Constructor: Jules Markey
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:36)
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THEME: BUTTON DOWN (30D: Very conventional ... or a hint to the starts of the answers to the four starred clues) — themers (which all run "down") all start with kinds of "buttons":
Theme answers:
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Felt like I was flying on this one, but ended up with a time pretty close to average. I think the grid is so choppy and fussy that I spent more time on cursor management than I might have otherwise. So many 3- and 4-letter word, useless little NE / SW corners not connected to anything ... really don't like the way this grid is built. I do like the themers, and the theme, though a common ("first words...") type, is neatly executed. But again I wish the editor cared more about the overall solving experience, not just the theme. I wish he insisted on cleaner fill, and sent grids back for revision or did a little grid-fixing himself. EEKS is really rotten, esp. up there with ASA and OTOS (the second crosswordese tribe of the day) (see 35A). The SE has some issues too, with CPL ELEA and PEWEE kinda mucking things up. But the main problem, as I said up front, is the grid design—it just invites crosswordese, which, even when it's not bad (say, IRE), really does pile up after a bit. Still, if you tear this thing down to just the themers, you've got something.
A couple more things. First of all, UNGARBED? I am sure that the dictionary will tell you that that is, indeed, a word, but wow, why, why would you use that? Who says that? Is there a more contrived, more fake-ye-olde, less sexy way to say "Naked" in all of the English language? I might give you GARBED, if you were going for "ironically fusty," but UNGARBED I will not give you. Actually, the U--A-B-- letter pattern (necessitated by the grid design) is very unfavorable, and UNGARBED is probably the best thing that could go there, but this brings us back again (again again) to grid design. Maybe make a grid where you aren't trying to run an answer through *three* themers. That's brutal. Running answers through two themers is tricky enough. If you run one through three, then you have to basically *start* filling your grid there, and if you can't get a good answer to fit with a completely stripped-down, themers-only grid, then yeah, You Need To Rebuild Your Grid.
Lastly, whoever wrote the clue for PANIC ATTACK has clearly never had one (9D: *Flop swear producer). "Flop sweat"? Yeah, no. A person having an actually PANIC ATTACK *wishes* they were experiencing mere "flop sweat." Sigh. Just look up what a PANIC ATTACK is, maybe? They often come out of nowhere, in situations that do not look stressful at all. They are not about performance. They are about your body being out of control and you feeling like you are dying but you don't know why. Like someone turned your fight/flight response on and just ... left it on. With no threat in sight. Anyway, "flop sweat" is insulting. PANIC ATTACKs can be debilitating and have nothing to do with bombing on stage or whatever one-off situation "flop sweat" is supposed to imply. I had PANIC ATTACKs for a brief, terrible period in my early 20s; flop sweat shmop sweat.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:36)
Theme answers:
- SNOOZEFEST (3D: *Bo-o-o-ring event)
- "LIKE YOU KNOW" (24D: *Scoffing remark to an ignoramus)
- BELLY UP THE BAR (6D: *Go order a drink)
- PANIC ATTACK (9D: *Flop sweat producer)
: any of various small largely gray or olive-colored American flycatchers (genus Contopus) (m-w)
• • •
A couple more things. First of all, UNGARBED? I am sure that the dictionary will tell you that that is, indeed, a word, but wow, why, why would you use that? Who says that? Is there a more contrived, more fake-ye-olde, less sexy way to say "Naked" in all of the English language? I might give you GARBED, if you were going for "ironically fusty," but UNGARBED I will not give you. Actually, the U--A-B-- letter pattern (necessitated by the grid design) is very unfavorable, and UNGARBED is probably the best thing that could go there, but this brings us back again (again again) to grid design. Maybe make a grid where you aren't trying to run an answer through *three* themers. That's brutal. Running answers through two themers is tricky enough. If you run one through three, then you have to basically *start* filling your grid there, and if you can't get a good answer to fit with a completely stripped-down, themers-only grid, then yeah, You Need To Rebuild Your Grid.
Lastly, whoever wrote the clue for PANIC ATTACK has clearly never had one (9D: *Flop swear producer). "Flop sweat"? Yeah, no. A person having an actually PANIC ATTACK *wishes* they were experiencing mere "flop sweat." Sigh. Just look up what a PANIC ATTACK is, maybe? They often come out of nowhere, in situations that do not look stressful at all. They are not about performance. They are about your body being out of control and you feeling like you are dying but you don't know why. Like someone turned your fight/flight response on and just ... left it on. With no threat in sight. Anyway, "flop sweat" is insulting. PANIC ATTACKs can be debilitating and have nothing to do with bombing on stage or whatever one-off situation "flop sweat" is supposed to imply. I had PANIC ATTACKs for a brief, terrible period in my early 20s; flop sweat shmop sweat.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]