Horse-drawn vehicle often mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories / MON 7-25-11 / Flowers on proverbial path / Opposite of deletes in typesetting

Constructor: Nina Rulon-Miller

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Garnishes — drink garnishes. That is all.


Word of the Day: DOGCART (20A: Horse-drawn vehicle often mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories) —

A dogcart is a light horse-drawn vehicle. There are several types:

• A one-horse carriage, usually two-wheeled and high, with two transverse seats set back to back. It was known as a "bounder" in British slang (not to be confused with the cabriolet of the same name). In India it was called a "tumtum" (possibly an altered form of "tandem").

• A dogcart having four wheels and seats set back to back was a dos-à-dos. "Dos-à-dos" means back-to-back in French.

• Another four-wheeled dogcart was called a "game cart".

A young or small groom called a "tiger" sometimes rode, usually standing, on a platform at the rear of a dogcart driven by the person on whom he was in attendance. // Frequent references to dogcarts are made by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his writings about fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and indeed by many other Victorian writers, as it was a common sight in those days.

• • •

An oddly basic and thin theme. Just drink garnishes. Those garnishes make for fairly interesting fill, I guess, but I generally like a *little* more ambition / imagination in my puzzle themes. Also, CELERY STICK? Bah. I see that it's called "STICK" quite a bit in various places on the internet, so it's clearly acceptable, but I'm going out on a pretty thick limb and saying that "STALK" is more common ([bloody mary "celery stalk"] got me about 50% more hits than the "stick" version of that search). STALK is a more interesting word, and it feels righter, and with "STALK" maybe ugly answers like ISMS (59D: Beliefs) and STETS (69A: Opposite of deletes, in typesetting) could've been avoided. Maybe. Puzzle played slightly harder than usual, largely because of DOGCART and various miscues with the garnishes (STALK ... had the -ICE in SLICE but wrote in JUICE, which is just stupid, but I still did it; wife went with TWIST at first). Unusual NE and SW corners, with a couple of showy 9s running through both. All in all, an adequate puzzle, but without much to enjoy or remember.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Whiskey sour garnish (ORANGE SLICE)
  
• 27A: Gibson garnish (PICKLED ONION)
  
• 47A: Martini garnish (PIMENTO OLIVE) — I know this garnish as "OLIVE"
  
• 62A: Bloody Mary garnish (CELERY STICK)
  

DOGCART is an interesting word but a complete and utter outlier in a Monday grid. Made the typical ENURE for INURE mistake (65A: Accustom), which added (very slightly) to my relative slowness. Really nice clues on both SPEEDO (10D: Big name in small swimwear) and PRIMROSES (33D: Flowers on a proverbial path), which is perhaps my favorite answer in the grid. Nope, changed my mind. SPLIT ENDS is my favorite (32D: Hair woe). I know LIDO from the eponymous Deck on "The Love Boat."



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld