Theme: Watered Down
17A: 1970 Bobby Bloom hit: MONTEGO BAY
52A: Thoreau's cabin site: WALDEN POND
11D: View from Cornell: CAYUGA LAKE
27D: Shields film: BLUE LAGOON
Out of the 4 theme answers, WALDEN POND was the only gimme for me, but the other 3 were easily obtainable.
I like this puzzle, great theme. No frustratingly ungettable words. Simple & smooth. ILLER (35A: More poorly) did raise my eyebrow a bit, but technically it's a legit word.
In the past several days, I've been pondering on how these constructors come up with certain themes. In today's case, why did this constructor pick up lakes rather than rivers (brook, creek, stream, etc)?
I still can't figure it out. But I know that all of those guys have done an exhaustive amount of work to come up with a solvable and entertaining puzzle. I wonder how long it takes them to complete a grid, hours? or Days?
Just to want to say a "Thank you" to them here. I know I can be a poor critic to their work sometimes, but I am an equal opportunity critic and I truly appreciate their effort.
Across:
10A: Gent from Aberdeen: SCOT. See this map for Aberdeen.
16A: Cover a lot of ground?: PAVE. Great clue.
21A: Show off: FLAUNT. So easy to get confused with FLOUT.
25A: Gelcap alternative: TABLET
28A: Wander about: DIVAGATE. Unknown to me. I got it from the down fills. This is a very interesting word. I wonder if any constructor has ever thought of constructing a GATE rebus puzzle, you know, with Watergate, Monicagate/Zippergate, Plamegate, Rathergate, etc.
37A: "The Three Faces of ___": EVE. I am not familiar with this film. Easily gettable though. How would you clue EVE if you were the constructor? I like "First offender?".
39A: Tightwad: PIKER. Another new word to me. I penned in MISER first. Google researched showed that PIKERS were the "1849 Gold Rush equivalents of 1930s Okies. A piker was literally someone from Pike County, Missouri. Large numbers of Pike County residents rushed to California to seek their fortunes".
40A: Olios: MELANGES
45A: Smooth, in music: LEGATO. This reminds of the TENUTO (Sustained note) we had a while ago. KittyB explained TENUTO as "similar to "LEGATO," in that the music is very smooth, and the notes connect to each other, no spaces between them. The opposite of tenuto would be "staccato," where the note is very short and articulated hard."
47A: Touched tenderly: CARESSED
56A: "The Four Seasons" star: ALDA. The answer revealed itself after I filled in the down clues. I've never seen the movie. Alan ALDA's name is so crossword friendly.
58A: Robust: HEFTY. What kind of HEFTY fish is that?
Down:
1D: Cell body: SOMA. New to me. Dictionary says it's also an "intoxicating drink of the Hindu gods". And in "Brave New World", SOMA is "the name of a state-dispensed narcotic producing euphoria and hallucination".
4D: One of eight: OCTUPLET. Another new word to me. It's built up upon TRIPLET or QUADRUPLET I suppose. Here is a picture of the famous Dionne QUINTUPLETS.
6D: Athol Fugard play, "A Lesson from ___": ALOES. Not familiar with this book. It's about apartheid in the early 1960s. Interesting book title. I know ALOES are healing. I've never thought of them as ugly though.
9D: Seasonal rhinitis: HAY FEVER
10D: Rose with a bound: SPRANG. I like the clue and the answer.
35D: Toenail, sometimes: INGROWTH. Only knew INGROW.
36D: Life on earth: LIFE SPAN
39D: Sacramental disk: PATEN. Disk?
42D: Something beyond doubt: SURETY
46D: Dresden's waterway: ELBE. Have not seen its tributary EGER for a long time. This is the ELBE watershed.
C.C.
17A: 1970 Bobby Bloom hit: MONTEGO BAY
52A: Thoreau's cabin site: WALDEN POND
11D: View from Cornell: CAYUGA LAKE
27D: Shields film: BLUE LAGOON
Out of the 4 theme answers, WALDEN POND was the only gimme for me, but the other 3 were easily obtainable.
I like this puzzle, great theme. No frustratingly ungettable words. Simple & smooth. ILLER (35A: More poorly) did raise my eyebrow a bit, but technically it's a legit word.
In the past several days, I've been pondering on how these constructors come up with certain themes. In today's case, why did this constructor pick up lakes rather than rivers (brook, creek, stream, etc)?
I still can't figure it out. But I know that all of those guys have done an exhaustive amount of work to come up with a solvable and entertaining puzzle. I wonder how long it takes them to complete a grid, hours? or Days?
Just to want to say a "Thank you" to them here. I know I can be a poor critic to their work sometimes, but I am an equal opportunity critic and I truly appreciate their effort.
Across:
10A: Gent from Aberdeen: SCOT. See this map for Aberdeen.
16A: Cover a lot of ground?: PAVE. Great clue.
21A: Show off: FLAUNT. So easy to get confused with FLOUT.
25A: Gelcap alternative: TABLET
28A: Wander about: DIVAGATE. Unknown to me. I got it from the down fills. This is a very interesting word. I wonder if any constructor has ever thought of constructing a GATE rebus puzzle, you know, with Watergate, Monicagate/Zippergate, Plamegate, Rathergate, etc.
37A: "The Three Faces of ___": EVE. I am not familiar with this film. Easily gettable though. How would you clue EVE if you were the constructor? I like "First offender?".
39A: Tightwad: PIKER. Another new word to me. I penned in MISER first. Google researched showed that PIKERS were the "1849 Gold Rush equivalents of 1930s Okies. A piker was literally someone from Pike County, Missouri. Large numbers of Pike County residents rushed to California to seek their fortunes".
40A: Olios: MELANGES
45A: Smooth, in music: LEGATO. This reminds of the TENUTO (Sustained note) we had a while ago. KittyB explained TENUTO as "similar to "LEGATO," in that the music is very smooth, and the notes connect to each other, no spaces between them. The opposite of tenuto would be "staccato," where the note is very short and articulated hard."
47A: Touched tenderly: CARESSED
56A: "The Four Seasons" star: ALDA. The answer revealed itself after I filled in the down clues. I've never seen the movie. Alan ALDA's name is so crossword friendly.
58A: Robust: HEFTY. What kind of HEFTY fish is that?
Down:
1D: Cell body: SOMA. New to me. Dictionary says it's also an "intoxicating drink of the Hindu gods". And in "Brave New World", SOMA is "the name of a state-dispensed narcotic producing euphoria and hallucination".
4D: One of eight: OCTUPLET. Another new word to me. It's built up upon TRIPLET or QUADRUPLET I suppose. Here is a picture of the famous Dionne QUINTUPLETS.
6D: Athol Fugard play, "A Lesson from ___": ALOES. Not familiar with this book. It's about apartheid in the early 1960s. Interesting book title. I know ALOES are healing. I've never thought of them as ugly though.
9D: Seasonal rhinitis: HAY FEVER
10D: Rose with a bound: SPRANG. I like the clue and the answer.
35D: Toenail, sometimes: INGROWTH. Only knew INGROW.
36D: Life on earth: LIFE SPAN
39D: Sacramental disk: PATEN. Disk?
42D: Something beyond doubt: SURETY
46D: Dresden's waterway: ELBE. Have not seen its tributary EGER for a long time. This is the ELBE watershed.
C.C.
