One of the great silver linings of this extended quarantine is my weekly chat with Jim Horne. It's such a pleasure to exchange thoughts on a week's worth of puzzles, our version of "At the Crosswords with Siskel and Ebert" (I call dibs on Ebert). I enjoy it most when we respectfully disagree on what is funny and what is not. Today went something like this:
Jim: ABOUT A FOOT, that's hilarious.
Jeff: Hilarious? Does "hilarious" mean something different in Canadian?
Jim: What's not to laugh at? Barbie is ABOUT A FOOT tall, and these body parts are ABOUT (around) A literal FOOT.
Jeff: Why Barbie, though?
Jim: (extended pause) I have a feeling you're going to dive down a rabbit hole --
Jeff: Is Barbie made to be about a foot tall? Let's see, going to Wikipedia … a-ha! She's "11 and a half inches tall." Surely there's some subversive social commentary behind that.
Jim: Does "surely" mean something different in American?
Jeff: Back to my question, is Barbie known for her feet? Maybe that's the reason she's referenced today?
Jim: Should I call your therapist's emergency hotline for you?
Jeff: Probably.
Anyhoo, ARCH, TOE, HEEL, SOLE were hidden extremely well, inside such colorful theme phrases. Huge bonus points for that.
More bonus points for fill bonuses! Even if you don't know the LA GALAXY, what a neat name. Add in the PARTHENON, SESAME OIL, and spicy SEX TALK on top of LEMON SOLE, you've got yourself quite a meal.
Speaking of LEMON SOLE, though, I had a bone to pick with a flood of non-newb-friendly entries. VIREO would be tough on a Thursday, let alone a Monday, and TALESE OPEL along with some ACS DELA RAH VAVA … I'd have gladly sacrificed many bonuses for a more approachable grid.
Check out the top row — often a 3/6/4 (word length) division is harder to grid around than a more standard 4/5/4, because the 6-width creates a big space to fill, causing ripple effects throughout the rest of this puzzle.
I wish everyone out there could find a Jim Horne to brighten their quarantine days. I enjoyed the cleverly hidden FOOT parts today, but my back and forth with Jim amused me (I'll let Jim speak for himself) even more than today's ABOUT A FOOT revealer.