Constructor: Patrick Berry
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: YEGG (45D: One with a job opening?)—
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I was stunned to look at the clock once I was finished and see 5:41. It felt at least Medium as I was doing it, but that time is definitely on the low side for me. I struggled all over the place, but I guess those struggles felt longer than they really were. Had a bad misstart with HIVES at 2D: Evidence of an allergic reaction (ACHOO) and then an aborted attempt at YVES SAINT-LAURENT (!?!) at 16A: His death prompted Georges Pompidou to say "France is a widow" (CHARLES DE GAULLE). It's a noisy NW corner, and I couldn't see any of the noises at first, not the YECCH or the sneeze or the YAWN (1A: Low interest indicator). Didn't know ELLA Raines. Needed every single cross to get LIES (9A: "Debts and ___ are generally mixed together": Rabelais). Needed every single cross to get WAITS (28A: Hangs on). Had -HARL-- at 23A: Celebrated racehorse nicknamed "The Red Terror" (PHAR LAP) and could see only CHARLIE. Never figured out SLANG (35A: Bad, for good). It just ... appeared after a while. So it didn't feel like a cake walk. But most of the long stuff on the bottom did come together pretty quickly, and virtually every answer in this grid (with the slight exception of a couple proper nouns) is a common word, phrase, or expression, so I never got totally derailed. A nice, clean, decent puzzle. No fireworks, but no junkety junk, either.
Bullets:
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: none
Word of the Day: YEGG (45D: One with a job opening?)—
n. Slang
A thief, especially a burglar or safecracker.[Origin unknown.]
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/yegg#ixzz2W9XVPEE0
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Bullets:
- 48A: Loaded roll (EVERYTHING BAGEL) — Nice, misleading clue. I got YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL almost instantly, but I had to cross this answer many, many times before I saw the kind of "roll" it was after.
- 51A: Terminus of the old Virginia and Truckee Railroad (RENO) — at four letters, there are only so many options. Plus, I grew up in CA, and any time we went into the Sierra Nevadas, we would see the name "Truckee" on road signs. I always thought it was a hilarious name. Like something I might've named my truck when I was 4.
- 6D: Opera with the aria "Recondita armonia" (TOSCA) — I don't know the story of "TOSCA," but I got this easily. Five letters, opera ... esp. ending in "A"; not many options.
- 9D: Daphne, after her mythical transformation (LAUREL) — this transformation saves her from getting raped by Apollo.
- 23D: "The American Crisis" pamphleteer (PAINE) — blah blah blah pamphleteer in five letters = PAINE.
- 11D: "Phantom Lady" co-star Raines (ELLA) — don't know her. I own the book Phantom Lady (by Cornell Woolrich/William Irish), but I haven't seen the movie. Yet.
- 17D: Survivor of two 1918 assassination attempts (LENIN) — interesting that he's in a puzzle with "The Red Terror."
- 39D: River mentioned in the Rig Veda (GANGES) — should've homed in on the word "Veda." Instead, got fixated on "Rig" and couldn't decide what the hell language I was dealing with. Thus, this answer took more effort to turn up than it should have.
- 47D: Robert Louis Stevenson described it as "bottled poetry" (WINE) — that's one way to justify your binge drinking.