Constructor: Peter A. Collins
Relative difficulty: Challenging (though I got unreasonably stuck in NW, so maybe more Medium-Challenging) (8:24)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Harold UREY (50D: Manhattan Project scientist) —
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This was made unpleasant by a few things. The fill is OK—well, the longer fill is, at any rate. Some of that shorter stuff, though: ECK! The fill wasn't the really annoying thing; the cluing was. Hiding the plural BOOKS ON TAPE with a non-plural-looking clue (17A: Entertainment for a long ride, perhaps) did not produce an ultimate AHA, but an ugh. I had the TAPE part first, so the singularity of the answer really seemed solid, and I wanted something like a MIXTAPE (which is what I would listen to on a long ride, BOOKS ON TAPE being likely to put me to sleep) (oh, also, I don't have a tape deck anymore, what the hell? Even my car's CD player now seems quaint—failure to indicate "bygone"-itude gives this clue that special out-of-touch flavor solvers love so much). And then the dumb short ambiguous clues like 15A: Shot and 3D: Stock. In a corner where a girl's name (girl???) is SLOOPY and INONE is awkwardly severed from its lead-in (ALL), which is clear across the grid ... again, I say ECK to that whole corner. Took me forever despite my getting TIGER SHARKS right off the bat (1A: Striped sea predators).
Cluing again irksome in NE, especially the supremely awkward and not funny/clever 13D: Labor party member's holding? (UNION CARD). What is the wordplay here, beyond "labor"—I mean, "holding" is bizarre. It doesn't misdirect, it just muddles and muddies. Why would I expect someone in the (British) Labor Party to have a "holding"? That is the attempted misdirect there, right? "Labor party" ... ends up meaning simply a person who works (for a unionized group)? Awkward. Also, we "honor"MIAs? Did not know that. The SW was another struggle for me, with GEORG being a ??? and UREY really really being a ??? and then I had POLAND before POLSKA and BODYBAG took me forever because who watches "CSI"? The only thing I know about that show is DNALAB or something like that, right? That's what I think of when I think of that show. That, and the fact that I have never watched it or any of its spin-offs, or, come to think of it, anything at all that has aired on CBS since "Murder, She Wrote." Oh, and "OH MY DARLING" is super duper dumb as a stand-alone answer (59A: Repeated phrase in the chorus of a classic folk ballad).
Definitely had DEER SKINS before I had BEAR SKINS (14D: Hides in a cabin, perhaps), which made 12A: Whirlpool site (TUB) and 18A: Honoree on the third Friday of Sept. (MIA) really rough. Very happy I know baseball pretty well and grew up when TOM SEAVER was still in the league because that clue is (again) really non-specific and boring (12D: Hall-of-Fame pitcher who once struck out 10 consecutive batters). I have his autograph. I have his HOF t-shirt. He's from Fresno, same as me, so ... I got lucky there: a few crosses and I saw him quite clearly (though the only thing from the clue that "helped" was "Hall-of-Fame pitcher"). I should point out the worst cross: HULLO / UREY. Just horrendous. Just how is HULLO British? 'ELLO! I'd buy! 'ALLO, maybe! (or is that a French accent?) But HULLO just sounds odd. Adele sang "Hello," so ... I don't know what this clue's on about. As for UREY, yeesh. I just plain guessed that "U."
The more I think on it, the more TOM SEAVER seems problematic. Not in and of itself—he's great, and fine for a crossword—but crossing him with ENSOR and VAI presents real Natick possibilities, esp. at the "V." I just don't think this one was very thoughtfully constructed / clued, despite its containing some very decent longer fill.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (though I got unreasonably stuck in NW, so maybe more Medium-Challenging) (8:24)
Word of the Day: Harold UREY (50D: Manhattan Project scientist) —
Harold Clayton Urey (April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb, as well as contributing to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter. [...] He was one of the founding members of UCSD's school of chemistry, which was created in 1960. He became increasingly interested in space science, and when Apollo 11 returned moon rock samples from the moon, Urey examined them at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Lunar astronaut Harrison Schmitt said that Urey approached him as a volunteer for a one-way mission to the Moon, stating "I will go, and I don't care if I don't come back." (wikipedia)
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Cluing again irksome in NE, especially the supremely awkward and not funny/clever 13D: Labor party member's holding? (UNION CARD). What is the wordplay here, beyond "labor"—I mean, "holding" is bizarre. It doesn't misdirect, it just muddles and muddies. Why would I expect someone in the (British) Labor Party to have a "holding"? That is the attempted misdirect there, right? "Labor party" ... ends up meaning simply a person who works (for a unionized group)? Awkward. Also, we "honor"MIAs? Did not know that. The SW was another struggle for me, with GEORG being a ??? and UREY really really being a ??? and then I had POLAND before POLSKA and BODYBAG took me forever because who watches "CSI"? The only thing I know about that show is DNALAB or something like that, right? That's what I think of when I think of that show. That, and the fact that I have never watched it or any of its spin-offs, or, come to think of it, anything at all that has aired on CBS since "Murder, She Wrote." Oh, and "OH MY DARLING" is super duper dumb as a stand-alone answer (59A: Repeated phrase in the chorus of a classic folk ballad).
Definitely had DEER SKINS before I had BEAR SKINS (14D: Hides in a cabin, perhaps), which made 12A: Whirlpool site (TUB) and 18A: Honoree on the third Friday of Sept. (MIA) really rough. Very happy I know baseball pretty well and grew up when TOM SEAVER was still in the league because that clue is (again) really non-specific and boring (12D: Hall-of-Fame pitcher who once struck out 10 consecutive batters). I have his autograph. I have his HOF t-shirt. He's from Fresno, same as me, so ... I got lucky there: a few crosses and I saw him quite clearly (though the only thing from the clue that "helped" was "Hall-of-Fame pitcher"). I should point out the worst cross: HULLO / UREY. Just horrendous. Just how is HULLO British? 'ELLO! I'd buy! 'ALLO, maybe! (or is that a French accent?) But HULLO just sounds odd. Adele sang "Hello," so ... I don't know what this clue's on about. As for UREY, yeesh. I just plain guessed that "U."
The more I think on it, the more TOM SEAVER seems problematic. Not in and of itself—he's great, and fine for a crossword—but crossing him with ENSOR and VAI presents real Natick possibilities, esp. at the "V." I just don't think this one was very thoughtfully constructed / clued, despite its containing some very decent longer fill.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]