Constructor: Sam Trabucco
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: LLOYD Price (47D: Price of R&B) —
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This grid is original, though part of that originality involves rolling with words and phrases that are unfamiliar or odd or new or otherwise kind of head-cocking / "?"-inducing. Every long Across in the NW, for instance—I don't have complaints about those answers, but every one of them had me going "Is ... that a thing? Is that spelled right? I know those words, but do they really go together?" Otter pops are a real things, so OTTER PUP made me wonder ... and then the spelling of PUH-LEASE ... felt right, but obviously there's no real authority there ... and I have never heard of an UBER POOL, though I can infer what that is, I guess (like a carpool for people who don't own cars?). "YEAH, DUDE" also falls into this "O...K" category. I know what a beta test is, obviously, but haven't seen BETA TESTER. I'll just take your word for it that DATA TYPE is a thing. Also ARM BAR. But in the end, LLOYD Price was the only thing that was a total "?", and the crosses were all solid, so no sweat. The whole thing felt like work, but I never got seriously stalled. Finished just under 8. I think that's Medium. I'm not sure.
I can picture Simone BILES but I totally forgot her last name and BILES just looks weird in isolation somehow. When I say it, I know it's right, but when I look at it, again, I'm making that "is that right?" face. The opposite phenomenon happened to me with Sylvia SYMS, i.e. I can't picture her at all, but her name just came to me and felt right (51D: Sylvia of jazz). Parsing a number of these answers was very hard, starting with PUH-LEASE and then continuing with MS DEGREE and especially P.E. TEACHER, which looked like a "pet ... something" (36D: One with whom your relationship is working out, briefly?). People are complaining on Twitter that because CHASE UTLEY was not a Dodger when he "won four consecutive Silver Slugger Awards beginning in 2006," that clue is inaccurate or at least misleading (13D: Dodgers second baseman who won four consecutive Silver Slugger Awards beginning in 2006). I took one look at the clue, then one look at the "L-Y" already sitting at the end of that answer, and had zero problems. Also, if you don't know who CHASE UTLEY is ... you picked a bad week to skip the Friday puzzle (back-to-back Utleez!). Most embarrassing moment was having -AINES and going "HAINES? ... GAINES?" Then I remembered what the letters in LBJ stand for. Ugh (44D: Presidential middle name).
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Wrong answers I had:
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Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: LLOYD Price (47D: Price of R&B) —
Lloyd Price (born March 9, 1933) is an AmericanR&Bvocalist, known as "Mr. Personality", after one of his million-selling hits. His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for Specialty Records in 1952. He continued to release records, but none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. (wikipedia)
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I can picture Simone BILES but I totally forgot her last name and BILES just looks weird in isolation somehow. When I say it, I know it's right, but when I look at it, again, I'm making that "is that right?" face. The opposite phenomenon happened to me with Sylvia SYMS, i.e. I can't picture her at all, but her name just came to me and felt right (51D: Sylvia of jazz). Parsing a number of these answers was very hard, starting with PUH-LEASE and then continuing with MS DEGREE and especially P.E. TEACHER, which looked like a "pet ... something" (36D: One with whom your relationship is working out, briefly?). People are complaining on Twitter that because CHASE UTLEY was not a Dodger when he "won four consecutive Silver Slugger Awards beginning in 2006," that clue is inaccurate or at least misleading (13D: Dodgers second baseman who won four consecutive Silver Slugger Awards beginning in 2006). I took one look at the clue, then one look at the "L-Y" already sitting at the end of that answer, and had zero problems. Also, if you don't know who CHASE UTLEY is ... you picked a bad week to skip the Friday puzzle (back-to-back Utleez!). Most embarrassing moment was having -AINES and going "HAINES? ... GAINES?" Then I remembered what the letters in LBJ stand for. Ugh (44D: Presidential middle name).
- BLAT (2D: Big blow for a musician? => TUBA)
- ILL (60D: Trouble => ADO)
- PGA (7D: Tour grp. => USO)
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