Constructor: Ryan McCarty
Relative difficulty: Challenging (four minutes slower than my slowest Saturday; just a disaster) (yeah, it's oversized, but that was hardly the issue)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: POSADA (34A: Ibizan inn) —
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Just unpleasant. Words like JANGO and POSADA and ELY and LEILA (?) just made this one so awful to solve. I think I most resent JANGO because a. the much more famous Fett is BOBA, and b. JANGO is either a gimme or a ridiculous string of uninferrable letters, and so the gimme people got a free "J"! ... ugh. My time would've been cut in half if I'd had that "J." And dear lord, no one should ever be expected to know *anything* from "Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones" or any of that regrettable second trilogy, for god's sake. Most of the middle of this grid, esp. the west-middle, was just empty. Forever. Had a word ending in -TION. Shrug. One ending in -ING. Who knows? One ending in CENTERS. You'd think that would help. Nope. Something CENTERS. No idea. I got to the gym many times a week. I just call it the gym. So yeah, that "J" woulda been gold. BOTOX INJECTION would've come into view very quickly, and then TAXES, etc. The entire NW and middle west was just blocked for me. TOSCA? No idea. I think I had DANTE in there. LEILA? (3D: Girl saved by Don Juan) Pfft. ELY? etc.
I had SUIT up before I ever ever thought of LACE up. CELEB? No hope. Wanted something to do with ads. A doc about Lena HORNE? I don't associate "Stormy Weather" with her, so no luck there. Again, that stupid, stupid cluing decision where you try to echo another clue created a forced clue at 29D: People with great head shots? (SOCCER STARS). The "head shot" thing with BOTOX INJECTION was clever. As a clue for SOCCER STARS... ugh. Also, just the phrase SOCCER STARS, ugh. [any sport] STARS is OK now? BROGRAMMER can go to hell. Tech bro culture in general, please spare me. Just ... in terms of content, in terms of cluing, in terms of overall experience, this puzzle was a downer. Just because the grid itself is reasonably clean doesn't mean the puzzle's going to be fun to solve. My kingdom for yesterday's puzzle again and again and again. I'm really tired of brostructing.
And then the clue on TUMS (51A: Brand name that spells something not nice backward)—so coy, so dumb. "Something not nice"?! Listen, you don't get to be all smutty and then also be all Puritanical about it. "Hey everyone, look at this sex thing. Oh my word, that is not nice!" I mean, really. "Not nice"? Phrasing! And you can't even be bothered to clue the product properly? Just [Brand name...]? Dereliction of cluing duties, all over the place. Had no idea about POSADA (34A: Ibizan inn). He's a baseball player. He even played for TORRE, so you could even have done some stupid cross reference stuff. But no. Thought POSADA was an IMARET and then thought it was a CASADA (whatever that is). Also had RECANTED at 22D: Was in a sorry state? (REPENTED). Ungettable (for me) "P" adjacent to ungettable (for me) "J" (from JANGO) => atrocious headache. I still don't like PARTNER DANCING as an answer (38A: Activity involving a leader and a follower). If I had to fill in the blank at ___ DANCING I don't know that I'd ever hit on PARTNER. In fact, I wrote it in at one point (after I got the "P") but then pulled it because it sounded too stupid. Of course the one letter I had in 31A: Roman who wrote "Whatever advice you give, be brief"was the damn "C" (from the *other* classical answer: CIRCE (32D: Sorceress exiled on Aeaea)) so I wrote in ... SENECA. Things really couldn't have gone worse. The only parts of this puzzle I liked were the clues on BOTOX INJECTION and AIRPORT BAR (62A: Fitting place to order craft beer?). Everything else felt contrived and icky and hard-for-hard's-sake.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (four minutes slower than my slowest Saturday; just a disaster) (yeah, it's oversized, but that was hardly the issue)
Word of the Day: POSADA (34A: Ibizan inn) —
noun
• • •
I had SUIT up before I ever ever thought of LACE up. CELEB? No hope. Wanted something to do with ads. A doc about Lena HORNE? I don't associate "Stormy Weather" with her, so no luck there. Again, that stupid, stupid cluing decision where you try to echo another clue created a forced clue at 29D: People with great head shots? (SOCCER STARS). The "head shot" thing with BOTOX INJECTION was clever. As a clue for SOCCER STARS... ugh. Also, just the phrase SOCCER STARS, ugh. [any sport] STARS is OK now? BROGRAMMER can go to hell. Tech bro culture in general, please spare me. Just ... in terms of content, in terms of cluing, in terms of overall experience, this puzzle was a downer. Just because the grid itself is reasonably clean doesn't mean the puzzle's going to be fun to solve. My kingdom for yesterday's puzzle again and again and again. I'm really tired of brostructing.
And then the clue on TUMS (51A: Brand name that spells something not nice backward)—so coy, so dumb. "Something not nice"?! Listen, you don't get to be all smutty and then also be all Puritanical about it. "Hey everyone, look at this sex thing. Oh my word, that is not nice!" I mean, really. "Not nice"? Phrasing! And you can't even be bothered to clue the product properly? Just [Brand name...]? Dereliction of cluing duties, all over the place. Had no idea about POSADA (34A: Ibizan inn). He's a baseball player. He even played for TORRE, so you could even have done some stupid cross reference stuff. But no. Thought POSADA was an IMARET and then thought it was a CASADA (whatever that is). Also had RECANTED at 22D: Was in a sorry state? (REPENTED). Ungettable (for me) "P" adjacent to ungettable (for me) "J" (from JANGO) => atrocious headache. I still don't like PARTNER DANCING as an answer (38A: Activity involving a leader and a follower). If I had to fill in the blank at ___ DANCING I don't know that I'd ever hit on PARTNER. In fact, I wrote it in at one point (after I got the "P") but then pulled it because it sounded too stupid. Of course the one letter I had in 31A: Roman who wrote "Whatever advice you give, be brief"was the damn "C" (from the *other* classical answer: CIRCE (32D: Sorceress exiled on Aeaea)) so I wrote in ... SENECA. Things really couldn't have gone worse. The only parts of this puzzle I liked were the clues on BOTOX INJECTION and AIRPORT BAR (62A: Fitting place to order craft beer?). Everything else felt contrived and icky and hard-for-hard's-sake.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]