Constructor:Timothy Polin
Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging
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THEME:say the circled letters— all themers are clued [See circled letters]. If you say the circled letters aloud (i.e. if themer has two circled Cs, "seize"; if it has two circled Gs, "Jeez!"; etc.) you get the clue for that answer:
Theme answers:
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Word of the Day:Niobium(24D: Mythical eponym of element #41) —
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I've seen the "say the letters, get a word" conceit several times before. This was a hard version of that. Nice to have a challenge on a Thursday, though I can't say the experience was that pleasant. Bumpy. Very bumpy. With some superdumbass stuff like SPYFI (really?) (check out this ultra-not-legit-looking wikipedia page) (47D: "Mission: Impossible" genre) and especially IZZAT SO? (43D: "Oh, really?!") Stop. Stop. No. Stop. Not a thing. Who has that in their database? Remove it right now. I insist. IS THAT SO, THAT SO, even DAT SO is better than the gratuitously Z-laden abomination we have here today. Also, "Tease" is not a very precise clue for FLIRT WITH. The others are all spot-on, but, while one might (I guess) "tease" in an attempt to flirt, most flirting I've seen / heard of / experienced has not involved "teasing." That is a subset of flirting, if it's anything. "Tease" sounds like something a jerk (or SCHMO or NIMROD, apparently) might call a woman he *thought* was flirting with him when she turns him down. Boo.
Cluing was generally hard, mostly by being vague. The thing that might crash and break is a WAVE. Antarctica is ARID (not whatever cold-related adj comes most readily to mind ... COLD, maybe). Musical trio refers not to the players but the notes. Etc. etc. etc. On my first pass through the top, answers were pretty sparse. I thought Lake Volta was in S. America, and so I was thinking LAPAZ or SUCRE at 1A: Capital south of Lake Volta (ACCRA). RERUN for REAIR (14A: Show in syndication, say). I didn't know "Cant" and ARGOT could be synonyms. I think of the former as dishonest, self-serving talk and the latter as simply a specialized language. So that was weird. One of my first certain entries (besides TACO) was EDMOND (21A: ___ Dantès, the Count of Monte Cristo). Hurray literature. But then I totally blanked on O'BRIEN (38A: Winston's tormenter in "1984"). Boo, literature! Tough, but ultimately fair. Solid, acceptable work, even if I was irked more than I was scintillated.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging
THEME:say the circled letters— all themers are clued [See circled letters]. If you say the circled letters aloud (i.e. if themer has two circled Cs, "seize"; if it has two circled Gs, "Jeez!"; etc.) you get the clue for that answer:
Theme answers:
- CONFISCATE (Cs = seize)
- LIFE OF RILEY (Es = ease)
- GOOD GOLLY (Gs = Jeez)
- FLIRT WITH (Ts = tease)
- SCRUTINIZES (Is = eyes)
- RUN THROUGH (Us = use)
Niobium, formerly columbium, is a chemical element with symbol Nb (formerly Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a soft, grey, ductiletransition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite. The name comes from Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus since it is so similar to tantalum. (wikipedia)
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Cluing was generally hard, mostly by being vague. The thing that might crash and break is a WAVE. Antarctica is ARID (not whatever cold-related adj comes most readily to mind ... COLD, maybe). Musical trio refers not to the players but the notes. Etc. etc. etc. On my first pass through the top, answers were pretty sparse. I thought Lake Volta was in S. America, and so I was thinking LAPAZ or SUCRE at 1A: Capital south of Lake Volta (ACCRA). RERUN for REAIR (14A: Show in syndication, say). I didn't know "Cant" and ARGOT could be synonyms. I think of the former as dishonest, self-serving talk and the latter as simply a specialized language. So that was weird. One of my first certain entries (besides TACO) was EDMOND (21A: ___ Dantès, the Count of Monte Cristo). Hurray literature. But then I totally blanked on O'BRIEN (38A: Winston's tormenter in "1984"). Boo, literature! Tough, but ultimately fair. Solid, acceptable work, even if I was irked more than I was scintillated.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]