Constructor: Bruce Haight
Relative difficulty: Easy (9:34)
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THEME: Person / Place / Thing — theme answers are three interlocking two-word phrases, first a person then blah blah you know the drill
Theme answers:
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This is an objectively bad puzzle. More accurately, it's an objectively 30-year-old concept that plays like a parody of a tired theme type. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard multiple constructors over the years use this exact theme type (the before-and-after theme type) as a paradigmatic example of Tired Themes. You can tell that the puzzle is just shrugging at you by the title and the theme clues—there's not even an attempt to be clever or interesting or funny or anything. The very fact that this was accepted ... it feels almost contemptuous of the solver. "We're giving you NOTHING. See you next week." Meanwhile, RICH LITTLE ROCK MUSIC! Wow, sure, yeah, more of that. BETTY WHITE HOUSE MUSIC. KAREN BLACK SEA SHANTY. Are we having fun yet? This is the kind of puzzle that helps maintain the image of puzzles as just a cute diversion. A bastion of quaintness. D-grade word play and a lot of crosswordese and trivia. How do you have a grid this big and Not One non-theme answer longer than seven letters? How. Maybe I'll check EHOW just kidding who even uses that site??! (15A: Popular self-help website)
The weirdest thing about solving today was that I felt like I was strugggggggggling ... and then posted my fastest time in months. That tells you something about how unpleasant I found this. Even 9 and half minutes felt like a trek. I kept having to work around fussy ambiguous stuff, like, is it THUMP or WHUMP (10A: Heavy hit), and what kind of [Carnival performer] is being asked for ... Oh, GEEK, really? How ... pleasant. The "?" clues also held me up a bunch, or seemed to. Most of those failed to land, for me. [Make a good point?] is SCORE? Isn't that just ... [Make a point?]. I get that there's misdirection there, but the "good" does nothing *but* misdirect, and does so by making the connection to the actual answer (SCORE) pretty strained. Then there's 3D: Take a few pointers? Loving dogs as I do, and dogsitting as I am this weekend, I wrote in DOGSIT, and thought, "well, that's nice. Good clue!" But then the answer was DOGNAP. How ... pleasant. And Oliver North is just a "political commentator" now? What a world.
I need not to be talking about this puzzle any more, this puzzle, which embodies everything tired and sad and moribund about NYT Sundays over the past several years. Again, I don't see how this was ever accepted. I sincerely don't. There's not enough here. There's not a great title, and there aren't even *good* clues. The rest of the grid holds almost zero interest, primarily because there are no longer answers. But it's easy. People like easy, right? OK, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (9:34)
Theme answers:
- AL GREEN BAY WINDOW (23A: Singer / City / Home feature)
- PARIS HILTON HEAD SHOP (36A: Socialite / Resort / Store)
- OLIVER NORTH POLE DANCE (52A: Political commentator / Geographical area / Fitness routine)
- SEAN PENN STATION BREAK (75A: Acgtor / Transportaion hub / Part of a broadcast)
- RICH LITTLE ROCK MUSIC (91A: Comedian / State capital / Record store section)
- MAE WEST BANK HEIST (109A: Actress / Mideast area / Crime)
Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the three other regattas rowed over approximately the same course, Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Masters Regatta and Henley Town and Visitors' Regatta, each of which is an entirely separate event.The regatta lasts for five days (Wednesday to Sunday) ending on the first weekend in July. Races are head-to-head knock out competitions, raced over a course of 1 mile, 550 yards (2,112 m).[1] The regatta regularly attracts international crews to race. The most prestigious event at the regatta is the Grand Challenge Cup for Men's Eights, which has been awarded since the regatta was first staged. (wikipedia)
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The weirdest thing about solving today was that I felt like I was strugggggggggling ... and then posted my fastest time in months. That tells you something about how unpleasant I found this. Even 9 and half minutes felt like a trek. I kept having to work around fussy ambiguous stuff, like, is it THUMP or WHUMP (10A: Heavy hit), and what kind of [Carnival performer] is being asked for ... Oh, GEEK, really? How ... pleasant. The "?" clues also held me up a bunch, or seemed to. Most of those failed to land, for me. [Make a good point?] is SCORE? Isn't that just ... [Make a point?]. I get that there's misdirection there, but the "good" does nothing *but* misdirect, and does so by making the connection to the actual answer (SCORE) pretty strained. Then there's 3D: Take a few pointers? Loving dogs as I do, and dogsitting as I am this weekend, I wrote in DOGSIT, and thought, "well, that's nice. Good clue!" But then the answer was DOGNAP. How ... pleasant. And Oliver North is just a "political commentator" now? What a world.
I need not to be talking about this puzzle any more, this puzzle, which embodies everything tired and sad and moribund about NYT Sundays over the past several years. Again, I don't see how this was ever accepted. I sincerely don't. There's not enough here. There's not a great title, and there aren't even *good* clues. The rest of the grid holds almost zero interest, primarily because there are no longer answers. But it's easy. People like easy, right? OK, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]