Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Challenging (a Medium Tuesday time for me)
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THEME: SILVER SCREEN (52A: Setting for the answers to the three starred clues—appropriately enough, given their initials)— initials of themers are AG, the symbol for the element silver:
Theme answers:
[It's an extremely big deal among black college students, especially at HBCU. See, for instance...]
• • •
Ten-minutes-ago me:"What the hell is this SWAG SURF *&$^%?!"
Current me: [Binge-watching SWAG SURF videos, swag surfing at my desk, etc.]
My ten minutes of SWAG SURF expertise has led to me to two conclusions, one of which is "swag surfin" is a far more common way to refer to the dance than SWAG SURF, and the other of which is someone needs to write a concise definition / history of the damn dance, 'cause there's not a good one out there. Anything this widespread and joyous deserves proper documentation.
Even before I hit SWAG SURF (for which I needed every cross), this felt tougher than a normal Monday crossword to me. Not tough tough, just tougher than normal. TAKEACUT, not easy. Had TAKE, still no idea. Really wanted ONCE MORE for 23A: "Encore!"; ONE MORE ended up feeling odd. "Heck, yeah" seems more likely than HECK, YES. NIGIRI is known to me but not so known that I could just plunk it down. I never think of the "I" in "business" as "silent." I thought the "letters" in 48D: Letters of support, for short (RECS) were actual letters, like R, E, C ... something? D? Oh, and I know ANDY GARCIA, but I had no idea he was in (the remake of) "Ocean's 11"—doesn't feel like an iconic role, but I'm not sure if he actually has one, actually. Also, the other roles aren't exactly iconic either. "Mogambo"!? LOL, I saw that once 20+ years ago and the only reason I'd even heard of it was because of my Grace Kelly obsession. What's AVA Gardner's iconic role? Does she have one? Is she the ANDY GARCIA of actresses (i.e. famous but not for any particular part)? The theme I liked fine. It's clever. Only three themers (+ revealer), so it's a little thin, but that doesn't take away from its charm, and also gives the other answers in the grid some space to breathe (which is to say, the grid has somewhat more interesting fill than it might have if it were more theme-dense). OK, that's all, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (a Medium Tuesday time for me)
Theme answers:
- ALEC GUINNESS (20A: *Actor in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957))
- ANDY GARCIA (27A: *Actor in "Ocean's Eleven" (2001))
- AVA GARDNER (46A: *Actress in "Mogambo" (1953)) (why are the years in these clues?)
Produced by K.E. on tha Track, "Swag Surfin" was one of the biggest hood dance records of 2009. The song's video debuts the dance, which is also a literal one: all you have to do is just move like you're surfing...with some "swag." The song was remade that same year by Lil Wayne as the opener to his critically acclaimed mixtape No Ceilings, and the remix to the original song featured Maino, Fabolous, Red Caf̩ and Juelz Santana. (complex.com)
[It's an extremely big deal among black college students, especially at HBCU. See, for instance...]
• • •
Ten-minutes-ago me:"What the hell is this SWAG SURF *&$^%?!"
Current me: [Binge-watching SWAG SURF videos, swag surfing at my desk, etc.]
My ten minutes of SWAG SURF expertise has led to me to two conclusions, one of which is "swag surfin" is a far more common way to refer to the dance than SWAG SURF, and the other of which is someone needs to write a concise definition / history of the damn dance, 'cause there's not a good one out there. Anything this widespread and joyous deserves proper documentation.
Even before I hit SWAG SURF (for which I needed every cross), this felt tougher than a normal Monday crossword to me. Not tough tough, just tougher than normal. TAKEACUT, not easy. Had TAKE, still no idea. Really wanted ONCE MORE for 23A: "Encore!"; ONE MORE ended up feeling odd. "Heck, yeah" seems more likely than HECK, YES. NIGIRI is known to me but not so known that I could just plunk it down. I never think of the "I" in "business" as "silent." I thought the "letters" in 48D: Letters of support, for short (RECS) were actual letters, like R, E, C ... something? D? Oh, and I know ANDY GARCIA, but I had no idea he was in (the remake of) "Ocean's 11"—doesn't feel like an iconic role, but I'm not sure if he actually has one, actually. Also, the other roles aren't exactly iconic either. "Mogambo"!? LOL, I saw that once 20+ years ago and the only reason I'd even heard of it was because of my Grace Kelly obsession. What's AVA Gardner's iconic role? Does she have one? Is she the ANDY GARCIA of actresses (i.e. famous but not for any particular part)? The theme I liked fine. It's clever. Only three themers (+ revealer), so it's a little thin, but that doesn't take away from its charm, and also gives the other answers in the grid some space to breathe (which is to say, the grid has somewhat more interesting fill than it might have if it were more theme-dense). OK, that's all, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]