Bobby Salmon
Houston, Texas
Had to ferret out a few typos at the end but managed to continue my week-long no-check streak, of which I’m inordinately proud! Took me years to get to this point and it suddenly started happening for me this week. I guess something clicked in my brain, or I managed to regrow a few neurons lately. Senility postponed!
Little flap PETDOOR gave me a non-themed chuckle
Remarkably fun puzzle to me, though not a gimme by any stretch (couldn’t 18A’s clue have included “Speedwagon”? lol). Two things made it interesting to me: that third level of clever by incorporating puns into the long, themed answers; and the fact that nothing in the puzzle was impossible for normal people and certainly not for dedicated crossworders. I usually get stumped by pop culture or sports names and there was only one of those in the middle.
There’s not a rebus, but there is ARUBA.
I eventually figured it all out for myself, but it was ultimately unsatisfying because of my pet peeve: orphaned answers used for a theme gimmick. BASELINE, RICOTTA, etc. shouldn’t just be left hanging out there with no relation to each other or anything else other than as structural fodder for the theme. Adding that extra level of meaning would have made this a stellar puzzle. Don’t ask me how it could be done, I’m not a constructor!
Me at 1D: “Oh, it’s SIRI”! Siri: “Uh-huh?”
I hate it when I’m smart enough to recognize a theme, but not patient enough to recognize the theme.
@Andrzej “Conference” has the dual meaning in American English: as a meeting for serious discussion, and as an organizational tier in sports, usually a collection of university teams based on geographic regions.
Was stuck for the longest thinking southeast was purple. [facepalm]
@Jack Just because farriers make their living with horseshoes doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re enthusiastic about them. They could be all business!
With TRIES I can claim sports ignorance. With TUG I just failed to see it. But TUT is a weak clue and answer. I don’t know how I teased past this trio without tripping up my lovely two week streak.
Tough for a Monday due to all of the alternate spellings. The pop culture cross in NW didn’t help.
@John Hmm, I solved them as rebuses (rebii?)
I got the double dip theme pretty quickly, and it’s cute. What I don’t understand is what do the “undipped” answers (such as SIMULATED and MOPEDS) have to do with anything? There’s no reference to them in clues, nor do they relate to each other in any way. They’re just kind of random and sitting there.
@Barry Ancona I saw that valiant attempt. They don't need to be "clued" per se, just relate in some real way to the constructor's intent. In this I understand I'm a not-so-old guy yelling at clouds.
Not easy for someone like me who doesn’t know pop culture or speak Chinese.
@R.J. Smith Never heard of it either.
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