Hello! It's Clare, back for another Tuesday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had my first "friendsgiving" this year, because I didn't get enough time off law school in DC to head home to California. The weather has been getting gloomy over the past few days, but maybe that's me projecting, because I've got a lot of finals coming up... Anywho, on to the puzzle.
Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Fairly easy
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THEME: GOTTA RUN(59A: Parting words from 18-, 23-, 36-, and 54-Across?) — The theme answers are all things that "run."
Theme answers:
Overall, I quite enjoyed this puzzle! The puzzle had a lot of nice words in it; even the fairly standard answers were clued differently (adding a little spice and variety); and there weren't many crossword-y words. The whole thing just felt really smooth (especially for a Tuesday). The only real nit I had is about the theme. It felt a bit meh. I got the theme revealer (GOTTA RUN) very early in solving, but it didn't help me at all with the theme answers. I knew they had something to do with things that "run," but there are so many possibilities (fridge, dryer, people, etc...) that the revealer wasn't all that helpful. Also, I felt like COMPUTER PROGRAM was kind of bland for being the puzzle's marquee answer.
I got confused in some places, but that was mostly my own doing. When I saw cl-o, my mind immediately jumped to cleo (like Cleopatra), and I had that for a while instead of CLIO (8D: Muse of history), so I was very confused about what a freed egg might be at 18A. I also took a while to figure out that 37D: Rodent companion wasn't asking for a companion for a rodent and was instead referring to someone owning a pet.
I thought ORE (2D: Asset in the game The Settlers of Catan) and ETA (42A: Sixth letter after alpha) were especially refreshing in the puzzle. Those two words are always clued in some way having to do with mining and arrival time. It was nice to see them clued differently. There was some repetition in the puzzle clues that may have been a little heavy-handed but that, I thought, flowed nicely, like: 22A: Oscar hopeful and 23A: Political hopeful; 21D Fashion sense and 23D: Fashion-forward. The only repetition I didn't like was 42A as ETA and then 44A as ERA (along with 16A: Before, to poets as ERE).
A few other nits: I've never heard of using AUNTIE (47D) as a sign of respect for someone. Maybe we just don't use that where I'm from. OATY (32A: Like Cheerios) is, I guess, pretty standard but is still a very weird word. I always use the spelling "dialogue" and not DIALOG for a conversation (I'd argue that "dialogue" is the correct way...), so it took me a little bit longer to realize what the answer was. 34A: Homophone of "row" as RHO wasn't necessarily a gimme (I initially tried to put "roe"), but it still seems kind of weird to me to ask for a homophone in a crossword puzzle. And, HOTEL (50A: Hilton or Marriott) and SHOE (28A: Nike product) felt like answers that were just kind of there and served no real purpose.
Overall, though, I loved so many of the words in the puzzle, like: CROCUS, HEIST, GHOULS, SOLEIL, RETINUE, PUPIL, etc... I also loved DUKE IT OUT and HOT HOT HOT, even though I've never heard of that song or singer before. Side note: It's a very fun song and reminds me of summer (and the music video includes a cameo from Bill Murray).
Misc.:
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Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Fairly easy
THEME: GOTTA RUN(59A: Parting words from 18-, 23-, 36-, and 54-Across?) — The theme answers are all things that "run."
Theme answers:
- FRIED EGG (18A: It might accompany bacon and toast)
- CANDIDATE (23A: Political hopeful)
- COMPUTER PROGRAM (36A: You might learn a new language to write one)
- EDITORIAL (54A: Opinion piece)
Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of women of color. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcile human life with the spiritual dimension." The writer Alice Walker coined the term womanist in a short story, "Coming ----Apart." Womanist theory, while diverse, holds at its core that both femininity and culture are equally important to the woman's existence. In this conception one's femininity cannot be stripped from the culture within which it exists. (Wikipedia)
• • •
I'd never heard of womanism before, but I like the idea! Alice Walker was famously quoted as saying about it, "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."Overall, I quite enjoyed this puzzle! The puzzle had a lot of nice words in it; even the fairly standard answers were clued differently (adding a little spice and variety); and there weren't many crossword-y words. The whole thing just felt really smooth (especially for a Tuesday). The only real nit I had is about the theme. It felt a bit meh. I got the theme revealer (GOTTA RUN) very early in solving, but it didn't help me at all with the theme answers. I knew they had something to do with things that "run," but there are so many possibilities (fridge, dryer, people, etc...) that the revealer wasn't all that helpful. Also, I felt like COMPUTER PROGRAM was kind of bland for being the puzzle's marquee answer.
I got confused in some places, but that was mostly my own doing. When I saw cl-o, my mind immediately jumped to cleo (like Cleopatra), and I had that for a while instead of CLIO (8D: Muse of history), so I was very confused about what a freed egg might be at 18A. I also took a while to figure out that 37D: Rodent companion wasn't asking for a companion for a rodent and was instead referring to someone owning a pet.
I thought ORE (2D: Asset in the game The Settlers of Catan) and ETA (42A: Sixth letter after alpha) were especially refreshing in the puzzle. Those two words are always clued in some way having to do with mining and arrival time. It was nice to see them clued differently. There was some repetition in the puzzle clues that may have been a little heavy-handed but that, I thought, flowed nicely, like: 22A: Oscar hopeful and 23A: Political hopeful; 21D Fashion sense and 23D: Fashion-forward. The only repetition I didn't like was 42A as ETA and then 44A as ERA (along with 16A: Before, to poets as ERE).
A few other nits: I've never heard of using AUNTIE (47D) as a sign of respect for someone. Maybe we just don't use that where I'm from. OATY (32A: Like Cheerios) is, I guess, pretty standard but is still a very weird word. I always use the spelling "dialogue" and not DIALOG for a conversation (I'd argue that "dialogue" is the correct way...), so it took me a little bit longer to realize what the answer was. 34A: Homophone of "row" as RHO wasn't necessarily a gimme (I initially tried to put "roe"), but it still seems kind of weird to me to ask for a homophone in a crossword puzzle. And, HOTEL (50A: Hilton or Marriott) and SHOE (28A: Nike product) felt like answers that were just kind of there and served no real purpose.
Overall, though, I loved so many of the words in the puzzle, like: CROCUS, HEIST, GHOULS, SOLEIL, RETINUE, PUPIL, etc... I also loved DUKE IT OUT and HOT HOT HOT, even though I've never heard of that song or singer before. Side note: It's a very fun song and reminds me of summer (and the music video includes a cameo from Bill Murray).
Misc.:
- A Star Is Born is in the puzzle! I just saw that movie the other day and thought it was absolutely beautiful, even if I didn't love the ending. (I'm definitely on board the train to get Lady Gaga an Oscar — and Bradley Cooper is amazing, too.) There are lots of movies coming out soon that I want to see, too. Guess that's what I'll be doing over Christmas break...
- 56A: Unfamous sorts are NONAMES. Apparently I'm a no-name. That's too bad.
- My college motto was in LATIN— Lux et Veritas (light and truth); that's what it says on my diploma.
- I realized I had no idea how to spell SOLEIL, as I was trying to write what I knew the answer should be.
- VCR. What's that? (Just kidding! Even this millennial used VCRs a lot. It was especially sad because all of our Disney movies were on VCR and were then rendered obsolete).
- My sister, who works in Berkeley and takes Bay AREA Rapid Transit has had to train me not to say "the BART" and instead to just say "BART."
- For 41A: Segway cop's workplace, maybe as MALL— I've never even seen the movie, but I can't see Segways without immediately thinking of the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
- NTH: Please don't make me think about my calculus days again.
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