Constructor: Andrew Kingsley
Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)
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THEME: CANDY CANE (36A: Christmas tree decoration ... or a hint to what the circled letters form)— circled squares form four cane shapes, each of which contains the name of a brand of candy. Top of the grid has related answer pair: SWEET / TOOTH (4A: With 14-Across, weakness for sugar):
THE CANES:
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I'm sitting here wondering how, in nearly 2018, so much Maleskan garbage is being allowed into a Tuesday crossword grid. I haven't seen this much super-archaic crosswordese in one puzzle in a while. So: LEU (44D: Romanian currency) and ANSA (33D: Archaeological handle). Can we talk about LEU and ANSA? I mean, we all agree -ETIC is god-awful (the price you pay for trying to cram SWEET / TOOTH in there, I guess), but LEU and ANSA are at least words, so perhaps people will not understand their terribleness. LEU is a word that only hardcore solvers and actual Romanians know. Please don't try to convince me otherwise, because I will immediately ask you "OK, then what's bani?" (it's the plural of ban; there are 100 bani in a LEU; bani is also the Romanian word for "money"—see how smart the internet makes me!). You used to see it back when Maleska thought "People should learn things! Exotic, obscure 3-letter things!" You hardly ever see it now, because a combination of software and good judgment has caused constructors to have to rely less on "it's a word somewhere!" junk. Those of us who have been solving for 25+ years can pull LEU out when we have to, but ick. Ick. So many EWS (also a terrible answer, btw). ANSA falls in the same category as LEU. Old-timey solvers: "Sigh, let me pull out of my Uncle Gene's Big Bag of Crossword Arcana and ... dig around ... yep, here it is ANSE ... nope, that's a Faulkner character, I think ... ASE ... nope, she's in some opera, maybe? ... ABIE ... nope, that's the Irish Rose guy ... here we go: ANSA. Good ol'ANSA. Who could ever forget ...?"
So this puzzle apparently had a theme, one which was both dense enough to crush the Fill Quality under its weight, but inessential enough to be totally invisible until the end. I could feel the circles aplenty, and I could also feel myself not caring (this is the bad fill's fault, not the theme's fault). When you get super-ambitious and full of your grand ideas, you start excusing all the consequences, all the junk that starts popping up in your grid. It all starts looking Just Fine to you because "OOH, my Big Idea, the Precious!" Sadly, I gotta solve all your ideas, small and big. And since I didn't even see the big, the small ... man, the small just destroyed the experience.
Plus this puzzle is totally misslotted on a Tuesday. I was 50% over my normal Tuesday time. And even if I adjust for sunrise solving (always slower), still, rough. The whole SE corner! Just getting in there was rough. Totally forgot the Gilmore girl; RENTAL has one of those stupid "it" clues on it (41A: I'm not buying it!), so no hope. BURST's clue was no help (54D: Succumb to pressure?). SIT's clue—yet another "?" clue—also no help (67A: Put an end to something?). I'm not even sure I get how it fits SIT.*** And "TANGLED"!?!?! I saw that movie in the theater and still couldn't get it. It's a normal word. It's Tuesday. That corner is already a *&%! show. It's Tuesday. Black sheep are RARE!? That is ... not how I think of them, idiomatically. And what is this phrase, "shore dinner"? (64A: Part of a shore dinner) Like ... a dinner you eat on / near the shore? "Shoreside," maybe? Also, shouldn't that clue have a "perhaps" on the end? Or is there some specific MUSSELS requirement now for shore dinners (whatever those are)? #notallshoredinners ... Now I'm looking over at ATROPOS! (40D: Fate who cuts the thread of life). LOL, wow, OK, sure, *Tuesday* puzzle, whatever you say. Seriously, you can hear the puzzle straining under the weight of its theme. I'm worried the whole grid is going to collapse any second. See you later.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
***Re: that SIT clue, my wife just realized that [Put an end to something?] probably refers to putting your *rear* end ... to ... something that I hope is a chair. Or Santa's lap. Something!? Anyway, what a horrible clue.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)
THE CANES:
- AIRHEADS
- STARBURST
- BIT O' HONEY
- POP ROCKS
noun, pluralansae[an-see] 1.Archaeology.aloopedhandle,especiallyofavase.2.Astronomy.eitheroftheapparentextremitiesoftheringsofSaturnorofotherplanets,especiallywhenviewedfromtheearthorfromspacecraftundercertainconditions,whentheylookliketwohandles. (dictionary.com)
• • •
So this puzzle apparently had a theme, one which was both dense enough to crush the Fill Quality under its weight, but inessential enough to be totally invisible until the end. I could feel the circles aplenty, and I could also feel myself not caring (this is the bad fill's fault, not the theme's fault). When you get super-ambitious and full of your grand ideas, you start excusing all the consequences, all the junk that starts popping up in your grid. It all starts looking Just Fine to you because "OOH, my Big Idea, the Precious!" Sadly, I gotta solve all your ideas, small and big. And since I didn't even see the big, the small ... man, the small just destroyed the experience.
Plus this puzzle is totally misslotted on a Tuesday. I was 50% over my normal Tuesday time. And even if I adjust for sunrise solving (always slower), still, rough. The whole SE corner! Just getting in there was rough. Totally forgot the Gilmore girl; RENTAL has one of those stupid "it" clues on it (41A: I'm not buying it!), so no hope. BURST's clue was no help (54D: Succumb to pressure?). SIT's clue—yet another "?" clue—also no help (67A: Put an end to something?). I'm not even sure I get how it fits SIT.*** And "TANGLED"!?!?! I saw that movie in the theater and still couldn't get it. It's a normal word. It's Tuesday. That corner is already a *&%! show. It's Tuesday. Black sheep are RARE!? That is ... not how I think of them, idiomatically. And what is this phrase, "shore dinner"? (64A: Part of a shore dinner) Like ... a dinner you eat on / near the shore? "Shoreside," maybe? Also, shouldn't that clue have a "perhaps" on the end? Or is there some specific MUSSELS requirement now for shore dinners (whatever those are)? #notallshoredinners ... Now I'm looking over at ATROPOS! (40D: Fate who cuts the thread of life). LOL, wow, OK, sure, *Tuesday* puzzle, whatever you say. Seriously, you can hear the puzzle straining under the weight of its theme. I'm worried the whole grid is going to collapse any second. See you later.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
***Re: that SIT clue, my wife just realized that [Put an end to something?] probably refers to putting your *rear* end ... to ... something that I hope is a chair. Or Santa's lap. Something!? Anyway, what a horrible clue.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]