A ton of great long entries in this 70-worder, Kameron converting nearly all his long slots into snazzy entries. My favorite region ...
read moreA ton of great long entries in this 70-worder, Kameron converting nearly all his long slots into snazzy entries. My favorite region was the east, with the awesome KREMLIN INC next to the IONIAN SEA and a MUST READ. Neat triplet, with SCREENER DVD nearby. I wasn't familiar with that last term, but it's easily inferable and a fun term I want to add to my vocabulary.
A lot of strong material in the west, too, HOT SYRUP a beautiful phrase and GUNS N ROSES sparkly. I wasn't convinced about JUKEHOUSE, as JUKE JOINT sounded so much stronger to my ear. Some Googling shows that JUKEHOUSE has many fewer hits, but they seem to be focused in Kansas City? Perhaps it's a regional term?
Although I loved KREMLIN INC, its impact was watered down for me after I ran into RHEE and SEKO, both notorious human rights violators / atrocity committers. I don't mind one of them here and there as fill, but in total, it put a gloomy pall over my solve. I wasn't sure if ARMY and NROTC helped or hurt that.
Some interesting gluey bits, SOCLE rarely used in crosswords despite its friendly letters. (It's an architectural term.) PILAR is another toughie, apparently the name of a Hemingway character in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I don't mind a dash of ALEE or OLEO in a themeless, but I think SOCLE and PILAR might cause some solving headaches. It's all fair — I think all world leaders should be fair game, including strongmen tyrants — so even that SOCLE / SEKO cross is acceptable, if not elegant.
OLIVER REED is an interesting one. I didn't know him, but the clue was fun enough that it made me want to learn about him. Made me laugh to read in Wikipedia that he was known for his "hellraiser lifestyle." It would have been great to somehow shorten the clue so it was more easily digestable, but what an interesting piece of trivia, OLIVER REED starring in OLIVER!, directed by Carol REED.