Constructor: Joel Fagliano and Sam Ezersky
Relative difficulty: Challenging (over 5!?)
THEME: phffffff .... OK, so regular words are clued by lists of three things, and you take the first letters of those things (in order) and then the type of thing those things are and then you get the answer ta da!—
Theme answers:
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This was super-rough for me. I mean, really hard. NW a disaster, as both the themer and DAD ROCK totally eluded me (perhaps because the biggest Steely Dan fan I know is a woman in her 30s) (3D: Genre for Dire Straits and Steely Dan, facetiously). Eventually, finally, picked up theme at APOSTATES, but even knowing the theme, it was a slog. ARCADIA, hard (2D: Domain of Pan, in Greek myth). ARS NOVA, nuts (29D: Classical music style whose name means "new art"). Zloty, I know, but GROSZ? No. And then soooo much ugsome cross-referencing. Had GOOD DAY before NICE DAY (26A: Something much-wished-for for people), and so CLEAR SKY (31A: Feature of a 26-Across, maybe) was not at all, uh, clear. And then [Heavy 39-Down]? And then [In this puzzle it starts B-E-L]??! So fussy. Kind of a drag to solve. And what the hell is NON-GAY about? (6D: Hetero, say). When are you using that? I see some pretty innocuous uses of it around the internet. For instance, an article entitled, "What's It Like Being Gay and NON-GAY Identical Twins?" (Vice). So, you know, it's defensible. Just ... I dunno. I'm eyeing it warily.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (over 5!?)
Theme answers:
- M, A, R KINGS (19A: Midas, Agamemnon, Richard)
- P, A, S SPORTS (32A: Polo, archery, soccer)
- H, U, S BANDS (51A: Heart, U2, Slayer)
- A, P, O STATES (15D: Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio)
- D, I, A TRIBES (27D: Dakota, Iroquois, Arapaho)
nounnoun: grosz; plural noun: grosze; plural noun: groszy
• • •
As for the theme, it's pretty clever, and definitely unusual. Once you grasp the concept, the themers fall pretty easily (maybe that's why the rest of the grid has been toughened up so much). The constructors are both Shortz employees, so I expect their work to be tighter than average—and I think this puzzle is. I like that they are *trying*, you know, with NON-GAY and DAD ROCK, to be all colloquial and contemporary or whatever. But that stuff can get dicey, esp if it brings stuff like LCD and AMENRA and ODON in its wake.And DAD ROCK is suuuuch an imprecise term. Also slightly snide and ageist, but whatever. They're trying and largely succeeding here, so if the options are YES OR NO, then OK, fine, yes.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]