Indianapolis footballer / MON 3-11-19 / One-named Grammy winner for Soldier of Love

Constructor: Trent H. Evans

Relative difficulty: Medium (2:54)

THEME: apparent oxymorons— two-word phrases where first word is antonym of second word:

Theme answers:

• LIVING DEAD (17A: Zombies)
• RECORDED LIVE (26A: Like a concert album)
• FOUND MISSING (46A: Like a stolen object, when it's not where it's supposed to be)
• OPEN SECRET (62A: Supposedly unknown but actually well-known fact)

Word of the Day:"The MONEY PIT" (39D: Interminably expensive project) —

The Money Pit is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin starring Tom Hanksand Shelley Long as a couple who attempt to renovate a recently purchased house. It was filmed in New York City and Lattingtown, New York, and was co-executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

In 2013, NBC announced they were developing a TV series based on the film, but the project was later put on hold. (wikipedia)

I never noticed the theme, honestly, because I was too distracted with how my fingers were not complying with my will. Puzzle felt very easy, but I somehow just kept stumbling around the grid, making typos left and right. I finished up in the NE, which ... what the hell? Who finishes a Monday puzzle north of the equator? Bizarre. Anyway, the fill is smooth as heck, praise the lord, and the theme is subtle and lovely, actually. I like the lack of revealer. Just let the answers be. We see it. We see you, theme.  I don't have much to say about it except that the grid really seems polished. Clean. It's not that there's No crosswordese, it's that there's nothing glaringly junky. Constructor took pains to try to make the grid mostly real words and common names. PAVER is about the only thing that made me WINCE, just because it seems mildly contrived. There's nothing particularly scintillating here, but it's nice work, overall, I think.


I blanked on 1A: Cause of an infant's crying (COLIC), and when I went to the crosses, first it took me waaaaay too long (ok maybe five seconds, but that's a long time on a Monday) to remember that Indianapolis was the COLTs, and then I wrote in ERIE for 2D: Separator of Indiana and Pennsylvania (OHIO), which is, you know ... not *entirely* wrong. Lake ERIE is sorta kinda in between Indiana and Pennsylvania. I could definitely make a valiant legal defense of ERIE. But it was OHIO. This "error" cost me even more precious seconds. I also imagined that people buy toilet paper in REAMs, so that was fun (26D: Toilet paper unit = ROLL). FOUND MISSING is a slightly weird phrase, so I had some trouble parsing it. But otherwise, this was a pretty typical walk-in-the-park Monday. No groans. No curses. Fill may be slightly old-fashioned / plain, but it'll do just fine. I'm off now to watch "Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For" on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. I hear there's a cameo by the NYT crossword editor himself. CanNot wait. I'll report back on the whole experience tomorrow. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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