Constructor:Paolo Pasco
Relative difficulty:Medium (actually ATAD on the slow side for me, but I'm not myself this morning)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day:KEN'S(56A: Salad dressing brand) —
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I normally crush this kid's puzzles, but not today. Stumble stumble bumble. My first foray into that NW corner—total Bowling Green Massacre (look it up!). I feel like DRUNK DIAL shoulda been a gimme (1A: Call from a bar, maybe), but phone call never occurred to me. Even when I saw the first word could be DRUNK, I was like "DRUNKS ... OUT!"? Do bartenders say that? I doubt it. And then I just came up blank on everything. Thought gymnastics at 1D: Tumbling equipment (DRYERS). Had the "U" from SUCKS (a gimme!) (27A: "Your Movie ___" (Rober Ebert book)), and thus thought 2D: Tear into ended in UP (some equivalent of RIP UP). Couldn't see THEEU to save my life (31A: What's exited in Brexit). Man that is one ugly answer. Correct, but yipes. ___-Luddite. Even that stumped me. Considered NEO, but also considered PRE- (which now seems ... redundant). ISABEL? Uh, no idea (7D: Juan Peròn's third wife). Never saw "Thor" (sorry, RENE RUSSO) (15A: She played Odin's wife in "Thor"). So that corner alone destroyed me. I actually had to *finish* there, it was so bad. Luckily, the rest was less brutal.
Small corners were cake, big corners less so. I got handed some pretty useful answers (ZEVON, PAWNEE, THERON, SUCKS), but they never seemed to help that much. Well, that "Z" from ZEVON probably did. After the NW, there were really no Disasters except 63A: "Keep your pants on!" (IN A MOMENT). Did you know SECOND and MINUTE both fit in MOMENT's place!? I'm guessing at least a few of you do, in fact, know that. Now. I kept trying to get [Caregivers' org.] (which is not in a million years how I would describe the AMA) (I think of nurses as giving the actual "care"), but with SECOND in there, I was like "... ACA? I mean, I'm all for it, but it's ... not a caregivers' ... org. Is it?" It is not. But I *somehow* knew [Marcel Marceau moniker] was BIP, so I was able to power the other longer Acrosses across (BIKE LANES!) and fixed that corner way faster than its NW counterpart. Really good work overall, w/ clues that (initially) just baffled (solve-upon-waking-at-5am) me.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Medium (actually ATAD on the slow side for me, but I'm not myself this morning)
Word of the Day:KEN'S(56A: Salad dressing brand) —
Ken's Foods is a privately held food manufacturing company located in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Ken's primary products are salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. The company's commercial food manufacturing divisions produce products both for retail sale and food service, including contract manufacturing for companies such as Newman's Own. (wikipedia)
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Small corners were cake, big corners less so. I got handed some pretty useful answers (ZEVON, PAWNEE, THERON, SUCKS), but they never seemed to help that much. Well, that "Z" from ZEVON probably did. After the NW, there were really no Disasters except 63A: "Keep your pants on!" (IN A MOMENT). Did you know SECOND and MINUTE both fit in MOMENT's place!? I'm guessing at least a few of you do, in fact, know that. Now. I kept trying to get [Caregivers' org.] (which is not in a million years how I would describe the AMA) (I think of nurses as giving the actual "care"), but with SECOND in there, I was like "... ACA? I mean, I'm all for it, but it's ... not a caregivers' ... org. Is it?" It is not. But I *somehow* knew [Marcel Marceau moniker] was BIP, so I was able to power the other longer Acrosses across (BIKE LANES!) and fixed that corner way faster than its NW counterpart. Really good work overall, w/ clues that (initially) just baffled (solve-upon-waking-at-5am) me.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]