Constructor: Sam Ezersky
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:17 ... on the slower side for me, but this was a 4 a.m. solve and I was bleary-eyed and mostly just poking at it)
![]()
THEME: none
Word of the Day: LA LIGA (2D: Spanish pro soccer association) —
Great run through the middle. The rest was just OK. Got off to a very bad start with 1D: Perfumery compound (ACETAL), which ... how many damn ACE- words are there. -TATE, -TONE, -TYL, and now this? If it's perfume I know ESTER and ATTAR and maybe ENOL (is that related to perfume?), and then I'm out. ACETAL just isn't fun. But LA LIGA is, and it's football (i.e. soccer) mania now with the World Cup going on, so I enjoyed seeing this answer. I also weirdly enjoyed remembering that LANCE BASS exists (25A: Singer with the 2007 autobiography "Out of Sync"), though I'm reminded of that on a pretty regular bas(s)is, because I some how own this truck:
![]()
And another one like it featuring a different member of N*SYNC (Joey, I think). I used to have a buy-silly-crap problem. It's somewhat better now.
Biggest problems of the day involved LOP-EARED (14A: Like the Trix rabbit), which I couldn't see/parse well at all, and then DNA BANK (15D: Modern sort of "Noah's Ark"), which is a term I'm not that familiar with and so once I got to DNA-ANK, I made it a TANK—a DNA TANK. Like a FISH TANK, but ... for DNA. I almost made it a ZANK because of BOZO at 24A: Classic clown name, but then weirdly BOZO ended up being the answer to 24-Down, which was also [Classic clown name]. So I had BOTO / TANK for a bit. I was totally prepared to believe that there was a clown so "classic" I had never heard of him. Sounded vaguely Italian. BOTO, the vaguely Italian classic clown. Why not?
Bullets:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:17 ... on the slower side for me, but this was a 4 a.m. solve and I was bleary-eyed and mostly just poking at it)
Word of the Day: LA LIGA (2D: Spanish pro soccer association) —
The Primera División, commonly known as La Liga and as La Liga Santander for sponsorship reasons with Santander, is the men's top professional association footballdivision of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Liga de Fútbol Profesional(LFP), La Liga is contested by 20 teams, with the three lowest-placed teams relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top two teams in that division plus the winner of a play-off.A total of 62 teams have competed in La Liga since its inception. Nine teams have been crowned champions, with Real Madrid winning the title a record 33 times and Barcelona 25 times. After Athletic Bilbao claimed several titles in the league's early years, Real Madrid dominated the championship from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when Athletic and neighbours Real Sociedad each won the league twice. From the 1990s onwards, Barcelona (15 titles) and Real Madrid (9 titles) were both prominent, though La Liga also saw other champions, including Atlético Madrid, Valencia, and Deportivo de La Coruña. In the 2010s, Atlético Madrid became increasingly strong, forming a trio alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona which occupied the podium places exclusively. (wikipedia)
• • •
Great run through the middle. The rest was just OK. Got off to a very bad start with 1D: Perfumery compound (ACETAL), which ... how many damn ACE- words are there. -TATE, -TONE, -TYL, and now this? If it's perfume I know ESTER and ATTAR and maybe ENOL (is that related to perfume?), and then I'm out. ACETAL just isn't fun. But LA LIGA is, and it's football (i.e. soccer) mania now with the World Cup going on, so I enjoyed seeing this answer. I also weirdly enjoyed remembering that LANCE BASS exists (25A: Singer with the 2007 autobiography "Out of Sync"), though I'm reminded of that on a pretty regular bas(s)is, because I some how own this truck:
[35A: Perform a disco dance]
Biggest problems of the day involved LOP-EARED (14A: Like the Trix rabbit), which I couldn't see/parse well at all, and then DNA BANK (15D: Modern sort of "Noah's Ark"), which is a term I'm not that familiar with and so once I got to DNA-ANK, I made it a TANK—a DNA TANK. Like a FISH TANK, but ... for DNA. I almost made it a ZANK because of BOZO at 24A: Classic clown name, but then weirdly BOZO ended up being the answer to 24-Down, which was also [Classic clown name]. So I had BOTO / TANK for a bit. I was totally prepared to believe that there was a clown so "classic" I had never heard of him. Sounded vaguely Italian. BOTO, the vaguely Italian classic clown. Why not?
Bullets:
- 56A: "Star Wars" villain (KYLO REN) — lots of trouble with this because ... I read "Star Trek"; I blame AGA KHAAAAAAAAAN! Hey, waaaaaaaait a minute. KHAN is in the clue for ALPH (6D: River running "down to a sunless sea," in "Kubla KHAN"), an answer that actually crossesAGA KHAN. That ... seems like an oversight. Shouldn't replicate a conspicuous clue word like that.
- 33D: Investor's purchase outside an exchange, informally (OTC STOCK) — I'm used to seeing OTC clued this way, but man it looks/sounds dumb all written out fully like this.
- 47D: Commercial lead-in to X (UBER) — I do not understand this clue. What is UBER X? Is X a variable, so it's actually UBER-[anything]? Oh ... looks like UberX is some subset of Uber (the rideshare service). That is a pretty niche clue. I've never taken an Uber in my life, so all the Uber subtypes ... yeah, I haven't bothered to read up on those.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]