Constructor: Jerry Miccolis and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Challenging (a minute off my average, which on a Tuesday is a ton)
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THEME: TRIPLE / DOUBLE (37A: With 39-Across, impressive basketball feat ... or a feature shared by the answers to the six starred clues)— themers all have three sets of successive double letters:
Theme answers:
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I've never heard of half the themers, so yeah, this didn't go well. I can kind of sort of imagine what a FEED DOOR is (I imagine it's for ... gerbils or something?) and I can kind of sort of imagine what a HEEL LOOP is (does it keep the leg elevated?) but a WOOD DEER, no, that I cannot imagine, unless it is some kind of Rudolph figurine, in which case, a. it's a "wooden" deer, and b. those are not and have never been "popular." You've got three solid themers—much better to find an equally solid fourth, and then make a clean grid. No need to crowd the damn thing so much, especially when you're crowding it with weakness. Those mystery themers kept me far more stuck than I normally ever get on a Tuesday. Oh, I should probably mention, for you non-basketball fans, that a TRIPLE / DOUBLE is when a player hits double-digits in three of the five main statistical categories: points, assists, rebounds, blocks, and steals (usually points, assists, rebounds).
I was over my *Wednesday* average. I mean, WOOD DEER, come on. And SPOT AD was another disaster for me. That crossing FEED DOOR, with a very vague INCIDENT clue (38D: Episode) and a clue for CRETIN that I did not know was the meaning of CRETIN (47D: Dimwit) all combined to make that SW corner hellish. Even that ACCT clue had me going "???" (46A: Website subscriber's creation: Abbr.) Considering how dense the theme is, the fill is actually fairly decent. I have of course seen ELI plenty, but OLD ELI—that's one I wasn't ready for. Since the SPOT AD clue mentioned political campaigns and I had "S" in place, I kept wanting something like SMEARS. Clue on HIDEF, also hard (70A: Far from fuzzy, for short) (I had HAIRY at first). Honestly, things basically went south right away, at 1-Across, where I wrote in OFAGE instead of GROWN (1A: No longer a minor).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (a minute off my average, which on a Tuesday is a ton)
Theme answers:
- SWEET TOOTH (17A: *Sugar craving)
- WOOD DEER (21A: *Carved figurine popular around Christmas)
- GOOD DEED (23A: *What never goes unpunished, it's said)
- HEEL LOOP (53A: *Wheelchair foot strap)
- FEED DOOR (56A: *Pet cage feature)
- BOOKKEEPER (60A: *Figurehead?) (again with the dumb "?" in a non-"?" theme)
• • •
I was over my *Wednesday* average. I mean, WOOD DEER, come on. And SPOT AD was another disaster for me. That crossing FEED DOOR, with a very vague INCIDENT clue (38D: Episode) and a clue for CRETIN that I did not know was the meaning of CRETIN (47D: Dimwit) all combined to make that SW corner hellish. Even that ACCT clue had me going "???" (46A: Website subscriber's creation: Abbr.) Considering how dense the theme is, the fill is actually fairly decent. I have of course seen ELI plenty, but OLD ELI—that's one I wasn't ready for. Since the SPOT AD clue mentioned political campaigns and I had "S" in place, I kept wanting something like SMEARS. Clue on HIDEF, also hard (70A: Far from fuzzy, for short) (I had HAIRY at first). Honestly, things basically went south right away, at 1-Across, where I wrote in OFAGE instead of GROWN (1A: No longer a minor).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]