G | L | O | M | T | I | B | I | A | L | A | D | S | ||
A | U | D | I | O | R | A | N | G | E | W | O | W | ||
S | A | D | D | L | E | S | H | O | E | S | A | B | E | |
H | U | M | M | E | D | I | N | S | P | I | R | E | ||
A | A | A | H | A | L | T | E | R | T | O | P | |||
M | A | N | Y | D | E | I | S | R | I | |||||
I | P | O | T | E | A | R | S | G | A | W | K | S | ||
S | P | U | R | O | F | T | H | E | M | O | M | E | N | T |
O | S | T | E | O | H | O | P | E | D | L | E | E | ||
C | T | N | S | O | T | C | L | E | M | |||||
B | I | T | O | H | O | N | E | Y | J | A | I | |||
E | N | S | N | A | R | E | F | A | U | L | T | S | ||
B | S | A | C | R | O | P | C | I | R | C | L | E | S | |
O | E | R | H | I | N | T | A | T | U | B | E | R | ||
P | T | S | E | S | S | A | Y | S | S | E | N | S |
It's not often that a Tuesday puzzle surprises me, but here's one that did! Because it must be relatively easy, often times a Tuesday theme must be so out in the open or have a straightforward revealer, but not today. I really appreciated having to sit back and figure out what tied the theme together; perfect example of a puzzle that's better off for not having a revealer. Puzzle mogul Henry Hook sometimes calls to oust the tyranny of the revealer, saying that solvers are too smart for such blatant overtness, and thus in some circles, a revealer is also known as a ... (ahem) "Hooker". Today is Henry's day! Henry, I'm buying drinks if I ever have the pleasure of meeting up with you, you delightful curmudgeon*.
What I liked best about this puzzle was that Phil hid the horse-related terms in plain sight. CROP CIRCLES is a great entry in itself, for example, and has nothing to do with a riding crop. Beautiful. The others followed suit well, although I can't speak to SADDLESHOES as my knowledge of fashion couldn't fill a buckminsterfullerene molecule.
I have a feeling we'll get the usual listing of crosswordese in the blogosphere today, and some entries are decidedly inelegant. As much as I love BEBOP**, BSA over OER over PTS is not pretty, for example. But while some will denounce DOBRO, I find it to be an interesting entry. No, I didn't know it even though I was and continue to be an unabashedly proud band geek, but the crosses were fair and I enjoyed looking it up; learning about something I might try playing one day.
I'll point out one more thing I thought Phil did well: he gave us some interesting 6-letter fill in the north and south sections. Often a stack of 6's like this suffers because it's that much harder to cleanly fill stacks of 6's than 5's. IN OIL feels slightly partialish in the north, and the N or Norris makes an unfortunate CTN, but overall, I imagine Phil spent a bit of time smoothing these sections out, polishing them up to where they stand.
Overall, nice hidden theme and some really good long fill; a few compromises along the way.
*If you haven't read Matt Gaffney's book on crosswords, "Gridlock", it needs to go on your To Be Read (TBR) pile. Great overview on crosswords including a nice story about Henry.
**If you haven't read Miles Davis's autobiography, it also has to go on your TBR pile, just as long as you don't mind every other word being the F-bomb and the remaining words being variants of %$#^! and %#$^*%
T | E | N | D | P | A | T | H | O | S | T | D | S | O | B | J | E | T | |||
I | T | O | O | E | B | E | R | T | E | R | I | C | L | O | E | S | S | |||
P | R | E | S | S | E | D | T | H | E | F | L | U | S | H | G | R | A | T | E | |
J | A | X | S | L | U | R | L | A | I | N | M | A | G | N | E | T | ||||
A | D | I | M | E | C | A | S | C | A | S | E | A | U | N | E | S | ||||
R | E | T | E | I | T | S | P | A | S | T | M | Y | B | U | D | T | I | M | E | |
R | U | N | S | A | C | H | E | A | M | O | R | E | S | |||||||
N | A | I | V | E | N | Y | T | R | I | A | U | R | U | |||||||
B | U | T | T | E | R | B | U | S | I | N | E | S | S | B | U | R | E | A | U | |
R | G | T | A | T | E | M | O | S | A | K | A | T | I | N | S | |||||
E | G | A | D | S | B | E | E | F | E | A | T | E | R | W | O | R | L | D | ||
D | E | C | O | O | R | I | E | L | D | A | L | I | M | O | A | |||||
T | H | E | U | M | P | I | R | E | S | T | R | I | K | E | S | B | A | C | K | |
S | R | I | C | E | L | E | E | N | T | H | I | N | K | |||||||
T | B | O | N | D | S | N | A | S | L | T | A | I | L | |||||||
W | O | R | K | S | W | I | T | H | O | U | T | A | N | U | T | B | E | L | T | |
A | P | O | A | L | O | E | S | A | X | O | N | V | O | T | E | R | ||||
S | P | I | F | F | Y | P | L | U | S | B | N | A | I | C | M | A | ||||
A | L | L | I | E | T | H | E | L | I | T | T | L | E | R | E | D | H | U | N | |
B | E | E | N | E | B | A | N | A | E | W | E | L | L | P | E | E | N | |||
I | S | R | E | D | A | T | E | N | L | A | S | S | O | I | D | L | Y |