B C F H I K N O P S U V W Y / MON 10-2-2017 / Longtime Time magazine rival, briefly / Lecherous figure of myth / Play and film about a 1977 series of interviews with a former president

Guess who has two thumbs, is turning 20 on Tuesday and is doing the writeup today! It's Annabel! Woohoo!

Constructor: TRENTON CHARLSON

Relative difficulty: EASY



THEME: ALPHABET STRINGS — Theme clues are strings of letters, leaving it up to the solver to find what each string represents.

Theme answers:

• MUSIC NOTES (18A: A B C D E F G)
• LETTER GRADES (23A: A B C D F)
• CHEMICAL SYMBOLS (39A: B C F H I K N O P S U V W Y)
• MOVIE RATINGS (52A: G R X)
• BLOOD TYPES (62A: A B O)

Word of the Day: RIA (38A: Narrow inlet) —

A ria (/riːə/ or /riə/)^[1] is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Typically, rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the dendritic drainage pattern of the flooded river valley. The drowning of river valleys along a stretch of coast and formation of rias results in an extremely irregular and indented coastline. Often, there are islands, which are summits of partly submerged, pre-existing hill peaks.

This one was really fun! Mostly because I loved the theme. I dunno if it was just me, but it actually took me a while to put most of them together, and it was really satisfying when I figured out what each of the sequences meant. Except "chemical symbols," because I'm still confused - are those just the only letters that stand for an individual element? Eh. Also I totally had HIJKLMNOPQ clued for the 18A for an embarrassing amount of time - I thought it was one of those finish-the-pattern things! Hmm, that would be a pretty cool concept for a puzzle...

The fill was pretty cool too, but has anyone seen that FROST/NIXON? It's one of those things I feel like I heard of somewhere and probably shoooould know but didn't. Between LOFTS and BALES, I guess Trenton had hay on his mind. Maybe he was at a farm, or just really likes Monet paintings? And I liked seeing LOUNGE and RECLINE reclining vertically across the grid, that was a neat little detail.

None of the cluing really stuck out, but that was more than made up for by it being a well-balanced Monday! The clues for the three-letter words felt lazier than usual, but ALAS, TIS difficult to clue them better, I guess. The one exception: for AHA I definitely first had WHY, then WHA? Kind of ironic that that clue in particular turned out to be the "tough crossword clue." :P 

Bullets:

• HESS (13D: Company famous for its toy trucks) — Experienced crossword puzzlers: is this one obscure, or am I just too young? Cause, like, I never heard of this company at all. I just remember having Tonka toy trucks. Also a million Thomas the Tank Engine trains. And Hot Wheels. Man, what is it with little kids and vehicles? 
• EEL (28A: Slippery 1-Across) — "Could you show me how to tie my shoes?"
• EARL (67A: _____ of Sandwich) — So um...which came first? Sandwiches or the Earl of Sandwich? Like, I know of him and I know he's some historical figure who conquered some islands but like...did he invent sandwiches? Did his ancestors just really like sandwiches? I know I could just Google this but it's so much more fun to have it be this eternal mystery.
• FERMI (21D: Physicist Enrico) — In high school we did this musical called Zombie Prom (I had like three lines in it I think?) that was basically "Grease, but halfway through Danny - er, 'Jonny' - falls into a vat of nuclear waste and dies before coming back as a zombie." Because that makes sense? Anyway, the name of the high school in the show was Enrico Fermi High, and the point is now I tragically can't read the word "Fermi" without the entire show getting stuck in my head. I can hear the lyrics now: "I wish I could stop ya / But I know I can't / Jonny, Jonny, Jonny don't go / To the nuclear plant!"...Somehow they made this into a movie starring RuPaul and the whole thing's on YouTube if you're interested. 

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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