Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (or deathly, I guess, if you couldn't get proper traction in one or both of those 4x9 corners)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: bear trap (21A: Bear trap fearer => CBER) —
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Not a full puzzle. More like half a puzzle. NW and SE corners are harmless diversions, unfilling appetizers, easily dispatched. The only challenge here are those 4x9 blocks of white space in the NE and SW. For me, those sections put up a little fight, but not that much. I can see how they might've buried a solver. I feel like I was just one RAP BATTLE away from disaster in the NE, with the Acrosses helping me hardly at all—had the HEAD but not the STAND (I thought TWIRL (?)); had PYLE for OPIE at first (18A: 1960s TV character who says "Aw, shucks"); had SLIGHTS (!?) instead of SLIDERS (39A: Little beefs?). Further, I had TOSSING instead of SLAYING (25D: Doing away with). And yet somehow I finagled the DARTS part of BEER DARTS (12D: Pub game), and switched PYLE to OPIE, and then decided to just force RAP BATTLE in there, since that was my memory of the movie (and it fit) (10D: Climactic scene in the Eminem film "8 Mile") (R.I.P. Curtis Hanson). And then everything shifted in my favor. SW corner threatened disaster as well—had only AMENITY thrown across that section for a bit. But then I guessed either TURPITUDE or REVILE, and OVERRULED followed, and then things really fell into place (with a brief interlude of errancy, wherein I had CRAFT FAIR at 29D: Outlet for artisans (CRAFT SHOW).
The rest of this puzzle was cake. MORPH for ADAPT (1D: Change into something else) was the only hold-up in either of those sections. Not nearly as much joy into today's offering, compared to yesterday's. I do like the symmetrical "I'LL PASS" / "YOU'RE ON" pairing. Nice touch. But the rest was kind of a shrug, both content- and clue-wise.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (or deathly, I guess, if you couldn't get proper traction in one or both of those 4x9 corners)
Word of the Day: bear trap (21A: Bear trap fearer => CBER) —
[from wikipedia's "List of CB slang" page]
• • •
The rest of this puzzle was cake. MORPH for ADAPT (1D: Change into something else) was the only hold-up in either of those sections. Not nearly as much joy into today's offering, compared to yesterday's. I do like the symmetrical "I'LL PASS" / "YOU'RE ON" pairing. Nice touch. But the rest was kind of a shrug, both content- and clue-wise.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]