Constructor: John R. O'Brien
Relative difficulty: Normal Monday
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THEME: ONE / EYE (39A: With 32-Across, what the answers to the starred clues each have) — pretty self-explanatory
Theme answers:
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SEWING NEEDLE or something that would've taken the EYE away from human beings might've been nice here, as Sammy and Bazooka both have the same kind of one-eye-ness. POLYPHEMUS was a cyclops ... and Odysseus ends up putting out his one eye, so does POLYPHEMUS have *any* eyes, really? I found the theme concept a little odd, a little bleak. I had no idea BAZOOKA JOE had only one eye. Wikipedia can say he's "one of the more recognizable American advertising characters of the 20th century," but I could not have picked him out of a line-up. I think my parents' generation might've been more familiar with him. Just like they were more familiar with SAMMY DAVIS, JR., and *their* parents were more familiar with MODEL TS (the puzzle skews toward times of YORE, is what I'm saying. YOREward, it skews). SEEGER, also parents' gen. ELSA Lanchester. The Lone Ranger. EERO Saarinen. And it's not just that all the pop cultural answers are old, it's that the fill in general is very old-school crosswordy. "ERES Tu?" There's really no excuse for EGAD and ERES in such a tiny section, in a non-demanding grid. OSAY? ATEN? HEMAL, on a Monday? The fill should be much, much, much cleaner than this. More current would be nice, but cleaner is pretty much required.
Pretty fast, which is pretty typical for this day of the week, but HADJI gave me pause (around here, I only ever hear that term used racistly), and I couldn't get ICKY off just the "I" (37D: Highly off-putting), and I got the verb tense wrong at SAW TO (wrote in SEE TO) (40D: Handled, as a task). And then there was the ITEM clue (58A: Part of a list with bullets), which ... why is the "bullets" part there? Our shopping lists, which always contain ITEMs, never contain bullets. And my bullet lists almost never contain ITEMs. Usually tasks. The whole "bullet" thing was weird—added info that only created confusion, not clarity. Overall, this was dry, and I'd like to send it back. Come on, Tuesday!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Normal Monday
Theme answers:
- POLYPHEMUS (18A: *Monster outsmarted by Odysseus)
- SAMMY DAVIS, JR. (26A: *Rat Pack member who sang and danced)
- JACK OF SPADES (42A: *Black face card whose face is seen in profile)
- BAZOOKA JOE (54A: *Comic character on a gum wrapper)
Bazooka Joe is a comic strip character featured on small comics included inside individually wrapped pieces of Bazooka bubblegum. He wears a black eyepatch, lending him a distinctive appearance. He is one of the more recognizable American advertising characters of the 20th century, due to worldwide distribution, and one of the few identifiable ones associated with a candy.With sales of Bazooka bubble gum down, Bazooka Candy Brands announced in November 2012 that they will no longer include the comic strip in their packaging. The new wrapper will include brain teasers, instructions, and codes that can be used to unlock videos and video games. The company stated that Bazooka Joe and other characters will occasionally appear on the new packaging. (wikipedia)
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Pretty fast, which is pretty typical for this day of the week, but HADJI gave me pause (around here, I only ever hear that term used racistly), and I couldn't get ICKY off just the "I" (37D: Highly off-putting), and I got the verb tense wrong at SAW TO (wrote in SEE TO) (40D: Handled, as a task). And then there was the ITEM clue (58A: Part of a list with bullets), which ... why is the "bullets" part there? Our shopping lists, which always contain ITEMs, never contain bullets. And my bullet lists almost never contain ITEMs. Usually tasks. The whole "bullet" thing was weird—added info that only created confusion, not clarity. Overall, this was dry, and I'd like to send it back. Come on, Tuesday!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]