Author: Justin Smith
Theme: Phrases with two animals in them.
- 4d: Elaborate presentations (DOG AND PONY SHOWS).
- 7d: Implausible tale (COCK AND BULL STORY).
- 15d: You might toy with your opponent during it (CAT AND MOUSE GAME).
A pretty straight-forward Monday theme here. No funky wordplay or blank stares trying to figure out what the theme entries have in common. Just a smooth, easy theme with three colorful dual-animal phrases.
Sunny Spots:
- 23a: Cast supporters (SLINGS). Very good clue.
- 47a: Meet, as expectations (LIVE UP TO). Great phrase, which brings to mind a scene from one of my favorite movies, "The Sting", where the guy portraying FBI Agent Polk says to Lt. Snyder, "Sit down and shut up, will ya? Try not to live up to all my expectations." What a great film.
- 67a: Judy Jetson's little brother (ELROY). Gotta love "Jetsons" clues.
- 70a: Poker Hall of Famer Brunson (DOYLE). Kudos for the poker reference, too. His son, Todd, is also a formidable player.
Sundries:
- 17a: Ticket, in slang (DUCAT).
- 22a: Chance to hit (AT BAT). This seems to be showing up a lot lately.
- 25a: Bomber missions (AIR RAIDS).
- 29a: Robotically compliant (STEPFORD). As in "Stepford Wives".
- 37a: Bee Gees surname (GIBB). My sister had that Andy Gibb poster on her wall growing up. I had the Farrah Fawcett one. Wonder which one I should post?
- 42a: Landing place for ships (QUAY).
- 51a: Snobs (HIGH HATS).
- 54a: Results of some botched hit-and-run plays (STEALS). More often than not, though, it results in a guy getting thrown out at second.
- 65a: Football team with a gold helmet (ARMY).
- 3d: Maker of the arcade classic Tempest (ATARI). You don't have to have played this game (though I have) to guess that the answer's going to be ATARI. If you don't remember the game, here's a clip (not the original, but you'll get the idea).
- 24d: L.A. flaw? (SMOG). A weak "L.A. Law" pun.
- 28d: La Salle of "ER" (ERIQ). Let's see, Eriq La Salle hasn't been on "ER" since 2002. Has he done nothing of consequence since then?
- 29d: Villain in "The Lion King" (SCAR).
- 33d: Cavil (CARP).
- 35d: Broadway role for Christopher Plummer (IAGO). From "Othello", not to be confused with 50d: Opera based on a Shakespeare play (OTELLO). That's a tough too much Othello in one puzzle for me.
- 41d: They often wear dark eyeliner (GOTHS). One of the best ever "South Park" episodes is called "Raisins", and features Stan joining the Goths after Wendy dumps him for Token. It's really phenomenal all the way through. Here's a clip near the end of the episode.
- 48d: Art Deco designer (ERTÉ). We've been seeing a lot of him lately, too.
- 56d: King Julien in "Madagascar," e.g. (LEMUR).
Suns of Bitches:
None.
Other than the 15x16 construction, to accommodate the long central theme entry, there's nothing particularly unusual about this puzzle. It's a nice, easy Monday to get your week started.
Thanks for listening.
- Pete M.
6 comments:
Very enjoyable puzzle, nice wrtite-up too!
Aw, c'mon! Where's the Andy Gibb poster?
Some things are better left as vague memories. :)
Orange gets some imagined beefcake over at her blog with her mini write up of BRAD Pitt! Thanks for giving us Farrah as a balance.
I will request though that if ever ROBIN or MAURICE is in a puzzle that you find a nice shot of the unsung BeeGee in question and post it for all to see!
Tony O.
Your comment on Eriq made me laugh. I think stuff like that a lot when clueing puzzles. People with unusual names ought to keep doing notable things so the clues for them don't get too stale.
but karen, he's has already done so much for us by a) being named ERIQ and b) being famous. who are we to demand any more from him? if anything, we should be sending him fan mail.
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