Constructor: Dan Margolis
Relative difficulty: Normal Monday (maybe slightly on the easy side)
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THEME: BOY MEETS GIRL (50A: Beginning of a rom-com ... or a description of 20-, 36- and 41-Across)— famous actors whose last names can also be women's names:
Theme answers:
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This is perfectly acceptable. I like a puzzle that isn't afraid to go light on the theme material. Theme density is fine, but slightly overrated, IMHO. I think there should be room for 3- and 4-answer themes. Adding that extra themer runs the risk of a. stretching the theme too far, or b. compromising the fill, both of which risk diminishing solver enjoyment. I will say that for a theme this light, I do wish the fill had been slightly cleaner / stronger. It wasn't terrible, but with a simple theme like this, with just 42 squares involved, maybe LESS of the IONA / ENYA / BERNE / VEES-type stuff (to say nothing of the execrable and unnecessary HAVEI). This puzzle could've been from 30 years ago, but today, that's not so bad. It's light, airy fun, and the revealer delivers a small but genuine aha moment.
I felt slower than I ended up being, largely because I drew a total blank on an important, corner-rounding word: AMATOL. I just don't know what that is. Or didn't. I've seen it. I'm sure it's been an answer before. I had a small inkling of the letter involved ... but one of them was a "Y" (AMATYL?), so I didn't put anything in until I got all the crosses, and at least one of the crosses (ORIENT) didn't come easily. I basically had to go elsewhere and then loop back around and fill that eastern section from below. I also had CARA before CARO, and ICON before INFO (54D: Help desk offering) (I think my brain was thinking "desktop"). I also completely blanked on SANDY (32D: Devastating hurricane of 2012). Utterly. Totally. Five-letter hurricane = IRENE. After that, I'm out. And then the -ING suffix on PARTYING (39D: Spring break activity in Miami Beach or Cabo) eluded me completely because I was thinking of something very beach-specific (PARTY BOAT?), and so once again, Acrosses to the rescue. And still, my time was 2:50, which is something close to dead normal.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Normal Monday (maybe slightly on the easy side)
Theme answers:
- BILLY CRYSTAL (20A: Actor who has hosted the Oscars nine times, a number second only to Bob Hope) (Why is that trivia appended to the end of the clue??! Weird. Adds nothing.)
- RAUL JULIA (36A: He played Gomez in 1991's "The Addams Family")
- JOHN CANDY (41A: Comic actor who was an original cast member of SCTV)
nounnoun: amatol
• • •
I felt slower than I ended up being, largely because I drew a total blank on an important, corner-rounding word: AMATOL. I just don't know what that is. Or didn't. I've seen it. I'm sure it's been an answer before. I had a small inkling of the letter involved ... but one of them was a "Y" (AMATYL?), so I didn't put anything in until I got all the crosses, and at least one of the crosses (ORIENT) didn't come easily. I basically had to go elsewhere and then loop back around and fill that eastern section from below. I also had CARA before CARO, and ICON before INFO (54D: Help desk offering) (I think my brain was thinking "desktop"). I also completely blanked on SANDY (32D: Devastating hurricane of 2012). Utterly. Totally. Five-letter hurricane = IRENE. After that, I'm out. And then the -ING suffix on PARTYING (39D: Spring break activity in Miami Beach or Cabo) eluded me completely because I was thinking of something very beach-specific (PARTY BOAT?), and so once again, Acrosses to the rescue. And still, my time was 2:50, which is something close to dead normal.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]