Idiosyncratic sorts / TUES 5-28-18 / Knight's steed / Piquancy / Lopsided game

Hi, everyone, it's Clare! So I have now graduated from college and am back on the West Coast (meaning I'm solving this puzzle at a much nicer time than when I was on the East Coast). I'm working as a waitress for the summer to save up money because a little birdy told me that law school costs a chunk of change. I'm also spending a lot of my free time as a sports fan (Go, Warriors!!) and got to cheer on the Yale men's lacrosse team this afternoon as they won the national championship!

Constructor:John Lieb

Relative difficulty:Quite hard for a Tuesday
THEME: Five answers that repeat three times the letters D, E, N, T, and S, leading to the revealer TRIDENTS

Theme answers:

ODDDUCKS (1A: Idiosyncratic sorts)

FREEEMAIL (20A: Google or Yahoo offering)

SUEANNNEVINS (26A: Betty White's role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show")

PITTTHEELDER (45A: Moniker of an 18th century British statesman)

DRESSSIZE (53A: Sorting criterion at the women's department)

Word of the Day: BOHEMIA (10D: European region that lent its name to a nonconforming lifestyle)

Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. In a broader meaning, Bohemia sometimes refers to the entire Czech territory, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, especially in a historical context, such as the Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by Bohemian kings. (Wikipedia)

I found the puzzle quite hard. It might have been because I was trying to solve the puzzle while also watching the Warriors basketball game (while praying for a ROUT), but I still think it played hard. Monday's puzzle felt like a Tuesday, and this Tuesday puzzle felt like it could have been a Wednesday. When I was done with the puzzle, I thought the theme looked clever and elegant, but it wasn't helpful for solving, and the answers DRESSSIZE and FREEEMAIL seemed pretty bland. Some of the acrosses, though, had fun answers like ODDDUCKS, NOOGIE, DHARMA, and PARANOIA. In general, the acrosses felt more elegant than the downs.

There were a few places I got stuck. I thought that 39D: Snow may push them back, for short would be etas instead of ETDS. 37A: Many a word ending in -gon seemed like a weird way to clue for SHAPE. I had no idea what a UNI code was, and it also seems odd to have both UNI and UNA in the same puzzle. And, I found it very hard having SUEANNNEVINS (26A: Betty White's role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") as such a major answer. Betty White was maybe the fifth main character on that show, which went off the air more than 40 years ago. I also didn't know about KIDFLASH (7D: Speedy DC comics sidekick). I really wanted to make "The Flash" work, even though I knew that wouldn't be right. Watching DC comic shows on the CW apparently didn't help me very much.

There was some nice pop culture in the northeast. Idina Menzel, a Broadway star, played alongside MIMI in "Rent," where "La Vie Boheme" (which sounds like the answer BOHEMIA) was a major song, and she was the voice of ELSA in "Frozen."J.J. Abrams, with Star Trek, Star Wars, etc... is always nice to see. You can even see DHARMA as a play off the TV show Dharma and Greg. I went back and listened to "La Vie Boheme," and it's a pretty fun song!



I also liked some of the clues/answers...

• 41A: Place for a sweater was quite funny. I originally put down "torso," but SAUNA is much better.
• 65A: Indulges in too much Netflix as BINGES was nice (I may or may not have partaken in this — after I graduated).
• The 63A Monopoly clue to get to AVENUE was clever. I got that one quickly, as I have played many, many games of Monopoly (I always have to be the banker).
• I absolutely love Zora NEALE Hurston. I read part of a book of hers (Their Eyes Were Watching God) and completely fell in love with it, and I've remembered her ever since.

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