Constructor: David J. Kahn
Relative difficulty: Challenging (4 flat)
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THEME: BEST MUSICAL (66A: Award won by the starts of 17-, 25-, 39- and 52-Across and 11- and 29-Down)— just what it says...
Theme answers:
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Oof. Slow. Also, I care zero about musicals, but luckily that really had nothing to do with the solve. I got to the revealer at the end and then noticed the theme retrospectively. Since "Tonys" wasn't even mentioned in the clue for BEST MUSICAL, I didn't even consider MUSICAL at first, thinking more of Oscar categories. Honestly, I've never even heard of the musical "Once." But as I say, knowing musicals isn't really important. Maybe it would be if you were somehow stuck in an area that had a musical in it; maybe the theme would help you figure it out. But that wasn't the case for me. It wasn't the musicalness that tripped me up, but the strange answers (like LAP ROBES (???)) and strange clues like 36D: Caste member (ANT). [Colony member], sure, but "Caste"? Yeesh. Also, the bracketed years following the theme clues were really confusing. I kept thinking they'd help and they didn't. In the end, this is just a "first words" puzzle with a boring revealer. Impressive to get the themers to intersect like that, but only technically impressive. Solving pleasure only so-so. Also, I think this shoulda been a Wednesday, but that's neither here nor there, quality-wise.
There's way too much crosswordese here, with OLAN (oy) being the worst but by no means the only oldster in the grid. SMEW! How you been, SMEW? Sorry I thought you were SMEE at first; you guys look a lot alike. NAH is a terrible answer type—it's overcommon junk *and* it's one of that horrible genre of "ugh it could be multiple things don't make me guess why are you making me guess!?" That is, it coulda been NAW. Probably my favorite moment of the solve was writing in WIEST, correcting it to CAINE, and then writing in WIEST for real later on. I just watched that move a month or so ago, and it holds up well. Not as well as "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan" (his best, no matter what he says), but very well.
Got nervous there for a heartbeat when I had no idea what was going on with 25A: Variety of pool [1982]—I thought it was a swimming pool, and wanted NINE-LANE (!?), and dear lord, a 1996 Foo Fighters hit? Not shooting to the forefront of my mind (though it's kinda playing in my head right now ... I think ... if I'm thinking of the right one). This is all to say that that "B" in "BIG ME" / NINE BALL was dicey. But I survived.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (4 flat)
Theme answers:
- ANNIE OAKLEY (17A: Markswoman dubbed "Little Sure Shot" [1977])
- NINE BALL (25A: Variety of pool [1982])
- HAMILTON, BERMUDA (39A: Capital city with only about 1,000 residents [2016])
- RENT ROLL (52A: Landlord's register [1996])
- ONCE AROUND (11D: 400 meters, for an Olympic track [2012])
- COMPANY MAN (29D: Superloyal employee [1971])
n.A blanket or furpieceforcoveringthelap,legs,andfeet, as of a passenger in an unheatedcar or carriage. (thefreedictionary.com)
• • •
There's way too much crosswordese here, with OLAN (oy) being the worst but by no means the only oldster in the grid. SMEW! How you been, SMEW? Sorry I thought you were SMEE at first; you guys look a lot alike. NAH is a terrible answer type—it's overcommon junk *and* it's one of that horrible genre of "ugh it could be multiple things don't make me guess why are you making me guess!?" That is, it coulda been NAW. Probably my favorite moment of the solve was writing in WIEST, correcting it to CAINE, and then writing in WIEST for real later on. I just watched that move a month or so ago, and it holds up well. Not as well as "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan" (his best, no matter what he says), but very well.
Got nervous there for a heartbeat when I had no idea what was going on with 25A: Variety of pool [1982]—I thought it was a swimming pool, and wanted NINE-LANE (!?), and dear lord, a 1996 Foo Fighters hit? Not shooting to the forefront of my mind (though it's kinda playing in my head right now ... I think ... if I'm thinking of the right one). This is all to say that that "B" in "BIG ME" / NINE BALL was dicey. But I survived.
[Yep, it is the (pleasant) song I thought it was]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]