Sunday, 12/4/16

Time to finish/time I gave up: 43:26
Did I finish it without help? No :(
Did I check puzzle? If yes, how many letters were wrong? 2. We figured out one of them but had to reveal the other. Read on to find out more!

Commentary:

I loved the theme clues of this puzzle! I think my favorite was 66A ___ a new film adaptation SEANPENNED. Silly wordplay gets me every time. I note that Rex [Parker, inspire-r of this blog] was not impressed, but he has done approximately 1.2 million more puzzles than I have, so it was good enough for me. You will see that there are a great deal of "Really?" questionable fills listed below, though.

Everything went pretty smoothly for us except the two crosses where we got stuck. One that we missed at first but then corrected after the check was 39A Many a suit has one, for short/39D Goya subject, MBAS/MAJA. Here is my entire knowledge base about Goya: Spanish painter. (Or, maker of cans of beans.) We had BAJA at first (a Spanish word!) and were just punting on the suits as "BBAs," thinking a BBA was some kind of fancy lapel or something. Wordplay, you tricked me this time! We figured out MBAs after the check. Imagine my surprise when I looked up "maja" just now and discovered it's a nude painting! I feel like I got tricked into looking at a naked lady by the New York Times! It's the new rickrolling!

We never did get 119A Actions of environmental extremists/106D ___ lily ECOTAGE/SEGO. Ok, eco-tage like sabotage, I get that now. We went through every letter of the alphabet and tried a few ("Ecotape? Maybe like they taped something off?" "Ecotale. Like, they told a tale to create fake news and alarm people.") before giving up. Thinking it was that long A sound instead of the French "tage" was a killer. I'm bitter that "sego" lily was no help. I googled it, it's a stupid-looking flower anyway. I hate you, sego lily.

I'm too young for this $h*t

• 47A ___ Doggie of old cartoons AUGIE. I can do old Looney Tunes cartoons, but I wasn't a Hanna-Barbera kid. Augie Doggie looks pretty cute though.
• A couple of the theme clues stars were borderline for me. I knew James Garner was a person, but had to look up who he is ("Oh! The old guy from The Notebook!"), and Shelley Long squeaks into my knowledge because Jamie and I have been watching Cheers on Netflix.
• 57D Michael ___, Brett Halliday detective SHAYNE. Ok, Michael Shayne is from the 1930's. Everyone is too young for this one.
• 70D Singer Marie TEENA. Yes, I'm too young for Teena Marie. We kept thinking Marie was the first name and got all the way to TE_NA and were debating Elba vs. Alba [77A Italy's Isola d'___] before I pulled Teena Marie out of my brain.
• Bonus points for this puzzle creator for including things I am exactly the right age for:
• 34D Hogwarts groundskeeper HAGRID
• 57A "The Lion King" villain SCAR

Really?

• 21A Harshly bright AGLARE. Every time I walk into Target I'm like, "ugh, it's so aglare in here."
• 99A Giggled TEHEED. Te-hee? With one E in the "tee" part? Does this laugh sound like "teh-HEE?" Thinking about this made me tehee and I woke up my baby.
• 7D Sunbathing locale POOLAREA. Ah yes, the pool area. I had "pool deck" in here briefly, and Jamie really wanted it to be "poop deck," but instead it was just the uninspiring pool area.
• 62D Naval conflict SEAWAR. I mean, I guess that's a thing. Just like an army conflict is a land war ("Never get involved in a land war in Asia!") and an air force conflict is a sky war. Someone help me out here.
• There were a lot of questionable "saying" clues in this puzzle. See 31A "Phooey!" AWRATS, 43A "You think I won't!" DAREME, 81A "Ha! I was right!" TOLDYA, 84D "A likely story!" YEAHIBET, 94D "I'm waiting...?" WELL. Try to employ these phrases in your upcoming week. Especially "Aw, rats!" And/or its clue, "Phooey!"
• 90A Like food EATABLE. All I have to say about this one is "tehee!"

Things I learned today:

• 28A Sibling of Helios and Selene, in myth EOS. Apparently is the goddess of the dawn; not affiliated with the lip balm. 
• 89A Cads ROUES. I did not know this word, but intend to call people roués whenever possible from now on. Jamie rightly points out that it's featured in "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" from The Sound of Music, though: "Eager young lads and roués and cads/Will offer you food and wine." That's my husband!
• 9D Borodin's prince IGOR. Prince Igor is an opera by Alexander Borodin. An opera clue! Where's my dad when you need him? (Answer: at church probably?)

Fritz out.

PS this is the 3rd time in my short few weeks of consistent crosswording that the OTOE have made an appearance. Otoe, your PR people are on point.