Constructor:Samuel A. Donaldson and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium
![]()
THEME:"Right On, Right On!"— theme answers turn right (i.e. drop Down) when they reach a word which can also mean (when preceded by the phrase "Right on...") [Exact]
Theme answers:
![]()
I've seen this answer-dropping-type theme a bunch. Did this one bring a new twist to it? Sort of. It's not a very tight theme. Seems scattered in a bunch of different directions. There's the turning right part (which is really a turning Down part) and then there's the part where you have to prepend "Right on" ... I guess the first "Right on" (of the title) refers to the direction change and the second to the phrase that has to follow the Down part for the [Exact] clue to make sense. Seems conceptually messy. Mainly, it just wasn't that fun to solve. There was some initial scrambling to get the concept under my feet, but then the theme answers ended up being both easy and kind of forgettable. Also, [Exact] doesn't feel like a very exact clue for all those "Right on ___" answers. Right on the money, sure, but right on cue? Tough to swap out "Exact" there. I am sure you could lawyer up an example, but it seems like a stretch.
The puzzle was memorable much more for a bunch of (to me) tough crosses, rather than for the theme. I'll start with KIVA, which I needed every cross to get because WTF? It's new fill ... is it good? This is how I felt the other day about HOLI, which is clearly a valid answer, but ... actually, now that I think about it, HOLI > KIVA for sure. One is an ancient festival, the other is a company. HOLI has the advantage of being (worldwide, anyway, I would think) far far better known. It does not surprise me that HOLI would be in the grid. It does surprise me that KIVA is. Its fame feels marginal. But I learned a new thing *and* the crosses were all fine, so no problem.
I had real trouble, though, in the NE with the crossing capitals. I never remember ASMARA (28A: Eritrea's capital), and HARARE (12D: Zimbabwe's capital) ... well, it came to me, eventually, but I had LAHORE there at first, which isn't even the right continent, let alone the right country. When you add in the inExact clue of [Rap] for HIP-HOP and then the unexpected price/earnings or P.E. RATIO (17D: Equity valuation stat), that corner was trouble. Also a lot of trouble: SWELLS (54A: Puffs) / WARHEADS (55D: Sour candy brand). I just don't know the latter. No hope there. And then [Puffs] for SWELLS ... that took me a while to see (though I see it now). Then there was MANCALA (35D: Board game popular throughout Africa), which I've seen before but never remember, crossing PALISH (?) (43A: A little light), which I didn't get even after having it down to P-LISH. That's more scary crosses than I'm used to facing, but they all fell into place, eventually. Fill overall seems fine, though it can get pretty rough in the short stuff, here and there (AST B'NAI ... HRH AGAL ... REECE SSS ... TAVI AMOI, etc.). AZTECAN and UTAHN and RUMBAED aren't prettifying the grid much either. Still, overall, it seemed no worse than average.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium
THEME:"Right On, Right On!"— theme answers turn right (i.e. drop Down) when they reach a word which can also mean (when preceded by the phrase "Right on...") [Exact]
Theme answers:
- TIPPING / POINT (25A: Threshold of major change)
- SHOW ME / THE MONEY (39A: Catchphrase from "Jerry Maguire")
- PAID THROUGH / THE NOSE (65A: Was a victim of price gouging)
- RACE AGAINST / TIME (75A: Rush to beat a deadline)
- MOVING / TARGET (101A: Mark that's hard to hit)
- SNOOKER / CUE (117A: British pool stick)
Nah, it's probably this one:nounnoun: kiva; plural noun: kivas
Kiva Microfunds (commonly known by its domain name, Kiva.org) is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income / underserved entrepreneurs and students in 82 countries. Kiva's mission is “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.” // Since 2005, Kiva has crowd-funded more than 1 million loans, totaling more than a half a billion dollars, at a repayment rate of 99 percent. As of November 2013, Kiva was raising about $1 million every three days. The Kiva platform has attracted a community of more than 1 million lenders from around the world. (wikipedia)
• • •
The puzzle was memorable much more for a bunch of (to me) tough crosses, rather than for the theme. I'll start with KIVA, which I needed every cross to get because WTF? It's new fill ... is it good? This is how I felt the other day about HOLI, which is clearly a valid answer, but ... actually, now that I think about it, HOLI > KIVA for sure. One is an ancient festival, the other is a company. HOLI has the advantage of being (worldwide, anyway, I would think) far far better known. It does not surprise me that HOLI would be in the grid. It does surprise me that KIVA is. Its fame feels marginal. But I learned a new thing *and* the crosses were all fine, so no problem.
I had real trouble, though, in the NE with the crossing capitals. I never remember ASMARA (28A: Eritrea's capital), and HARARE (12D: Zimbabwe's capital) ... well, it came to me, eventually, but I had LAHORE there at first, which isn't even the right continent, let alone the right country. When you add in the inExact clue of [Rap] for HIP-HOP and then the unexpected price/earnings or P.E. RATIO (17D: Equity valuation stat), that corner was trouble. Also a lot of trouble: SWELLS (54A: Puffs) / WARHEADS (55D: Sour candy brand). I just don't know the latter. No hope there. And then [Puffs] for SWELLS ... that took me a while to see (though I see it now). Then there was MANCALA (35D: Board game popular throughout Africa), which I've seen before but never remember, crossing PALISH (?) (43A: A little light), which I didn't get even after having it down to P-LISH. That's more scary crosses than I'm used to facing, but they all fell into place, eventually. Fill overall seems fine, though it can get pretty rough in the short stuff, here and there (AST B'NAI ... HRH AGAL ... REECE SSS ... TAVI AMOI, etc.). AZTECAN and UTAHN and RUMBAED aren't prettifying the grid much either. Still, overall, it seemed no worse than average.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]