Constructor: Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach
Relative difficulty: Easy (3:28)
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THEME: a stack of PANCAKEs— three PANCAKEs and then, beneath them, a PLATE (68A: Item that might go under several answers in this puzzle) ... Oh, and off to the sides, two [Syrup brand]s (AUNT JEMIMA and HUNGRY JACK)
PANCAKES:
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I assume the MAGIC (1A: Sorcery) is what's making these damned PANCAKEs levitate, but I don't know why in the world you'd use two types of syrup, or pour both of them off to the side of your PLATE. This whole theme is so nuts that I kind of like it, but visually it makes no sense. Or, not much, anyway. Weird grid shape opens up room for some nice long Downs, which are the real highlight of the puzzle, for me (I mean, from a puzzle-solving standpoint—hard to really "like" the PANCAKE thing as a solver because, well, once I got the second PANCAKE, the third one, and the PLATE, were just too easy). Forgot that HUNGRY JACK was a kind of syrup (can't say I've ever seen or had it), and would like to forget that AUNT JEMIMA is a kind of syrup (because of theracism). Too bad MRS. BUTTERWORTH or LOG CABIN wouldn't fit symmetrically in this one. The hardest part of this puzzle for me was, honestly, nothing. Seemed to fill itself in. I did balk at 64A: 10 bucks, in slang (DIME), which tells you how much into drugs I am (I know this use of DIME only in reference to the phrase "DIME bags," which is a quantity of marijuana, as I understand it, I don't really know, I'm quite square) (actually, I do know, I looked it up to make sure).
Five things:
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Relative difficulty: Easy (3:28)
PANCAKES:
- 21A: Kind of makeup
- 38A: Flatten
- 56A: Breakfast food item
noun
• • •
Five things:
- 6A: Serving of butter, as might go on top of several answers in this puzzle (PAT) — haha just noticed this alleged themer. My eyes must've just stopped at "serving of butter."PAT is pretty bad here. BUTTER, as they say, is (or would be) better. Yeah, it's six letters and can't sit in the center blah blah blah MAKE IT WORK! NIX the PAT!
- 39D: With 40-Down, something tapped at a pub (ALE / KEG) — considering the symmetrical positioning of these answer parts ... are we eating these PANCAKEs in a bar? If so, where is this bar and how do I get there?
- 50A: Siri's digital cousin (ALEXA)— wait, is Siri analog?
- 4D: "Licensed to ___" (1986 Beastie Boys album) ("ILL") — uh, I think I am only just now learning that it's "LicenseD" and not "License"
- 27A: Hearing-related + 28A: Christianity, for one (AURAL FAITH) — I like when rows of answer make interesting phrases, like the names of hypothetical Christian metal bands
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