Crossword Anders of Easy Rider Daily Crossword Solver
Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: no, but ...
Word of the Day: BONHOMIE(36D: Like shooting fish in a barrel friendliness) —
: proficient-natured easy friendliness an undyingbonhomie radiated from her — Jean Stafford
English speakers borrowed bonhomie from the French, where the word was created from bonhomme, which ways "skillful-natured man" and is itself a composite of two other French words: bon, meaning "skilful," and homme, meaning "man." That French compound traces to ii Latin terms, bonus (meaning "skilful") and homo (meaning either "homo" or "man being"). English language speakers accept warmly embraced bonhomie and its meaning, but we have also anglicized the pronunciation in a way that may make native French speakers cringe. (We hope they will be good-natured about it!) (merriam-webster.com)
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How-do-you-do and welcome to another 23rd-of-the-month Zoom solve featuring my friend Rachel Fabi. "But it's not the 23rd of the month!" you lot say indignantly. Proficient point. I forget why we had to miss April 23rd. Oh! Right! My 2nd Covid shot was Apr 21st and I knew I was probably gonna sleep for allllll of April 22nd, which meant no April 23rd Zoom solve (nosotros do the puzzle the nighttime earlier, right when the puzzle comes out at 10pm). So this is a make-up. Since I already spent a lot of time solving and talking to Rachel, and I'g going to have to spend some more time doing the technical mumbo-jumbo to set the video for posting, I'k just gonna striking the highlights here in the write-up. Thankfully, they are most all highlights (as opposed to lights of the lower variety). The all-time thing about the filigree is a footling symmetrical shenanigans with 2 of the longer answers, which don't seem to have anything to exercise with each other, until you either say them out loud or look at them really closely. I'm talking, of form, about Fourscore-EIGHT and NIGHTY-Nighttime , which non merely take the same singsongy cadency, simply which are really identical in every mode except the showtime messages of each word part (i.due east. Fourscore-EIGHT is simply NIGHTY-NIGHT with the Due north'southward swapped out for Eastward's). Information technology is a very cute lilliputian wink of an respond pair. Not so beautiful that I exclaimed " AW, SO Beautiful !" just beautiful nonetheless.
We sailed through this puzzle with almost no hang-ups. AIDAN was past far the hardest thing for u.s. to come with, only it wasn't that hard; when nosotros couldn't get it from the AI-, we just swung around and came at information technology from the back end. I estimate there are no famous AIDANs . Oh, nope, looks like AIDAN Quinn *is* spelled that mode. I idea he was an AIDEN? Is anyone an AIDEN? Anyhow, that was our one trouble spot. Nosotros went dorsum and forth over whether 23A: Day to post a throwback motion picture on social media: Abbr. was THU or TBT (TBT is the hashtag associated with this social media phenomenon, but as Rachel somewhen pointed out, the "TB" in TBT actually stands for "throwback," and since that word is in the clue, TBT was never an option. We both retrieve TBT is decent fill to employ in a pinch, though. Speaking of pinches, Rachel'due south first guess for 33D: They may be used in a pinch was HANDS, which I was very willing to believe (but it'due south HERBS ). When Rachel told me 40A: Cheap cab, perhaps was Business firm RED , I had a split-second of thinking, "Wait, I've heard of Yellow Cabs, but HOUSE REDs !? What the—!?" but as soon equally I formed that thought I realized that "cab" here referred to a Cabernet. Rachel also caught the fact that IGA , a familiar supermarket chain, was embedded in the word "Michigan," which is why that inkling has a "?" on it (61D: Grocery store constitute in Michigan?). Whereas I just thought "Well, I know the grocery chain IGA , I guess they're based in Michigan, huh, ok, moving on!"
More than stuff:
- 13D: Class-A (Meridian TIER) — thought this was one word all the way to the biting end. Actually said " TOPTIER ?!" out loud
- 35D: Composition examination (ASSAY) — this clue is particularly catchy, as the clue works perfectly for ESSAY as well
- 26D: Pumbaa'due south friend in "The Lion King" (TIMON) — I accept never seen this pic, which Rachel cannot believe. Rachel is concerned that TIMON crossing TERI might cause trouble for some people, since this detail TERI isn't that well known (30A: Extra Shields, mother of Brooke). But I reassure her that TERA is nobody's proper name and there really aren't any other options there but the "I"
- 60D: Archery need (AIM) — Got the "A" and wanted ARM, which, come up on, definitely makes sense. I would argue that you lot need an ARM more than you lot "need" AIM (clue doesn't say you lot have to be *skilful* at archery), but fine, aye, AIM .
OK, hither'due south the video of our solve.
Practiced dark / morn!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Source: https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2021/05/celebrity-portmanteau-beginning-in-2012.html