Constructor: Ryan McCarty
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:03)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: APHERESIS (29D: Loss of a sound at the start of a word, as "opossum" to "possum") —
Liked this one a lot, which is surprising given that I had some *serious* 1-Across dread with ABLARE (which I got both instantly and reluctantly) (1A: Loud, as a radio). Knew it had to be ABLARE and then tested the crosses one by one. ENDS worked, ATOM MAN ... was wrong (4D: Fighter of Ferocious Flea in 1960s cartoons), but ATOM ANT ended up being right: and then there was the "L"! (3D: Close friend of Hamilton, in "Hamilton"). Me: "L L L L L ... what is it? ... oh, yeah, LAFAYETTE!"
This one felt very much up my alley, and also very smooth and lively and entertaining. I count 1, 2, 3, 4 sticking points of any significance. First the whole ATOM MAN issue (see above). Second, JAMES WATT (18A: Pioneer in steam engines). I had the JAMES and wanted the WATT but balked because I thought a. WATT was the lighbulb guy (this is true, same guy) and b. WATT was the Secretary of the Interior under Reagan, maybe?? OMG, yes, also true. I looked it up and dang, I remembered that one correctly. So there are at least two puzzleworthy JAMES WATTs. Good To Know. Anyway, I left the WATT part blank and kept moving down the west coast instead.
Then I wrote in TALK, TALK! at 17A: "I wanna hear everything"which I shoulda known was wrong. I mean, if you're gonna put TALK TALK in a puzzle...
Then there was APHERESIS, which required me to get Every Single Cross (P.S. AS A SET is by far the worst thing in this grid, delete it from your wordlists everyone, please, now, thx). Finally, there was the SW, where it was just dumb luck that I knew IDIOLECT. Even knowing that, it was only the "D" that got me into that corner—gave me PADRE, which saved me. Because "AS I AM"? MESS BOY? Oh, no. Was not about to get either of those without gobs of help.
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Loved LITTLE KNOWN FACT and WACKY TOBACKY and *especially* THAT'S SO NOT OK. Perfect contemporary colloquialism. Perfect for a Saturday (really hard to parse, but got a great aha moment when I finally cracked it). I did not think DANK MEMES was a real thing outside of people mocking Jill Stein on social media two years ago (48A: Internet in-jokes that have gone viral, in modern lingo). DANK is a word normally reserved (I think) for pot, er, I mean WACKY TOBACKY. No one says DANK MEMES anymore, I don't think. But don't trust me on memes. I am definitely not a reliable source of meme lore. Lots of proper nouns in this one, but I knew most of them, so besides "AS I AM," nothing really held me up. CHEAP SEAT looks a little silly in the singular, but I'll allow it. A very fun outing overall. See you tomorrow.
P.S. I chatted with my friend Ben Smith about the latest "Solve the Internet" crossword puzzle (published weekly by Motherboard). Solve it here. Read my chat with Ben here.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:03)
Word of the Day: APHERESIS (29D: Loss of a sound at the start of a word, as "opossum" to "possum") —
nounnoun: apheresis
• • •
Liked this one a lot, which is surprising given that I had some *serious* 1-Across dread with ABLARE (which I got both instantly and reluctantly) (1A: Loud, as a radio). Knew it had to be ABLARE and then tested the crosses one by one. ENDS worked, ATOM MAN ... was wrong (4D: Fighter of Ferocious Flea in 1960s cartoons), but ATOM ANT ended up being right: and then there was the "L"! (3D: Close friend of Hamilton, in "Hamilton"). Me: "L L L L L ... what is it? ... oh, yeah, LAFAYETTE!"
This one felt very much up my alley, and also very smooth and lively and entertaining. I count 1, 2, 3, 4 sticking points of any significance. First the whole ATOM MAN issue (see above). Second, JAMES WATT (18A: Pioneer in steam engines). I had the JAMES and wanted the WATT but balked because I thought a. WATT was the lighbulb guy (this is true, same guy) and b. WATT was the Secretary of the Interior under Reagan, maybe?? OMG, yes, also true. I looked it up and dang, I remembered that one correctly. So there are at least two puzzleworthy JAMES WATTs. Good To Know. Anyway, I left the WATT part blank and kept moving down the west coast instead.
Then I wrote in TALK, TALK! at 17A: "I wanna hear everything"which I shoulda known was wrong. I mean, if you're gonna put TALK TALK in a puzzle...
Then there was APHERESIS, which required me to get Every Single Cross (P.S. AS A SET is by far the worst thing in this grid, delete it from your wordlists everyone, please, now, thx). Finally, there was the SW, where it was just dumb luck that I knew IDIOLECT. Even knowing that, it was only the "D" that got me into that corner—gave me PADRE, which saved me. Because "AS I AM"? MESS BOY? Oh, no. Was not about to get either of those without gobs of help.
[2018 ACPT champion Erik Agard in his ELENA Delle Donna jersey] (13D: Multi-time W.N.B.A. All-Star ___ Delle Donne)
Loved LITTLE KNOWN FACT and WACKY TOBACKY and *especially* THAT'S SO NOT OK. Perfect contemporary colloquialism. Perfect for a Saturday (really hard to parse, but got a great aha moment when I finally cracked it). I did not think DANK MEMES was a real thing outside of people mocking Jill Stein on social media two years ago (48A: Internet in-jokes that have gone viral, in modern lingo). DANK is a word normally reserved (I think) for pot, er, I mean WACKY TOBACKY. No one says DANK MEMES anymore, I don't think. But don't trust me on memes. I am definitely not a reliable source of meme lore. Lots of proper nouns in this one, but I knew most of them, so besides "AS I AM," nothing really held me up. CHEAP SEAT looks a little silly in the singular, but I'll allow it. A very fun outing overall. See you tomorrow.
P.S. I chatted with my friend Ben Smith about the latest "Solve the Internet" crossword puzzle (published weekly by Motherboard). Solve it here. Read my chat with Ben here.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]