Constructor: Joe Krozel
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (~5:50 ... though clock read in the low 8s ... explanation below)
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THEME: ROLL CALL VOTE (1A: With 44- and 76-across, way to put legislators on record ... or the start, middle and end of a word ladder) — a word ladder [yes, in the year of our lord 2018, a word ladder] that goes from ROLL to VOTE, with CALL at the center. The other "steps" in the ladder have nothing to do with legislators, afaict]:
Theme answers:
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Do you really need me for this? I'll give you a little peak at what solving this puzzle was like inside my household tonight. Me: [opens puzzle, reads 1-Across, closes puzzle, rethinks chosen blogging lifestyle]. Wife, speaking from next room: "Alright, here I go ... oh, god." It's so bad. It's all so bad. First, it's a word ladder. And honestly, we can stop there. No one wants a word ladder. They are joyless exercises in joylessness. They are the mustiest, oldest, tiredest of theme concepts, and though this one tweaks the concept ever-so-slightly (by making the first middle and last "step" a coherent phrase), the tweaking was minor and weird, and in the end, it was still a word ladder. There is nothing to them. Literally nothing. I mean, check out the clues ... imagine thinking [Sixth clue ...] is a good thing, an exciting thing, a reason you subscribe to the "greatest puzzle in the world." And there are So Many Steps Dear Lord Whyyyy!? And you can go from PALL straight to MALL! Why are there all those other "steps"? What kind of circuitous "ladder" is this??? This, solvers, is what it looks like when a monopoly thumbs its nose at you. And it's oversized (16-wide!). LOL. Enjoy!
I sincerely shut the puzzle down so I could mentally regroup, so visceral was my negative reaction to 1-Across. Long, convoluted ... and—and I can't stress this enough—a word ladder. So I was probably 2 and half minutes away from the puzzle before I started it in earnest. I finished in the low 8s, so I figure I was in the high 5s, but I was never really doing this with any kind of pace. My heart just wasn't in it. I would never have bothered with this puzzle At All if I hadn't had to write about it. Would've quit at 1-Across and not felt bad about it at all. But I did solve it, so ... there are some really off-putting things in here. CHOKE COLLAR, for one. They're bad. They have the word "choke" in their name. If they were nice, they'd have a nicer name. When was choking ever good. Please don't at me with your fake-woke "Well actually some dogs..." nonsense. Choking is something you can take right out of my puzzle, thanks—unless a team chokes in a game, or you choke up on a bat, or maybe there's some slang for artichokes out there ... but choking living beings, pass. Worse, way worse, is the eugenics nonsense clue on ROYAL BLOOD (19A: Nice genealogical find). "Nice?""Nice?" Who are you? Who wrote this, my racist great aunt?* Who the heck cares about the royalness of blood. Ick, this racist world is bad enough without people fetishizing blood like that. Hard pass. Oh, and then we've got suicide at LOVER'S LEAP, so that's nice. This puzzle is putrid at every level. Here, I'm gonna let other people take over now, bye.
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*this great aunt is fictional, but, you know, plausible
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (~5:50 ... though clock read in the low 8s ... explanation below)
Theme answers:
- ROLL POLL PALL PALM CALM CALL MALL MALE MATE MOTE VOTE
Aisha N. Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American talk show host, actress, comedian, author, producer, writer, and director. She is known for portraying Andrea Marino in the first season of Ghost Whisperer, voicing Lana Kane in Archer, portraying Dr. Tara Lewis in Criminal Minds and portraying Mother Nature in the Santa Clause film series, as well as recurring roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Talk Soup and Friends. She is a former co-host of CBS's The Talk, and the host of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Tyler also hosted Ubisoft's E3 press conferences from 2012 to 2016, and has made various video game appearances including Halo: Reach and Ubisoft's Watch Dogs where her voice and likeness are featured. (wikipedia)
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I sincerely shut the puzzle down so I could mentally regroup, so visceral was my negative reaction to 1-Across. Long, convoluted ... and—and I can't stress this enough—a word ladder. So I was probably 2 and half minutes away from the puzzle before I started it in earnest. I finished in the low 8s, so I figure I was in the high 5s, but I was never really doing this with any kind of pace. My heart just wasn't in it. I would never have bothered with this puzzle At All if I hadn't had to write about it. Would've quit at 1-Across and not felt bad about it at all. But I did solve it, so ... there are some really off-putting things in here. CHOKE COLLAR, for one. They're bad. They have the word "choke" in their name. If they were nice, they'd have a nicer name. When was choking ever good. Please don't at me with your fake-woke "Well actually some dogs..." nonsense. Choking is something you can take right out of my puzzle, thanks—unless a team chokes in a game, or you choke up on a bat, or maybe there's some slang for artichokes out there ... but choking living beings, pass. Worse, way worse, is the eugenics nonsense clue on ROYAL BLOOD (19A: Nice genealogical find). "Nice?""Nice?" Who are you? Who wrote this, my racist great aunt?* Who the heck cares about the royalness of blood. Ick, this racist world is bad enough without people fetishizing blood like that. Hard pass. Oh, and then we've got suicide at LOVER'S LEAP, so that's nice. This puzzle is putrid at every level. Here, I'm gonna let other people take over now, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*this great aunt is fictional, but, you know, plausible
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]