Constructor: Patrick Berry
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: KATE SPADE (58A: Bag lady?) —
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Another lovely puzzle from Mr. Berry. This one fought me more than his puzzles normally do, though at just under 7 minutes, I still have to put this one solidly in the "Medium" range for a Friday. The NW and SE corners were much more troublesome than their counterparts. Something about a chunk of open space that's 5x5 (or bigger) really presents a serious impediment to traction. Even with those long answers running through, I needed a lot of help. In fact, my first pass at the NW was a total bust. I had ANIME (5D: Miyazaki film genre), but then an amazing string of wrong answers in the Acrosses: TULSA for OMAHA (1A: Where Union Pacific is headquartered), TREVI for CAPRI (17A: Site of Tiberius' Villa Jovis), GAME for CABS (25A: Checkers, for instance), OTO for UTE (32A: Onetime Arapaho foe), and TET for ... well TET. I got that one right. Moved down to SW and thought maybe POLEMEN (?) for 40D: Gondoliers, but the MEN part gave me EBON, and that "B" was a godsend. CRAB went in and that whole corner went down lickety-split. From there I wormed my way back up into the NW and finally worked things out. Having the -TTA gave me "OH! CALCUTTA!" (1D: Broadway musical with two exclamation points in its name) and from there I was home free (in that section).
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Went with NAIL TRIMMER at first, but that was easily fixed via CLAIR (34D: Huxtable family mom). Thought NE was going to give me trouble, but Right Said FRED was a gimme (13D: Dance-pop trio Right Said ___), and once again a "B" came to my rescue via BEEP, which gave me MCRIB (8D: Fast-food debut of 1981). The rest was just a matter of some quick hacking. SE came last and was about as tough as the NW, but with far fewer wrong answers. Far fewer answers in general—and I had the tops of all the long Downs! OPENED ... something? SELF- ... something? TRIL-? TRIC-? Is TRICORDERS a thing? (3D: Hand-held "Star Trek" devices) (side note: I just watched episode 1 of "Star Trek: TNG" only an hour or so before doing this puzzle—I don't remember TRICORDERS. Do they record things thrice?). I never know which "Sports div." is going to be involved — AFL, NFL, NFC, AFC, QRSTUV? Anyway, lots and lots of Es and Rs in that final section, so the answer that finally kicked stuff loose for me was ALIKE, with its golden K. Last letter was the "F" in THE FED (54A: Bubble handler?), which it took me running the alphabet to get.
Bullets:
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: KATE SPADE (58A: Bag lady?) —
Kate Brosnahan Spade (born Katherine Noel Brosnahan; December 24, 1962) is the co-founder and namesake of the designer brand, kate spade New York. [...] Kate Spade and Joel Franklin launched their New York-based design company "kate spade handbags" in January 1993. As the name implies, they initially started out selling mainly handbags, but eventually extended to include stationery, personal organizers, address books, shoes, beauty products, perfume, raincoats, pajamas, and eyewear. In 2004, "kate spade at home" was launched as a home collection brand. It features bedding, bath items, china, wallpaper and various items for the home. (wikipedia)
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Bullets:
- 39A: Dread Zeppelin or the Fab Faux (TRIBUTE BAND) — great answer. This reminds me that Abba: The Concert is coming here this fall. "Not a typical tribute band, Abba: The Concert features members of the original ABBA band and has sold out shows in the Hollywood Bowl and played for crowds 20,000 strong!" I love Abba, but canNot imagine paying to see any TRIBUTE BAND.
- 50A: Country whose flag is known as the Saltire (SCOTLAND) — dang. I lived there for several months, you'd think I'd know this.
- 33D: Sea creature whose name means "sailor" (NAUTILUS) — this sounds like a mythical sea creature (to me), but it's just a mollusk of some sort, right? Yes. With the famous logarithmic spiral.