Constructor: Sam Ezersky
Relative difficulty: Challenging (by the clock—though the grid is odd-sized, and I solved upon rolling out of bed, and my software kept moving my cursor around in weird ways because of those damned unchecked squares ... it actually felt pretty Medium) (8:28)
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THEME: String Trio— three themers contain letter strings that form STRING and two words synonymous with STRING; those strings sort of weave their way through the grid by going up and down, through a series of unchecked squares (i.e. squares with no crosses):
Theme answers:
Well LOL on me, I only just now bothered to read the note in my Across Lite software, which tells me:
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Yes, I was just about to say "What the hell is up with putting the clue at 53-Across when the answer actually starts in that unnumbered square way over on the left side of the grid?!" Very disconcerting to have the Across answer start materializing *behind* the clue number. I like Across Lite, I am used to Across Lite, I downloaded it because it was free and the NYT promoted it (many years ago?), but now I guess they want me using the dumb app. It's like they're punishing Across Lite users. Anyway, my difficulty level was Challenging and *now* you know why—I had to deal with **** most of you didn't. So just go with Medium.
This is a nice theme. My one grump is that center answer, which A. doesn't have LACE as a freestanding word (the way the other theme words are freestanding: THREAD and STRING), and B. I could not figure out which Across was the jumper, i.e. I thought 32A: Hosp. procedure with a readout (ECG) was the long, thready answer, ending in -DWITH (bandwith??). I was basically following the pattern of the first themer, and wanting to drop down for the first thread letter, not jumping up. So problems in that region of the puzzle, esp. in the western part of the center, really slowed me down Didn't help that I had ETH for 19D: Series finale?—made sense to me—and HNBC for whatever the stupid Jay Leno channel was ("Siri, show me the show, of all the shows in the universe, that I am least likely to watch!"). Maybe NBC has a home channel now, I reasoned. Further, "I GET IDEAS"? (46A: 1950s title lyric after "When we are dancing and you're dangerously near me ..."). What year is it? Oh, right, it's 1950. Yikes. Pardon me while I go get my SAL soda (which I assume is from the '50s, as I have never seen it outside crosswords). I had I GET and .... tumbleweeds. And the tumbleweeds part crossed COAGENT, which, again, what? What is that? 38D: Associate in finance, say. Between Jay Leno's stupid cars and this inscrutable "finance" answer, the puzzle was not exactly welcoming me. But I hacked through it in the end. Theme was pretty easy to pick up, and the fill was strange and surprising and only rarely yuck.
Five things:
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Relative difficulty: Challenging (by the clock—though the grid is odd-sized, and I solved upon rolling out of bed, and my software kept moving my cursor around in weird ways because of those damned unchecked squares ... it actually felt pretty Medium) (8:28)
Theme answers:
- MESSAGE THREAD (17A: Series of exchanges in a chat window)
- INTERLACED WITH (35A: Woven into)
- STRING SECTION (53A: Group that bows on state)
Daniel Joseph "Rusty" Staub (April 1, 1944 – March 29, 2018) was an American professional baseball right fielder, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseballfor 23 years with five teams. He was an original member of the Montreal Expos and the team's first star; though the Expos traded him after only three years, his enduring popularity led them to retire his number in 1993. (wikipedia)
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Well LOL on me, I only just now bothered to read the note in my Across Lite software, which tells me:
This is a nice theme. My one grump is that center answer, which A. doesn't have LACE as a freestanding word (the way the other theme words are freestanding: THREAD and STRING), and B. I could not figure out which Across was the jumper, i.e. I thought 32A: Hosp. procedure with a readout (ECG) was the long, thready answer, ending in -DWITH (bandwith??). I was basically following the pattern of the first themer, and wanting to drop down for the first thread letter, not jumping up. So problems in that region of the puzzle, esp. in the western part of the center, really slowed me down Didn't help that I had ETH for 19D: Series finale?—made sense to me—and HNBC for whatever the stupid Jay Leno channel was ("Siri, show me the show, of all the shows in the universe, that I am least likely to watch!"). Maybe NBC has a home channel now, I reasoned. Further, "I GET IDEAS"? (46A: 1950s title lyric after "When we are dancing and you're dangerously near me ..."). What year is it? Oh, right, it's 1950. Yikes. Pardon me while I go get my SAL soda (which I assume is from the '50s, as I have never seen it outside crosswords). I had I GET and .... tumbleweeds. And the tumbleweeds part crossed COAGENT, which, again, what? What is that? 38D: Associate in finance, say. Between Jay Leno's stupid cars and this inscrutable "finance" answer, the puzzle was not exactly welcoming me. But I hacked through it in the end. Theme was pretty easy to pick up, and the fill was strange and surprising and only rarely yuck.
Five things:
- 8D: Fantasy creature spawned from mud (ORC)— I had ENT. Because trees come from ... mud ... kinda.
- 58A: In a frenzy (AMUCK)— not the spelling. I really demand a "quaintly" or (Var.) marking here. Here is the only time that spelling has ever been acceptable:
- 55D: Tour division (GIG) / 56D: Barnyard male (TOM)— first word I had in that section was GYM SOCK, and off of that I write in LEG for [Tour division] and RAM for [Barnyard male]. Sigh.
- 27D: Half a laugh (HEE)— laugh halves are always much, much less than half a laugh. I'll say it again, Worst Clue Genre Ever.
- 1D: Venue near Penn Station, for short (MSG) — not hard unless you read it as [Avenue near Penn Station, for short], as I did. Tried ... a bunch of stuff, including LEX. Is that even near Penn Station? I've been coming into Grand Central pretty exclusively. Anyway, it doesn't matter, because I simply read the clue wrong. I also though 1A: African menace was EBOLA. So, yeah, that was a rough start. But good old Rusty STAUB got me through. Thank you, baseball, for leading me out of the darkness, yet again.
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