Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Easy (8:42)
![]()
THEME:"Everything Evens Out In The End"— two-word phrases where second word is just the "odd" letters (e.g. 1st, 3rd, 5th...) of the first word; whole thing is tied together with the revealer, "WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?" (121A: "How lucky was that?" ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues)
Theme answers:
![]()
What a weird solve. I had no clear idea what was going on with the themers, except that there was clearly some kind of anagram or repeat-some-letters thing going on inside the answers. The themers themselves seemed ... contrived, at least slightly. THE FARM TEAM? SMALL-TOWN SALON? Seemed a little iffy. But I was just rolling with it, hoping / praying that there was gonna be a bangin' revealer to make it all worthwhile, and Sure Enough! Erik's last puzzle was the one with the revealer "SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN," which was, frankly, the best and most memorable revealer of the year to that point (see here), and today's is just as good. The revealer should snap—it should crackle and pop, too. It needs to make perfect sense of the themers, and it needs to be a great phrase in its own right. Or, maybe not "needs to," but "should." Perfect revealers should make you go "Oh ... wow." And this one did. I still think the themers are weird and contrived, but they had to be for this (very restrictive) theme to work. As you know, and as the data makes clear, Sunday has recently been my least favorite day of the puzzle week, so this puzzle is especially welcome.
There were little hiccups along the way, but I basically crushed this puzzle—until, that is, the SE corner, where I floundered (but, thankfully, did not founder). I just couldn't get a hold on the revealer. Had to work and work and work at it, and the crosses were really rough (for me) toward the middle and end. YEOW is a sound, TSK is a sound, PRECHEW is ew, what the hell is PRECHEW, dear lord ... and then I misread 125D: Iniquity site (DEN) as [Inquiry site], so that didn't help. Then I misspelled WOOLF ever which way imaginable, and some unimaginable (if you include multiple typos), before getting it right. Then there's the fact that I didn't really know / remember AWKWAFINA and didn't read the whole clue, which, you know, might've been a good idea. Might've jogged my memory a bit. So the area east of DARLA was snarled mess. I might've been very close to a Sunday personal best if I had been able to maintain my pace through the SE. Still, even with the ridiculous pratfall conclusion, a very fast solve.
Five things:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (8:42)
Theme answers:
- SMALL-TOWN SALON (21A: *Likely inexpensive place to get one's hair done)
- REINDEER RIDE (40A: *Tourist activity in northern Scandinavia)
- THE FARM TEAM (59A: *Source of call-ups, in baseball lingo)
- SWINGING SIGN (64A: *Posting that blows in the wind)
- IS NOT TOO INTO (72A: *Has little excitement for)
- PROTEST POET (84A: *Allen Ginsberg, e.g.)
- FOOTNOTE FONT (99A: *Bottom-of-page design choice)
Nora Lum (June 2, 1988), known by the stage name Awkwafina, is an American rapper and actress. She appeared in the films Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. She has released two studio albums, Yellow Ranger and In Fina We Trust. Awkwafina first gained popularity for her song "My Vag", a response to Mickey Avalon's "My Dick". The music video garnered over three million views on YouTube. Notable television appearances include Girl Code, Future Man, and Saturday Night Live. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were little hiccups along the way, but I basically crushed this puzzle—until, that is, the SE corner, where I floundered (but, thankfully, did not founder). I just couldn't get a hold on the revealer. Had to work and work and work at it, and the crosses were really rough (for me) toward the middle and end. YEOW is a sound, TSK is a sound, PRECHEW is ew, what the hell is PRECHEW, dear lord ... and then I misread 125D: Iniquity site (DEN) as [Inquiry site], so that didn't help. Then I misspelled WOOLF ever which way imaginable, and some unimaginable (if you include multiple typos), before getting it right. Then there's the fact that I didn't really know / remember AWKWAFINA and didn't read the whole clue, which, you know, might've been a good idea. Might've jogged my memory a bit. So the area east of DARLA was snarled mess. I might've been very close to a Sunday personal best if I had been able to maintain my pace through the SE. Still, even with the ridiculous pratfall conclusion, a very fast solve.
Five things:
- 10A: Multidecker sandwich (CLUB) — wanted BLT(S). I actually wrote in BLAT (which is a multidecker sandwich, I think ... well, it's got bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato on it; I count each of those things as a deck(er).
- 42D: Dreadfully slow (DRAGGY) — had trouble with this, but when I got it, I loved it—and that's the best possible outcome for a crossword struggle: "What the ... why can't I ... oh! Oh yeah, gotta give it up for that answer, that is good..."
- 49A: Chinese dynasty ended by Kublai Khan (SONG) — that has to be the world's toughest clue for SONG ... but it's not like it slowed me down much.
- 29A: En ___ (chess move) (PASSANT)— ha ha, OK, sure, if you say so. Luckily I have some familiarity with French, so I was able to make a French phrase out of the few letters that I had, and it ended up being right.
- 5D: Tree resin used in fragrances (BALSAM) — well I know BALSA wood, and I know the actor Martin BALSAM ... but this "resin" was not familiar to me. And crossing PASSANT ... that was potentially lethal. But tra la la, I managed to skip right through there without harm.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]