Constructor:Howard Barkin
Relative difficulty:Easy
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THEME:"Expanded Worldview"— a puzzle that riffs on GOOGLE EARTH (113A: *Popular app that can view any of the places named at the ends of the answers to the starred clues), with the last words in being things you can see using the app, starting with the smallest (HOUSE) and progressively zooming out to the largest (EARTH) (wait, can GOOGLE EARTH see the whole EARTH? Cameras in space? God's-eye-view? Cool)
Theme answers:
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Ladies and gentlemen, your 2016 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Champion, Howard Barkin! He hardly ever constructs, so this is a timely treat. I flew through this puzzle so fast that I had no idea what the theme was, but now that I look at it, I do like how it zooms out, and how the revealer is also part of the zooming sequence. It would've been cool if the theme-related words could've been used, in their answers, in non-theme-related context, but I'm not sure how you "hide" words like HOUSE and STREET. Well, DELLA STREET. How 'bout FUGUE STATE? I mean, you've got FUGUE in there already, so ...? But honestly I think the theme answers are just fine. The longer Acrosses, also decent (ONE-SEATER, TIME-LAPSE). Fill-wise, things felt a bit creaky, but not many things made me wince (though that IDIO-/EDUC. section in the SW is purty rough). I laughed when I put in what I thought was a pretty bad answer (ABEAM) only to find out the actual answer was worse (AGRIN). ABEAM has an actual, nautical meaning. I don't know what AGRIN's excuse is, but its very existence did, eventually, make me (a) grin. GFS feels pretty weak, though GF is certainly a common enough text-abbr. Not fond of THE A as a partial (120A: "___-Team"). I had -HEA and honestly thought "Oh god, please don't tell me there's some old term for the Mets called 'SHEA-Team!'"? And there wasn't, but I almost wish there was.
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I knew LOOIES, but man, every time I look at it, it looks like it's got one too many vowels. Really hesitated in putting all of them into the grid. I had a few other weird hiccups. Like BESEEM for BE SEEN (14D: Appear). Like ABEAM, BESEEM is in fact a word (meaning "seem" or "befit"), though it is archaic. I studied Chaucer for a long time, so I figure I picked it up that way. I misspelled HEDREN because how in the world are you supposed to remember that last vowel (97D: Star of Hitchcock's "The Birds"). I went with "O," which is how you spell the Tippi HADRON Collider (after you also change the first vowel to "E"). I have to throw a flag and call a Scrabble-f*&^ing penalty on that "J" in the SW corner, though. Sure, we all love JOLT, but the cost is a name part (TAJ) instead of an actual word. "B" is clearly the better letter there: gives you two actual words with infinite cluing possibilities instead of one such word and then a name *part* with highly limited cluing possibilities. Five yards. Repeat 2nd down.
LOL at AANDE, which I now find sad without an "ON" appended to the front. Seriously, as I mentioned yesterday, that LAT Friday puzzle had ONAANDE as an answer. I will never tire of talking of this. It's so outlandishly bad it has left the bad-o-sphere and gone into orbit. I think I'm all done with this one. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Easy
THEME:"Expanded Worldview"— a puzzle that riffs on GOOGLE EARTH (113A: *Popular app that can view any of the places named at the ends of the answers to the starred clues), with the last words in being things you can see using the app, starting with the smallest (HOUSE) and progressively zooming out to the largest (EARTH) (wait, can GOOGLE EARTH see the whole EARTH? Cameras in space? God's-eye-view? Cool)
Theme answers:
- ANIMAL HOUSE (23A: *1978 movie in which Kevin Bacon made his film debut)
- ON EASY STREET (32A: *Having it made)
- STUMBLING BLOCK (48A: *Progress preventer)
- "SEX AND THE CITY" (68A: *1990s-2000s HBO hit)
- COMMUNIST STATE (84A: *Laos or Vietnam)
- RED SOX NATION (101A: *Sobriquet for ardent Boston fans)
Chinua Achebe (/ˈtʃɪnwɑːəˈtʃɛbɛ/, born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958) was considered his magnum opus, and is the most widely read book in modern African literature. (wikipedia)
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[2016 champion Howard Barkin hugs 2001 champion Ellen Ripstein]
I knew LOOIES, but man, every time I look at it, it looks like it's got one too many vowels. Really hesitated in putting all of them into the grid. I had a few other weird hiccups. Like BESEEM for BE SEEN (14D: Appear). Like ABEAM, BESEEM is in fact a word (meaning "seem" or "befit"), though it is archaic. I studied Chaucer for a long time, so I figure I picked it up that way. I misspelled HEDREN because how in the world are you supposed to remember that last vowel (97D: Star of Hitchcock's "The Birds"). I went with "O," which is how you spell the Tippi HADRON Collider (after you also change the first vowel to "E"). I have to throw a flag and call a Scrabble-f*&^ing penalty on that "J" in the SW corner, though. Sure, we all love JOLT, but the cost is a name part (TAJ) instead of an actual word. "B" is clearly the better letter there: gives you two actual words with infinite cluing possibilities instead of one such word and then a name *part* with highly limited cluing possibilities. Five yards. Repeat 2nd down.
LOL at AANDE, which I now find sad without an "ON" appended to the front. Seriously, as I mentioned yesterday, that LAT Friday puzzle had ONAANDE as an answer. I will never tire of talking of this. It's so outlandishly bad it has left the bad-o-sphere and gone into orbit. I think I'm all done with this one. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]