Skater Henie / MON 7-15-13 / Nasty online argument / Tour de France conveyance / Tom of Forrest Gump / Furry inhabitant of the forest moon of Endor

Constructor: Jeff Chen and Angela Olson Halsted

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: RAID to RUDE vowel progression — long vowels sounds move up the alphabet as you move from top to bottom of the grid


Theme answers:

• 20A: Get a midnight snack, say (RAID THE FRIDGE)
• 28A: Find a subtext of (READ INTO)
• 37A: Leave by horseback, as into the sunset (RIDE OFF)
• 46A: Tour de France conveyance (ROAD BIKE)
• 53A: Unpleasant shock (RUDE AWAKENING)

Word of the Day: FLAME WAR (39D: Nasty online argument) —

A flame war results when multiple users engage in provocative responses to an original post - while the original post is usually flamebait, this is not always the case. Flame wars often draw in many users (including those trying to defuse the flame war) and can overshadow regular forum discussion if left unchecked. (wikipedia)

Textbook. A good, old-fashioned vowel progression puzzle. Monday-easy. A few flashy themers. Rock solid fill. Some interesting long Downs. This thing is polished within an inch of its life. Not exciting or astounding, but clean as a whistle, and — as Monday's go — very interesting, fill-wise. Plus, two Xs, a J, and a Z, and none of them forced on us. Full disclosure: these constructors are my friends. But still, I don't think Mondays come much more solid or clean than this. I kind of had some "trouble" (it's Monday, hence the quotation marks) right off the bat, as TUG AT for [Pull on] was not ... intuitive. Easy. I think I was imagining "pulling on" a sweater or other article of clothing. Also did not get FEEDBAG (4D: Item strapped over a horse's head) or FRET OVER (5D: Worry about) right away off those initial Fs. Biggest hold-up, however, came from misspelling SONJA (49A: Skater Henie). I had SONIA. On a Monday, a mistake like that is a disaster, time-wise. I actually got to ADI-STS at 42D: Alters and thought "?????" before finally noticing the theme, getting (fittingly) RUDE AWAKENING, and realizing it wasn't ADIUSTS but ADJUSTS. Made another stupid mistake at the end when I saw HUM--E at 50A: Compassionateand quickly wrote in HUMBLE. "Are you sure you have all the letters right?" (question automatically comes up when you fill in last square). Checked crosses and obviously I did not (the answer is HUMANE). All this mucking around and I still came in under 3. Hence, Easy.


Happy Monday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld