Constructor: Sam Trabucco
Relative difficulty: Normal
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THEME:"Silent Treatment"— familiar phrases clued as if their silent letters didn't exist. Silent letters (in circles) spell out KNIGHT (so ... per the title ... Silent "(K)Night" ... which has like three silent letters in it, actually ... but ... I don't know; I think that's the theme)
Theme answers:
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The basic gimmick here is super duper basic and old. Words have silent letters ... yup, they sure do. So the only "joy" is the wackiness of the clues, which are not very funny, as written. So it's a bit of a dud. Then I thought, well, the circled letters must do something ... and they do. They do spell KNIGHT. Which (I guess?) relates to the title ("Silent Treatment"), in that the puzzle has a silent, if not a holy, KNIGHT in it. OK. It's just ... weird, because the waters are all muddied by the fact that the *word* "KNIGHT" itself has A Bunch of silent letters in it, not just the "K." Also, even though the "k" in "knight" is silent, technically ... in the context of the puzzle ... *every* letter in "knight" is silent. So it's just ... loose and unclear, concept-wise. A puzzle's gimmick / theme / revealer / whatever should *snap* into place. Boom. Pow. There it is. No questions. No loose ends. This theme wasn't that strong to begin with, in its bones, and then the added spelling-"knight" bit, rather than clarifying matters, only raised more questions about what, exactly, the puzzle was trying to do.
Also the puzzle got a little cute in the fill, perhaps because it was trying to make up for a pretty anemic theme, with only six themers in play. Scrabble-f***ing gets you the ludicrous AQUACAR (?) / LOQUAT crossing in the NW and the less explicable DR. OZ / ZETA crossing in the SW. DROP / PETA is better if only because the cluing options for DROP are so much more numerous. You can go thousands of ways with DROP, but only one kinda icky way with the celeb doc. It's patchy, this grid. There's the SNOOP LION / ANTI / TYGA patch in the north, which I kinda like, but which will be very rough for you if you don't follow contemporary R&B/hip-hop music. Then there's the is-this-a-parody-of-bad-crosswords patch in the east, where things break down something awful. TGEL (62A: Neutrogena dandruff shampoo) (what ... is that? whatever it is, it's not good fill), crossing GOT A C (so bad it's almost good but not quite) and the dreaded E-CASH (64D: Digital currency). The puzzle on the whole isn't terrible, but it just never quite found its footing, never quite came together, and was far too ... yeah, patchy, in the end, to be very enjoyable.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. what is a TAROT SPREAD? I have never heard of that? Is that what it's called when the tarot card leader lays out your ... cards? To read? Familiarity-wise, that answer seems like a major outlier.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Normal
THEME:"Silent Treatment"— familiar phrases clued as if their silent letters didn't exist. Silent letters (in circles) spell out KNIGHT (so ... per the title ... Silent "(K)Night" ... which has like three silent letters in it, actually ... but ... I don't know; I think that's the theme)
Theme answers:
- DOUBLE (K)NOTS (23A: Reversals of reversals in sentences?)
- GIVES A DAM(N) (41A: Donates shelter to some beavers?)
- RENAISSANCE FA(I)RE (57A: Soup, black bread and, for the wealthy, meat?)
- REI(G)NING MONARCHS (81A: Kings and queens bringing their steeds to a halt?)
- AFTER (H)OURS (98A: "Excuse me, but my partner's and my kids go first!")
- TARO(T) SPREAD (119A: Feast consisting entirely of Hawaiian foodstuffs?)
Micheal Ray Stevenson (born November 19, 1989), known by his stage name Tyga (a backronym for Thank you God always), is an American rapper. In 2011, Tyga signed a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records (formerly Universal Republic Records). His major label debut Careless World: Rise of the Last King, includes the singles "Rack City", "Faded" featuring fellow Young Money artist Lil Wayne, "Far Away" featuring Chris Richardson, "Still Got It" featuring Drake, and "Make It Nasty". He released his third album Hotel California, on April 9, 2013, and includes the singles "Dope" featuring Rick Ross, "For The Road" featuring Chris Brown, and "Show You" featuring Future. (wikipedia)
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Also the puzzle got a little cute in the fill, perhaps because it was trying to make up for a pretty anemic theme, with only six themers in play. Scrabble-f***ing gets you the ludicrous AQUACAR (?) / LOQUAT crossing in the NW and the less explicable DR. OZ / ZETA crossing in the SW. DROP / PETA is better if only because the cluing options for DROP are so much more numerous. You can go thousands of ways with DROP, but only one kinda icky way with the celeb doc. It's patchy, this grid. There's the SNOOP LION / ANTI / TYGA patch in the north, which I kinda like, but which will be very rough for you if you don't follow contemporary R&B/hip-hop music. Then there's the is-this-a-parody-of-bad-crosswords patch in the east, where things break down something awful. TGEL (62A: Neutrogena dandruff shampoo) (what ... is that? whatever it is, it's not good fill), crossing GOT A C (so bad it's almost good but not quite) and the dreaded E-CASH (64D: Digital currency). The puzzle on the whole isn't terrible, but it just never quite found its footing, never quite came together, and was far too ... yeah, patchy, in the end, to be very enjoyable.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. what is a TAROT SPREAD? I have never heard of that? Is that what it's called when the tarot card leader lays out your ... cards? To read? Familiarity-wise, that answer seems like a major outlier.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]