Constructor: Gary Larson
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: UP THE ANTE (55A: Increase what is at stake ... or a hint to answering 20-, 30- and 46-Across)— letter string "ANTE" goes up (instead of continuing Across) in the three theme answers:
Theme answers:
E
T
N
WADPOSTER (20A: Where you might see a criminal)
E
T
N
DEBUTABALL (30A: Coming-out party)
E
T
N
DASINFERNO (46A: Account of a hellish trip?)
Word of the Day: Abe BEAME (1A: 1970s New York City mayor) —
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Not too hard to uncover this theme, and not too fun to uncover either. Feels like cheating to have one of the upped ANTEs be just ANTE in reverse, i.e. ETNA. I mean, the least you can do is disguise all the damn ANTEs inside other words. Also, very weird to have ACADEMICS and TURNABOUT just sitting there, same length as the adjacent themers but, you know, not themers. Those answers are in theme answer positions ... but aren't. So that was odd and disappointing. Actual theme answers in the grid are gibberish—nothing wacky about them. More disappointment. Fill is average to below average. There are some mildly interesting bits (IN DISARRAY, DRINKATHON), but mostly this is pretty bland fare. The only real inventive part involved finding places to put the upped ANTE. I don't count ETNA as "inventive," but PET NAMES and WETNAP work. "ETNA," it turns out, is not an easy letter string to work with. Still, would've liked this puzzle at least a tiny bit better if VIETNAM could've been worked in somehow (instead of ETNA).
My NYC mayor knowledge does not go back to BEAME, so even though I've seen his name before, I needed almost every cross (1A: 1970s New York City mayor). Had no idea there was a [Soviet nuclear-powered submarine] called ALFA. I'm assuming Gary Larson is 10-to-20 years older than I am, given his frame of reference (and heavy reliance on old-school crossword answers, e.g. SWIT, ROC, AGAR, ESAU, RAU, etc.) Slowed myself way down with adjacent wrong letter guesses at 37A: J.F.K. posting, for short and 42A: Something a Mississippi cheerleader repeatedly calls for. ETA / ANS instead of ETD / ANI. Yet another thing that did not endear me to this puzzle. Wrong guesses are a part of solving life, but when they pile up, and they are in bad fill, pleasure diminishes. OK, gotta go make sure all the teenagers are out of my house now, i.e be the annoying dad, i.e. be myself. Bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
E
T
N
WADPOSTER (20A: Where you might see a criminal)
E
T
N
DEBUTABALL (30A: Coming-out party)
E
T
N
DASINFERNO (46A: Account of a hellish trip?)
Word of the Day: Abe BEAME (1A: 1970s New York City mayor) —
Abraham David "Abe" Beame (March 20, 1906 – February 10, 2001) was the 104th Mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, during which the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy. (wikipedia)
• • •
My NYC mayor knowledge does not go back to BEAME, so even though I've seen his name before, I needed almost every cross (1A: 1970s New York City mayor). Had no idea there was a [Soviet nuclear-powered submarine] called ALFA. I'm assuming Gary Larson is 10-to-20 years older than I am, given his frame of reference (and heavy reliance on old-school crossword answers, e.g. SWIT, ROC, AGAR, ESAU, RAU, etc.) Slowed myself way down with adjacent wrong letter guesses at 37A: J.F.K. posting, for short and 42A: Something a Mississippi cheerleader repeatedly calls for. ETA / ANS instead of ETD / ANI. Yet another thing that did not endear me to this puzzle. Wrong guesses are a part of solving life, but when they pile up, and they are in bad fill, pleasure diminishes. OK, gotta go make sure all the teenagers are out of my house now, i.e be the annoying dad, i.e. be myself. Bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]