Constructor: Peter A. Collins
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: Trigonometric functions — abbrs. of trig functions embedded in themers (with TRIG embedded in center answer)
Theme answers:
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Completely unremarkable theme. The embedded abbrs. are all really common (less than desirable) crossword answers, and there was no revealer (I'd hardly call that central answer a real revealer) or wordplay or anything, so theme-wise there was no real interest here. I mean, even if you're really into math, I just don't see how there's much here for you, and from a crossword perspective, there's really nothing. You don't need the theme, don't need to know anything about trig, etc. Embedding very short letter strings in longer answers is not hard at all. The theme type is old, as is almost everything about this puzzle, which feels straight out of ... well, decades ago. VIRNA Lisi??? You always gotta be careful with your proper nouns, but especially with older, obscure proper nouns, when your puzzle is already creaking with crosswordese. VIRNA next to ENIAC next to GTOS ... says quite a lot about this puzzle's cultural center of gravity. Then there's the fill, which is very stale on the whole OSHA DIAS ECCE all abutting one another; ESSO crossing OSS; IWO ANS HOS CLIC ... it's very, very rough and stuffy. THANI? HAD ON *and* THREW ON, not just repeating "ON" but repeating the sartorial meaning of "ON"? Puzzle reminds me of the sandwich my wife was served the other night—tough and lukewarm, like it had been sitting out under an insufficiently-powered heat lamp for some time.
I did find the puzzle interesting where my own personal failures were concerned. Sometimes my brain just refuses to process information correctly. I can be humming along, destroying a puzzle, and then I hit a perfectly ordinary clue and for some reason the wheels just come off. The patch of the grid in the northwest, from LOW to VIRNA (inclusive), was quicksand for me today. VIRNA because what the hell?—getting stuck there was not surprising—but LOW? LOW did not make any sense to me until after I was done with the puzzle. I kept looking at the clue thinking "I don't get it. [Gear for going up hills]? LOW? Surely it's TOW ... like TOW bar ... LOW what? Is there some weird rebus happening here?!" I sincerely didn't think of LOW as a gear *on an automobile* until after I was finished. Skiing "gear" was the only gear my brain was entertaining. Bizarre. I don't think I've ever put an automatic transmission in LOW. Maybe it's not called LOW on my car? I remember very well using 1st or 2nd, when I had a manual transmission. Anyway, LOW as a "gear" just baffled me. Ridiculous (by which I mean *my brain* is ridiculous). I also couldn't parse HIT A NERVE to save my life. HIT AN... and I all I can think is HIT AND RUN (which fit, but of course made no sense). If the latter part of HIT A NERVE hadn't involved VIRNA, maybe I'd've gotten traction more quickly. Also had God in mind when I encountered 25D: Lord's subject (SERF), because two seconds earlier I'd encountered 23D: Lord's Prayer possessive (THY). Phew. So LOW-to-VIRNA, disastrous for me. The rest, no memory. Very, very easy.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- STAY INSIDE (17A: Is a recluse)
- TACO STAND (21A: Shell station?)
- LEFT, RIGHT (35A: When repeated, marching orders?)
- WACO, TEXAS (46A: City on the Brazos River)
- MORSE CODE (52A: Where S is ...)
- MUSIC SCHOOL (58A: Place where students are graded on a scale?)
Virna Pieralisi (pronounced [ˈvirna pjeraˈliːzi]; 8 November 1936 – 18 December 2014), better known as Virna Lisi [ˈvirna ˈliːzi], was an Italian actress. Her film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), Beyond Good and Evil (1977), and Follow Your Heart (1996). For the 1994 film La Reine Margot, she won Best Actress at Cannes and the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. (wikipedia)
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I did find the puzzle interesting where my own personal failures were concerned. Sometimes my brain just refuses to process information correctly. I can be humming along, destroying a puzzle, and then I hit a perfectly ordinary clue and for some reason the wheels just come off. The patch of the grid in the northwest, from LOW to VIRNA (inclusive), was quicksand for me today. VIRNA because what the hell?—getting stuck there was not surprising—but LOW? LOW did not make any sense to me until after I was done with the puzzle. I kept looking at the clue thinking "I don't get it. [Gear for going up hills]? LOW? Surely it's TOW ... like TOW bar ... LOW what? Is there some weird rebus happening here?!" I sincerely didn't think of LOW as a gear *on an automobile* until after I was finished. Skiing "gear" was the only gear my brain was entertaining. Bizarre. I don't think I've ever put an automatic transmission in LOW. Maybe it's not called LOW on my car? I remember very well using 1st or 2nd, when I had a manual transmission. Anyway, LOW as a "gear" just baffled me. Ridiculous (by which I mean *my brain* is ridiculous). I also couldn't parse HIT A NERVE to save my life. HIT AN... and I all I can think is HIT AND RUN (which fit, but of course made no sense). If the latter part of HIT A NERVE hadn't involved VIRNA, maybe I'd've gotten traction more quickly. Also had God in mind when I encountered 25D: Lord's subject (SERF), because two seconds earlier I'd encountered 23D: Lord's Prayer possessive (THY). Phew. So LOW-to-VIRNA, disastrous for me. The rest, no memory. Very, very easy.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]