Constructor: Tom McCoy
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:50)
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THEME:"Going Head to Head"— famous antagonists are written out "head to head" (i.e. with first name backward, so its first letter touches first letter of the second name):
Theme answers:
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All this is—Literally All This Is—is famous antagonists pairs presented in the grid with their heads (i.e. first letters) touching, i.e. first name backward, second name forward. There's no gimmick, no trick. Just ... half-backward pairs. This isn't a thing. The pairs aren't even iconic much of the time. David & Goliath, well obviously, but Mario and Bowser???? What? I honestly don't even know what Bowser is. I know that Bowser is neither Hamilton- nor Burr-famous. Darth Vader is Luke's father (spoiler alert!), so ... that's not exactly a great example. Batman has many, many villains that he battles, though I guess Joker is probably the greatest of them all, so maybe that example is OK. I don't know. I think the basic premise just seems very, very weak to me, in that, again, it's just some kind of foes with one name turned the wrong way. [Extreme shrug]!!! Seems kinda UNIDEAL (just like the word UNIDEAL, coincidentally).
This one felt very fussy to me, throughout. Like someone was trying to toughen it up by simply making it more annoying. I finished with a typo/error at 38D: Defeat (WORST), mostly because omg who uses the word that way and How In The World does WORST mean the same as BEST!??!? That is insane. I must've seen R-D in the cross (43A: Hot ___) and instead of filling in the obvious ROD, wrote in the answer that would've been obvious if the blank had *preceded* the "Hot" (RED). And then I just didn't check the down in the end. Ugh, WORST. "I WORSTed you!" ... said Don Quixote to the Windmill, maybe? Why is it just LUKE but the full DARTH VADER. His name is LUKE SKYWALKER, man, come on. Be consistent. The fill on this one is not great, largely because there is a KILOTON of very short fill (not a lot of longer answers) and so you just get bombarded by NSA and SCHS and AAA (those are all abutting and crossing one another) and ORI and the dreaded AHME etc. ATTA OCTA ALII OSTEO make it stop. CAPSID, yikes! I was really worried that that answer was gonna kill me, as I had no idea about it or (for a while) KILOTON. There are some nice longer Downs, particularly NO-CALL LIST, "NOW WHERE WAS I...?" and "AMEN TO THAT!" But overall it felt like I was dealing with a subpar / unambitious theme, and like I was spending most of my time swatting at gnat-like short fill. I did not enjoy it NOWISE.
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Relative difficulty: Medium (10:50)
Theme answers:
- SUESEHTMINOTAUR (22A: Showdown in Greek mythology)
- OIRAMBOWSER (28A: Showdown in classic video games)
- NOTLIMAHBURR (39A: Showdown in American history)
- EKULDARTHVADER (61A: Showdown in cinema)
- YPOONSREDBARON (69A: Showdown in the funnies)
- DIVADGOLIATH (92A: Showdown in the Bible)
- NAMTABJOKER (107A: Showdown in comic books)
- ETOXIUQWINDMILL (115A: Showdown in literature)
noun
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This one felt very fussy to me, throughout. Like someone was trying to toughen it up by simply making it more annoying. I finished with a typo/error at 38D: Defeat (WORST), mostly because omg who uses the word that way and How In The World does WORST mean the same as BEST!??!? That is insane. I must've seen R-D in the cross (43A: Hot ___) and instead of filling in the obvious ROD, wrote in the answer that would've been obvious if the blank had *preceded* the "Hot" (RED). And then I just didn't check the down in the end. Ugh, WORST. "I WORSTed you!" ... said Don Quixote to the Windmill, maybe? Why is it just LUKE but the full DARTH VADER. His name is LUKE SKYWALKER, man, come on. Be consistent. The fill on this one is not great, largely because there is a KILOTON of very short fill (not a lot of longer answers) and so you just get bombarded by NSA and SCHS and AAA (those are all abutting and crossing one another) and ORI and the dreaded AHME etc. ATTA OCTA ALII OSTEO make it stop. CAPSID, yikes! I was really worried that that answer was gonna kill me, as I had no idea about it or (for a while) KILOTON. There are some nice longer Downs, particularly NO-CALL LIST, "NOW WHERE WAS I...?" and "AMEN TO THAT!" But overall it felt like I was dealing with a subpar / unambitious theme, and like I was spending most of my time swatting at gnat-like short fill. I did not enjoy it NOWISE.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]