Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "WICHITA LINEMAN" (57A: Glen Campbell hit, the last word of which is this puzzle's theme) — four theme answers end with words for various football linemen: CENTER, TACKLE, END, GUARD
Word of the Day: CAT TACKLE (30A: Anchor-hoisting equipment)
–noun Nautical .
a tackle for hoisting an anchor.
• • •
Man, I had to work just to *find* a definition of "CAT TACKLE." W + T + F????! This puzzle was easy but for that answer and BITTER END, which rang only a faint bell, and only after I had it figured out. A fellow blogger and I have checked multiple dictionaries and have found just one so far that even contains "CAT TACKLE." That answer is just terrible. A *theme* answer that is *that* obscure? Bad form. Elsewhere in the grid, there's average-to-crappy fill. I like CHORTLE (12D: "Through the Looking-Glass" laugh) but don't know why it's "Alice"-specific. The VILE V-CHIP CRUX section is nice. Downers include SION (1A: "The Da Vinci Code" priory), STER, APORT, ENNE, and AMEER. But the only thing anyone's going to remember about this puzzle is CAT TACKLE. Why would you make a puzzle like that?Theme answers:
- 20A: Place with a "You Are Here" map (SHOPPING CENTER)
- 30A: Anchor-hoisting equipment (CAT TACKLE)
- 37A: Longtime Greenwich Village music venue, with "the" (BITTER END)
- 48A: Protection for Pelé (SHIN GUARD)
Bullets:
35A: Howard who parodied Adolf (MOE) — I ... did not know this. Me: "...RON?"- 56A: Muslim convert in 1964 news (ALI) — in '64, Cassius Clay took the Heavyweight Championship from Liston, and then revealed he was a member of the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad ALI.
- 1D: Five-pointed creature (SEA STAR) — also known (to me, as a kid, in California) as a "star fish."
- 9D: Actor Richard of "Rambo" films (CRENNA) — he's gotta have more on is resumé than this! "The Real McCoys"? "Hot Shots Part Deux"?!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
No comments:
Post a Comment