![]() And I learned a new MONTALBAN! Paolo was totally unfamiliar to me. THUMB WARS made me laugh (haven't thought of those in years), and the clue on that one was especially nice ( 48A: Digital confrontations?) (your thumb is the "digit" in question, though you probably know that by now). " WE DID IT!" is a great, exultant little way to hide "WED.," and it makes a nice grid centerpiece. Also, what the hell else are you gonna use for your TUE- answer? The only other things I can think of are also French phrases. TU ES BELLE is probably the biggest reach-you don't usually get foreign phrases of that length in a grid, so it seems like it could really trip up non-French speakers-and yet it's also the most inventive themer of the lot. But all the midweek stuff really lights up. and that SATAN's just chilling at the very bottom, where he's probably most comfortable). SUNNI and SATAN are throwaways (though I like that they're both. That is, it's the themers that gave the grid many of its most interesting answers. I was like "okay, cool, a really bouncy mid-week themeless, let's go!" But then of course there was a theme, and the theme was a big part of *why* the grid was so good. Which brings me to what is perhaps a point I should stress more often-the higher the overall quality of the fill, the less the exact nature of the theme even matters. I didn't really care what the "7" stuff was supposed to be about because I was just enjoying the ride. By the time I realized what the theme answers were doing, the grid had already sold me. ![]() ![]() I feel certain I've seen this theme before, or something like it, but the grid is so sparkling and shimmery that I didn't have a chance to care. ![]()
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