Constructor: Amanda Chung and Karl Ni
Relative difficulty: Medium for me (4:15), but Easy for everyone else, apparently
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THEME: GENDER NEUTRAL (56A: Like 20-, 28- and 45-Across vis-à-vis the female-sounding phrases they're based on?) — a familiar base phrase has its final "-ESS" removed and then the aural remnants are reimagined and reclued, wackily:
Theme answers:
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First off, hurray for half of a woman constructor! It's now 22.5 men and 1.5 women. Parity, here we come! (But seriously, hurray). Big non-hurray for this theme though, which clunks the way only an off-the-mark sound-based theme can clunk. That extra syllable is just a horrible dealbreaker. ADDRESS is two syllables. Removing its "female-sounding" part (!) just leaves ADDR-, which sounds like "uh-DRUH-" The idea that taking away the "-ESS" leaves ADDER is completely preposterous. An "address" is something. An "adder" is something. An "adderess" is ... like, a female snake? I dunno. I just know that all of these themers simply do not work at the level at which humans form sounds with their mouths and larynxes. Matteress? Butteress? How is "delivery address" a "female-sounding phrase." It's barely a phrase at all. Has anyone ever thought, "'mattress' ... that's kind of like feminine 'matter'?" And by "anyone" I mean "anyone who wasn't super high." The great thing about watching instant reaction to the puzzle on Twitter at #NYTXW is that you can see trends. This puzzle was apparently very easy and also, to a good number of people, completely baffling. So many people out there are like, "I set a personal record time for a Wednesday but I do Not understand the theme." I too couldn't understand it for something close to a minute (roughly).
The fill also shouldn't be this blah when the theme isn't taxing the grid that much. The long non-theme answers are fairly dull and the short stuff is overrun with NYSE AONE STLEO ADREP ENS ACAI SSS NNE-level gunk. It's funny that people found this so easy. These imaginary-phrase themes always slow me down. Also, I just didn't see any of the answers clearly. CRAB no CLODS no VOL no ... had NAVE for APSE (not a big churchgoer, or church-understander, apparently), SPRUNG for SPRANG, blanked on KREWE, balked at AMEN and WEST, wasn't entirely sure about MEEMAW, had LET ME instead of LEMME (which ... what the hell is with that corner!? LEMME is so bad and unnecessary; you could do a million other things down there—you could also just change it to DEMME and turn LAV (ugh, again?) into DAD. OK, that's all. I'll leave you with a couple of interesting solver gripes. Good night:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium for me (4:15), but Easy for everyone else, apparently
Theme answers:
- DELIVERY ADDER (from "delivery address") (20A: Maternity ward worker who counts each day's births?)
- FLYING BUTTER (from "flying buttress") (28A: Dairy item thrown in a food fight?)
- BLOW-UP MATTER (from "blow-up mattress") (45A: Dynamite?)
noun
• • •
The fill also shouldn't be this blah when the theme isn't taxing the grid that much. The long non-theme answers are fairly dull and the short stuff is overrun with NYSE AONE STLEO ADREP ENS ACAI SSS NNE-level gunk. It's funny that people found this so easy. These imaginary-phrase themes always slow me down. Also, I just didn't see any of the answers clearly. CRAB no CLODS no VOL no ... had NAVE for APSE (not a big churchgoer, or church-understander, apparently), SPRUNG for SPRANG, blanked on KREWE, balked at AMEN and WEST, wasn't entirely sure about MEEMAW, had LET ME instead of LEMME (which ... what the hell is with that corner!? LEMME is so bad and unnecessary; you could do a million other things down there—you could also just change it to DEMME and turn LAV (ugh, again?) into DAD. OK, that's all. I'll leave you with a couple of interesting solver gripes. Good night:
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| 4D: Agnostic's lack => BELIEF |
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| 5A: Some lines drawn with protractors => ARCS |
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]