Constructor:Andrew Zhou
Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*)
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THEME: NON KOSHER (57A: Like the four things named in the circled squares)— just what it says:
Theme answers:
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This was a mess for me. I mean, a mess to solve. The theme is OK, if a bit wobbly and uneven, but the clues, in parts, felt Not Tuesday. Fine, but tougher than I expected. Let's start with the theme, which was awkwardly expressed, from my vantage point, for several reasons. First, I didn't really notice it until HALAL (65A: Opposite of 57-Across, to Muslims), which is in the *position* of a potential revealer (final Across answer) but is ultimately not directly related to the theme *at all*. Symmetrical with HALAL is ... CHOPS ... which ... was that clued as somehow PORK-related, in an earlier draft? Seems like an odd coincidence to have CHOPS at 1-A in a clue about NON-KOSHER foods and have it *not* relate to pork. Weird. Further, LARD is not a meat, when the other NON-KOSHER things ... are. BACON and PORK are ... the same meat. PORK is not embedded across two words the way the other themers are, so style points off there. NBA CONFERENCE is a pretty weak stand-alone answer, though I appreciate how hard it must've been to embed "bacon" in any two-word phrase, let alone one of a particular length. The whole thing works, in that it is a functional, defensible puzzle, but as I said, wobble wobble.
The roughness of my solve came largely from the NW (where I always start), which had a passel of late-week, unexpected clues. Accurate, fine, but not Tuesday—not in a bunch like that. 1A: Musical talent, informally I wanted something like ... EAR, not CHOPS. ONE UP is not obvious as a verb (3D: Outdo). CRISP is not not not obvious as a noun (1D: Cousin of a cobbler). And RAN IT? Forget it. No idea what was going on there. I mean, I can see, now, how you might say it in a theater-related sentence, but that is just bad fill. Acceptable to hold something together in a late-week puzzle, maybe, but there's nothing even particularly *theater* about it. The past tense adds another level of ugh-ery. Stumbled over yet another theater clue at MAJESTIC—I had the -AJ- and quickly wrote in TAJ MAHAL. It fit. Lucky me. 56A: Meeting point for tailors? (SEAM) crossing 52D: Kind of client (E-MAIL), also super-Tuesday tricky for me. Throw in my inability to spell PINOCHLE, and my going for GAPED over the icky OOHED at 7D: Expressed amazement, and you get the full effect of my inelegant progress through this grid. I mean, look at this:
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I solved this at runtpuz.org, where you can upload any puzzle in .puz format and solve in their applet and then get a bunch of stats afterward. The interface needs a lot of work, and I don't fully understand all the stats, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. The above grid represent first 1/3 (green) second 1/3 (white) and last 1/3 (red) of my solve. If I'm killing a puzzle, those colors are self-contained blocks, usually with green in the N/NW, white in the center/E/S, and red in the S/SW. Not a lot of jumping around when I find a puzzle easy. But the above grid, yikes. That is some flailing. I mean, the green and red hold together OK, but the white shows you how badly I was jumping around. SO many answers have three different colored squares in them. Such inefficiency. Sigh. Anyway, try runtpuz.org for yourself sometimes. Here's all the data for my solve today.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. "There's so many ways to clue BOYS, and you have to go with this stupid [turns on hair dryer so I can no longer hear her totally justifiable complaints]"—my wife. (63A: Word before and after "will be")
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*)
Theme answers:
- AHA MOMENT (18A: When you get it)
- POPULAR DEMAND (23A: Something might be brought back by this)
- SPORK (37A: Versatile eating implement)
- NBA CONFERENCE (47A: Eastern or Western, for hoopsters)
The Majestic Theatre is a Broadwaytheatre located at 245 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. It is one of the largest Broadway theatres with 1,645 seats, and traditionally has been used as a venue for major musical theatre productions. Among the notable shows that have premiered at the Majestic are Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The Music Man (1957), Camelot (1960), A Little Night Music (1973), and The Wiz (1975). It was also the second home of 42nd Street and the third home of 1776. The theatre has housed The Phantom of the Opera since it opened on January 26, 1988. With a record-breaking 11,335 performances to date, it is currently the longest-running production in Broadway history. (wikipedia)
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The roughness of my solve came largely from the NW (where I always start), which had a passel of late-week, unexpected clues. Accurate, fine, but not Tuesday—not in a bunch like that. 1A: Musical talent, informally I wanted something like ... EAR, not CHOPS. ONE UP is not obvious as a verb (3D: Outdo). CRISP is not not not obvious as a noun (1D: Cousin of a cobbler). And RAN IT? Forget it. No idea what was going on there. I mean, I can see, now, how you might say it in a theater-related sentence, but that is just bad fill. Acceptable to hold something together in a late-week puzzle, maybe, but there's nothing even particularly *theater* about it. The past tense adds another level of ugh-ery. Stumbled over yet another theater clue at MAJESTIC—I had the -AJ- and quickly wrote in TAJ MAHAL. It fit. Lucky me. 56A: Meeting point for tailors? (SEAM) crossing 52D: Kind of client (E-MAIL), also super-Tuesday tricky for me. Throw in my inability to spell PINOCHLE, and my going for GAPED over the icky OOHED at 7D: Expressed amazement, and you get the full effect of my inelegant progress through this grid. I mean, look at this:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. "There's so many ways to clue BOYS, and you have to go with this stupid [turns on hair dryer so I can no longer hear her totally justifiable complaints]"—my wife. (63A: Word before and after "will be")
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]