Constructor: Sam Ezersky
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for me—I solved upon waking, Always a bad idea on Saturday) (I had friends find this one very easy; seems likely there's a wide divergence of experience on this one) (9:13)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: NED LOW (9D: Renowned pirate captain during the Golden Age of Piracy) —
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Mostly enjoyed this one, though I don't particularly enjoy solving the hardest puzzle of the week first thing in the morning. This was in many ways a typical Saturday-morning solve—slow and stumbling. I'm always slower in the morning, and as the week goes on, the difference becomes more noticeable. It's not as if I was slow throughout, though. When things are pretty gettable / roughly in my wheelhouse, I can move, in the mornings, just about as fast as I can at night. It's just getting unstuck that is the real challenge. My brain can get me out of a rut much, much more quickly when I solve at night. Whereas here ... well, here, I stumbled all around the NW, putting in wrong Downs at every turn, and then, finally, I actually looked at the Acrosses, and 15A: Pop group with the 1993 #2 hit "All That She Wants (ACE OF BASS) just looked at me, shaking its head, going "what took you so long?" Yes, embarrassingly, I finally managed to get started in this one because of the kindness of 90s Europop. Sigh.
After that opening disaster, I actually moved fairly well through this one, but then again came to a total halt in the SE, which was totally empty except for the ends of CARROLL and MY FAIR LADY. Some of my struggle was the puzzle's fault (SANDPILE????? There is sand in the sandbox—no one would use SANDPILE in conjunction with a playground; absurd, I say!). But mostly it was my brain's fault. I couldn't get past how wrong FDR-R looked, so I assumed I had an error. Looking at it now, it's hard to believe I couldn't see FDR comma JR. there, but I couldn't. Was never gonna get IVIE or METS or DAH, so ... yipes. I feel like I got very lucky, in the end. I wanted the casino to be THE TAJ, esp. because "J" in the first position of a long Across felt *right*. But when that yielded nothing, I thought, "what are the other 3-letter casinos? (note: I ****ing hate casinos and their denizens and the whole "culture" of whatever that is, so ... Not exactly my strong suit) ... RIO? Is THE RIO something? That means 65A: "Abso-freakin'-lutely!" would start with an O and ... Oh ... OH! OH HELL YES!" One of those rare times where exclaiming the answer literally expresses your feelings. So I managed to finish solely because I was able to remember a second three-letter Vegas casino. You take whatever scrap of an advantage you can get and you Never apologize for it, remember that!
Other struggles: AIDE for PAGE (1D: One running for the Senate?). STAR for ICON (2D: Supercelebrity). MENS for KIDS (13D: Department store section). URL for USB (46D: Modern connection inits.). JAN for WIN (59D: The "1" in 1-9). Did *not* fall into the SHAH-for-AMIN trap; if you take anything away from the blog today, let it be that AMIN and SHAH are both exiles of 1979 so Do Not Be So Sure. Always use crosses as guide. You're welcome. Only ickiness to me, today, was NANKI- (ick to name part, double ick to the whole Orientalist enterprise that is "The Mikado") (64A: ___-Poo, son of the Mikado), and WOMYN (not used by any "feminists" I know in any serious way in forever; also, according to a trans woman friend of mine, sometimes used as a "transphobic dog whistle," indicating spaces where only cis women, i.e. women with wombs, are welcome—exclusion of MEN, implied by the E-to-Y letter change, gets taken to prejudicial extremes) (59A: Group in feminist writing).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for me—I solved upon waking, Always a bad idea on Saturday) (I had friends find this one very easy; seems likely there's a wide divergence of experience on this one) (9:13)
Word of the Day: NED LOW (9D: Renowned pirate captain during the Golden Age of Piracy) —
Edward "Ned" Low (also spelled Lowe or Loe; 1690–1724) was a notorious English pirate during the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century. Low was born into poverty in Westminster, London, and was a thief from an early age. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man. His wife died in childbirth in late 1719. Two years later, he became a pirate, operating off the coasts of New England and the Azores, and in the Caribbean. (wikipedia) (wiki-cluing, boo!; my emph)
• • •
After that opening disaster, I actually moved fairly well through this one, but then again came to a total halt in the SE, which was totally empty except for the ends of CARROLL and MY FAIR LADY. Some of my struggle was the puzzle's fault (SANDPILE????? There is sand in the sandbox—no one would use SANDPILE in conjunction with a playground; absurd, I say!). But mostly it was my brain's fault. I couldn't get past how wrong FDR-R looked, so I assumed I had an error. Looking at it now, it's hard to believe I couldn't see FDR comma JR. there, but I couldn't. Was never gonna get IVIE or METS or DAH, so ... yipes. I feel like I got very lucky, in the end. I wanted the casino to be THE TAJ, esp. because "J" in the first position of a long Across felt *right*. But when that yielded nothing, I thought, "what are the other 3-letter casinos? (note: I ****ing hate casinos and their denizens and the whole "culture" of whatever that is, so ... Not exactly my strong suit) ... RIO? Is THE RIO something? That means 65A: "Abso-freakin'-lutely!" would start with an O and ... Oh ... OH! OH HELL YES!" One of those rare times where exclaiming the answer literally expresses your feelings. So I managed to finish solely because I was able to remember a second three-letter Vegas casino. You take whatever scrap of an advantage you can get and you Never apologize for it, remember that!
Other struggles: AIDE for PAGE (1D: One running for the Senate?). STAR for ICON (2D: Supercelebrity). MENS for KIDS (13D: Department store section). URL for USB (46D: Modern connection inits.). JAN for WIN (59D: The "1" in 1-9). Did *not* fall into the SHAH-for-AMIN trap; if you take anything away from the blog today, let it be that AMIN and SHAH are both exiles of 1979 so Do Not Be So Sure. Always use crosses as guide. You're welcome. Only ickiness to me, today, was NANKI- (ick to name part, double ick to the whole Orientalist enterprise that is "The Mikado") (64A: ___-Poo, son of the Mikado), and WOMYN (not used by any "feminists" I know in any serious way in forever; also, according to a trans woman friend of mine, sometimes used as a "transphobic dog whistle," indicating spaces where only cis women, i.e. women with wombs, are welcome—exclusion of MEN, implied by the E-to-Y letter change, gets taken to prejudicial extremes) (59A: Group in feminist writing).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]