Cry of triumph / MON 12-31-2018 / Quarry / Spirited horse / Make a goof

Hello! Happy almost New Year! It's Clare again, switching it up this month by doing the last Monday of the month instead of the least Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. I'm spending my break chilling at home spending endless amounts of time doing jigsaw puzzles and sleeping, while still recovering from all that studying for finals!

Constructor: Brian Thomas

Relative difficulty: Pretty easy
THEME: Another name for O3 (as appropriate to 17-, 25-, 44- and 55-Across?)— The theme answers were all phrases that have three O's in a row.

Theme answers:

• IM TOO OLD FOR THIS (17A: "You young people go ahead!")
• HAVE NO OOMPH (25A: Lack in energy)
• BOO OFF STAGE (44A: Force to exit, as a performer)
• ITS A ZOO OUT THERE (58A: Traffic reporter's comment)

Word of the Day: ST ELMO (16D: Patron of sailors)—

Saint Erasmus of Formia, also known as Saint Elmo, was a Christiansaint and martyr, who died c. 303. He is venerated as the patron saint of Sailors and abdominal pain. St Erasmus or Elmo is also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saintly figures of Christian tradition who were venerated especially as intercessors… St. Elmo's fire is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a sharp or pointed object in a strong electric field in the atmosphere (such as those generated by thunderstorms or created by a volcanic eruption). The phenomenon sometimes appeared on ships at sea during thunderstorms and was regarded by sailors with religious awe for its glowing ball of light, accounting for the name.Sailors may have considered St. Elmo's fire as a good omen (as a sign of the presence of their patron saint). (Wikipedia)

Overall, I thought the puzzle was good. It had some fun theme answers, with parts like OOMPH (25A) and ITS A ZOO (58A). I jumped around the puzzle some and, after getting the first theme answer, knew right away the theme was three O's, which helped me get some answers. I also liked the longer answers; they gave the puzzle a slightly odd shape, though, and there were a lot of crossword-y fill words as a result, like LOL, OMG, ERR, EMO, ERS, IPA, IDO... (I could go on). It seemed like the rest of the puzzle might have suffered some as a result of the constructor trying to make the theme work. I was also not a fan of SISI (51D: Enthusiastic assent in Mexico) and HIHO (11D: Cheery greeting) (this sounds like it would have been at home in 18th century London! — HI HO, cheerio).

I got a bit slowed down by 39A: "Don't leave this spot" because I wanted to make "stay here" work instead of WAIT HERE. I also paused for a bit at 61A because I thought it definitely would have to be stegosaurus and not STEGOSAUR. I googled it afterward, and, while the dictionary definitions do refer to stegosaur, I felt slightly vindicated by my belief, because Google did ask me, "Did you mean Stegosaurus?"

I had no idea what SINN was (54A: __ Fein (Irish Political Party)) but didn't even see it until after I finished the puzzle, because the downs there were quite easy. I've also never seen Ahmed (2D: Man's name related to the name of Islam's founder) in a puzzle before, so that might be slightly odd, especially for a Monday puzzle. LEAF, GENE, and LOPE elicited a chuckle from me. I also don't know why, but I really love the word TOE RAG and the expression GEE WHIZ.

Misc.:

• I knew that it was EUGENE O'Neill Theater because I got to see "Book of Mormon" there (which was hilarious and fantastic).
• 6D as ALLEGE— You would not believe how much we use this word in law school.
• Definitely because of the movie "Frozen," I originally tried to put Olaf instead of OLAV at 18D.
• This is off-topic, but what kind of sound does a poodle actually make? I imagine poodles as more dainty, and ARF doesn't quite fit. I think of poodles as yipping or something.

Signed, Clare Carroll, a relaxed 1L

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