Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday) (3:25)
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THEME: YES (61D: "That's correct" ... or a hint to the ends of 17-, 28-, 45- and 59-Across) — final words in themers are all homphones of foreign words for "YES"
Theme answers:
OK, let's get one thing out of the way immediately: the clue on MARA is criminal. It's deliberately evoking the leader of a global white supremacist movement. MARA doesn't have to be there at all, and if it *does* have to be there, then there are other MARAs in the world. There well and truly are. And the clue! "Presidential retreat"?!?!? I'll let my friend Austin explain:
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I probably didn't need to post his "Congratulations" and solving time, but it's just prettier that way. Anyway, look, there is no other way to clue IVANKA except via the Trump route (please, constructors, delete her). But there are other ways to clue MARA besides MARA-Lago, which is a rat hole for rich racists, those who aspire to be rich racists, and corrupt entities seeking to purchase access to the president. Every single crossword clue that casually implies that this president* is just another president helps to normalize him. No. Nuh uh. Nah. Screw that. This is an editorial decision, and an editorial fuck-up. Please forgive me: I am still in a fury about the massacre in my wife's home country of New Zealand, so I'm not feeling at alllll charitable toward the white right (or their promoters) at this moment. Not at all.
I love this theme. I really do. I really wish I hadn't run into *&%^ing MARA because it really soured the whole experience. Nice to get to a revealer that gives you that moment where you look back over the puzzle and go "Oh yeah ... cool." The one area I had trouble today ... well, there were two. First, I had PLAIN and wrote in PLAIN AS DAY for 17A: Clearly visible. Brutal misstep, especially for a Monday. Probably added 10-20 seconds to my time all on its own. Ooh, KTOWN was also tough somehow. Don't know what I was looking for, but it wasn't that (6D: Neighborhood to get kimchi and bibimbap, informally). I stupidly wrote in AMORE at 18D: Sentiment from a Latino lover (TE AMO), so as you can see, that whole area was just a clusterf***. D'OH! (55A: "That was stupid of me!"). But the one that really baffled me was RA-E / -OBAGS (25D: Rant and rave / 34A: Holders for emergency supplies). I know GO BAG as something you can grab when you need to disappear quickly and possibly for a long time. I think of it as including cash, as well as other things you will need if you are on the run. The clue made it sound like some kind of first aid kit, so even with -OBAGS in place I thought maybe the first two letters were initials. Not sure why RAGE troubled me, but the only answer I wanted was RAVE, which was in the clue, so ... :( ... I figured it out, obviously, and it probably took me only a matter of five seconds, but on a Monday, at the end ... it felt like forever. Fill on this one was tight and interesting. Really good work, except for the clue on MARA, which is entirely the editor's fault, in the end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday) (3:25)
Theme answers:
- PLAIN TO SEE (si!) (17A: Clearly visible)
- LAH-DI-DAH (da!) (28A: Hoity-toity)
- AIMS HIGH (hai!) (45A: Sets lofty goals)
- THE ROYAL WE (oui!) (59A: What egotists use instead of "I")
plural noun: go-bags
• • •
OK, let's get one thing out of the way immediately: the clue on MARA is criminal. It's deliberately evoking the leader of a global white supremacist movement. MARA doesn't have to be there at all, and if it *does* have to be there, then there are other MARAs in the world. There well and truly are. And the clue! "Presidential retreat"?!?!? I'll let my friend Austin explain:
I love this theme. I really do. I really wish I hadn't run into *&%^ing MARA because it really soured the whole experience. Nice to get to a revealer that gives you that moment where you look back over the puzzle and go "Oh yeah ... cool." The one area I had trouble today ... well, there were two. First, I had PLAIN and wrote in PLAIN AS DAY for 17A: Clearly visible. Brutal misstep, especially for a Monday. Probably added 10-20 seconds to my time all on its own. Ooh, KTOWN was also tough somehow. Don't know what I was looking for, but it wasn't that (6D: Neighborhood to get kimchi and bibimbap, informally). I stupidly wrote in AMORE at 18D: Sentiment from a Latino lover (TE AMO), so as you can see, that whole area was just a clusterf***. D'OH! (55A: "That was stupid of me!"). But the one that really baffled me was RA-E / -OBAGS (25D: Rant and rave / 34A: Holders for emergency supplies). I know GO BAG as something you can grab when you need to disappear quickly and possibly for a long time. I think of it as including cash, as well as other things you will need if you are on the run. The clue made it sound like some kind of first aid kit, so even with -OBAGS in place I thought maybe the first two letters were initials. Not sure why RAGE troubled me, but the only answer I wanted was RAVE, which was in the clue, so ... :( ... I figured it out, obviously, and it probably took me only a matter of five seconds, but on a Monday, at the end ... it felt like forever. Fill on this one was tight and interesting. Really good work, except for the clue on MARA, which is entirely the editor's fault, in the end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]