Constructor:Josh Knapp
Relative difficulty:Easy (Very)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day:T-BEAM(14D: Building bar with one flange) —
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Tall thin puzzle (16x14), which feels like a cheating kind of way to handle 14s, but I guess it's OK. It's certainly quite clean for a fairly low word-count puzzle, but once again, Friday ends up being a ridiculous breeze. I meandered through this, not at all on High Speed setting, and still finished in 4:19. That's a Wednesday time. Fridays should be minimally 50% harder for me. But look at the NW. 1-Across? Gimme (1A: Singer with the 1977 hit "Lido Shuffle"). 13-Across? Gimme (13A: House of Tybalt and Juliet). From there, you're lined up to take down all the Downs up there. I had real, serious trouble with AVENUE B (?) crossing T-BEAM (???). "B" was a total guess, even though I was 99% sure it was right. I mostly had to convince my self that a. a T-BEAM is a thing (never seen it, in crosswords or elsewhere) and b. other T_EAM possibilities were not possible. I also had to crawl out of the nakedly intentional YOLK trap at 22A: The so-called "sunny side" (YANG). If all you've got is the "Y"—and maybe even if you've got nothing—YOLK is clearly the better answer to this clue. YANG shmang.
Had a couple other missteps: COHORT for COEVAL (31D: Agemate) ("ONE LOVE" fixed that—Marley was playing in the cafe where I was working today ... I want to say that helped, but it probably didn't help at all) (39A: 1977 reggae classic). And then LIAR! for LIES! (50A: "I deny all that!"). But that's it. Everything else went in easy. The NE and SW corners were particularly unchallenging. I spent maybe a minute (maybe) on both of them combined. Once you lock in SHERLOCK HOLMES and COLONEL SANDERS, building up (in the NE) and down (in the SW) is a Snap. Good clean fun, for the most part, but Fridays should put up at least a little resistance, and lately, that hasn't been happening.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Easy (Very)
THEME: none
Word of the Day:T-BEAM(14D: Building bar with one flange) —
A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearingstructure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a t-shaped cross section. The top of the t-shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisting compressivestresses. The web (vertical section) of the beam below the compression flange serves to resist shear stress and to provide greater separation for the coupled forces of bending. (wikipedia)
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Had a couple other missteps: COHORT for COEVAL (31D: Agemate) ("ONE LOVE" fixed that—Marley was playing in the cafe where I was working today ... I want to say that helped, but it probably didn't help at all) (39A: 1977 reggae classic). And then LIAR! for LIES! (50A: "I deny all that!"). But that's it. Everything else went in easy. The NE and SW corners were particularly unchallenging. I spent maybe a minute (maybe) on both of them combined. Once you lock in SHERLOCK HOLMES and COLONEL SANDERS, building up (in the NE) and down (in the SW) is a Snap. Good clean fun, for the most part, but Fridays should put up at least a little resistance, and lately, that hasn't been happening.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]