Constructor: Mark Diehl and Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR— Theme answers started with, well, MAKE, LOVE, NOT, and WAR, in that order.
Theme answers:
This is actually the most I've liked a writeup-Monday in a long while. No hair-tearing-out crosses, but the fill wasn't annoyingly easy either. Plus, numbers in a puzzle! That's pretty cool! But I think I need to relearn my history, or at least my golf; I had 6IRON as 7IRON for the longest time. My reasoning basically went, "hey, if you have a 9-iron in golf, can't you also have a 7-iron, since it's the next odd number when counting down?" ...I don't know. My dad's the golf expert. Anyways, the rest of the fill was fine, although the next time I shower I'll have to look out for SHAMPOO BUGs. And ORAL SNAKEs the next time I'm at the dentist!
...But my enjoyment of the puzzle was tempered by 25D. Yes, I'm fully aware words mean different things in different contexts, but it's still hard to ignore and honestly just kind of sloppy not to find something else to clue there. [Cue comment dumpster fire] I'm just gonna point to the elephant and move on.
The theme was okay. The 60S were a pretty good era for music, or at least that's what the large numbers of my family who still call themselves "Deadheads" say. I'm intimately familiar with a ton of the older slogans because I borrowed a ton of old buttons to wear to a protest a couple years back. My favorites were the hardcore second-wave feminism ones: God Is Coming And She Is Pissed, Adam Was A Rough Draft, et al. Kinda cheesy but good.
Bullets:
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Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR— Theme answers started with, well, MAKE, LOVE, NOT, and WAR, in that order.
Theme answers:
- MAKE IT SNAPPY (19A: Hurry up)
- LOVE POTION (31A: Magical drink that gets someone smitten)
- NOT SO LUCKY (40A: Less fortunate)
- WAR ON POVERTY (51A: LBJ campaign to help the poor)
- 60S (54D: Decade that spawned the slogan found at the starts of 19-, 31-, 40- and 51-Across)
Cru is "a vineyard or group of vineyards, especially one of recognized quality".[1] It is a Frenchwineterm which is traditionally translated as "growth", as it was originally the past participle of the verb "croitre" (to grow). As a wine term it is closely connected to terroir in the sense of an "extent of terrain having a certain physical homogeneity . . . considered from the point of view of the nature of the soil as communicating a particular character to its produce, notably to wine".[2] It may thus be defined as: "Terroir as a place of production"[3] or an "Ensemble of terrains considered from the point of view of what grows there, from a particular cultivation."[4] More specifically, cru is often used to indicate a specifically named and legally defined vineyard or ensemble of vineyards and the vines "which grow on [such] a reputed terroir; by extension of good quality."[4] The term is also used to refer to the wine produced from such vines. The term cru is often used within classifications of French wine. By implication, a wine that displays (or is allowed to display) the name of its cru on its wine label is supposed to exhibit the typical characteristics of this cru. The terms Premier Cru, Grand Cru, etc., are generally translated into English as First Growth, Great Growth, etc.;[citation needed] they designate levels of presumed quality that are variously defined in different wine regions.
(Wikipedia)
• • •
Hi it's Annabel! Happy Annabel Monday! :DThis is actually the most I've liked a writeup-Monday in a long while. No hair-tearing-out crosses, but the fill wasn't annoyingly easy either. Plus, numbers in a puzzle! That's pretty cool! But I think I need to relearn my history, or at least my golf; I had 6IRON as 7IRON for the longest time. My reasoning basically went, "hey, if you have a 9-iron in golf, can't you also have a 7-iron, since it's the next odd number when counting down?" ...I don't know. My dad's the golf expert. Anyways, the rest of the fill was fine, although the next time I shower I'll have to look out for SHAMPOO BUGs. And ORAL SNAKEs the next time I'm at the dentist!
...But my enjoyment of the puzzle was tempered by 25D. Yes, I'm fully aware words mean different things in different contexts, but it's still hard to ignore and honestly just kind of sloppy not to find something else to clue there. [Cue comment dumpster fire] I'm just gonna point to the elephant and move on.
 |
| Ignore the more serious/recent pins lol. |
Bullets:
- ETHEL (49D: Fred Mertz's wife in 1950s TV)— Sorry, but this one can only ever make me think of Ethel Muggs from the classic Archie Comics. Though I must admit I've never understood her interest in a guy with the nickname "Juggy." I guess they just figured he needed some kind of love interest, and Archie wouldn't do, so they added here? I dunno.
- SNIP (35A: Use shears)— I thought for sure this was CHOP! You know, as in "The Wellesley Chop," as in "everyone who goes to my college chops all their hair off at some point." Yes, we actually have a name for it, and yes, it's ridiculous, and yes, it's accurate. Remind me to post pics at some point of that time I shaved my head.
- WPM (11D: Typist's stat, in brief)— Oh man, this one gives me major flashbacks to learn-to-type programs in elementary school computer class. Those things were almost universally super weird--I think my favorite had a space wizard who was teaching me to travel through spacetime by typing?--but I guess they worked since I'm banging this out at 11:59PM on Sunday (sorry, Rex!) at a pretty impressive speed.
- 60S (54D: Decade that spawned the slogan found at the starts of 19A, 31A, 40A, and 51A)— John Lennon actually does have a song called "Make Love Not War," but it's unfortunately really bad, so I'm gonna give you a different Monday earworm instead. Thank me later!
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