Unusual stuff: EXOTICA. So close EROTICA in spelling.
39D: Fortress: CITADEL
40D: Altar constellation: ARA. Have not seen "Coach Parseghian" clue for a long time.
44D: Sleep inducers: OPIATES
58D: Last book of "The Alexandria Quartet": CLEA. No idea. Ink mentioned "The Alexandria Quartet" last time when we had LIVIA (clued as "Durrell novel") in John Underwood's "America's Major Wars" puzzle. CLEA is the name of a bi-sexual painter.
C.C.
