Constructor: Debbie Ellerin
Relative difficulty: Easy (5:11)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: UZO Aduba (22A: Actress Aduba of "Orange Is the New Black") —
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Back-to-back very easy puzzles! Nice to head into the weekend feeling invincible. Found yesterday's puzzle somewhat more delightful and intriguing, but this one is smooth and solid and works quite well, overall. There's just not much sizzle here, for me. This could easily be because I do so many puzzles, but the marquee answers here, while just fine (NOTORIOUS RBG, GREEN GOBLIN) feel like things I've seen before. Like ... fresh a few years ago, maybe, but now, less so. "A STAR IS BORN" is a nice entry, but its clue is some pretty bland trivia (25D: 2018 Oscar-nominated picture whose soundtrack sold over one million copies). TRANSYLVANIA probably wins the day, especially in the clue department (23A: Where one might go out to get a bite?) (Get it? 'Cause Dracula?). But like I say, despite the lack of oohs and aahs, I admired the craftsmanship of this one. Crosswordese (like ERTES and LEO IV and AMAS) is spread out so as to be inconspicuous, and solid, familiar, in-the-language answers abound. And it's nice to see a woman constructor on Saturday. What'd we have last year, like, one? Let me check ... yep, one. Uno.
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That's better than 2011, 2013, and 2015, when there were precisely zero puzzles by women on Saturday. Only 19 total this decade (since 2010). That's out of something close to 500 Saturday puzzles. So today ties last year's total! So things won't be worse this year! Baby steps!
Now I will walk through all the parts of this grid that gave me trouble. Minimal trouble in every case, but still, trouble. I had the "A" and wrote in AMNIO at 2D: Kind of test for a baby (APGAR). I learned APGAR from crosswords, and let's be honest about "learned," because even today, when I "remembered" it, I couldn't actually remember it. Needed "APG-" before I "remembered." I did get BADGE right away, though, so that's something! (1A: Evidence of merit). Not sure why I wrote in DRAB at first for 33D: Minute amount (DRIB), but I did. "Dribs and drabs" is a phrase, right? Anyway, easy to fix because the [Fairy tale villain] at 40A obviously had to be EVIL something. But this led to my next problem: EVIL what??? What fairy tale? I was looking for something generic. I feel like EVIL QUEEN is very specific, though now that I think about it, I guess there have been a number, though not all in "fairy tales." Anyway, not having QUEEN halted my progress, and also meant that I wrote in PHOTO IDS instead of QUORUMS for 41D: Requirements for voting. I know, I know, you don't need PHOTO IDS for voting (not in NY anyway). I was mad as I was writing the answer in, like "how dare you!?" But as we now know, it was wrong. Last hold-up came with RANTO, which I just couldn't parse as a past-tense verb phrase for a while (49D: Totaled). I also was thinking of the wrong kind of "totaled." Finished up in the name-heavy NE—not sure why you turn URBAN into a name there, when you've already crammed the corner with names, but no biggie (for me, anyway). Knocked out that corner no problem and ta da, finished. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (5:11)
Word of the Day: UZO Aduba (22A: Actress Aduba of "Orange Is the New Black") —
Uzoamaka Nwanneka "Uzo" Aduba (/ˈuːzoʊəˈduːbə/; born February 10, 1981) is a Nigerian-American actress. She is known for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013–present), for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in 2014 and 2015. She is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role, the other being Ed Asner for the character Lou Grant. (wikipedia)
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Now I will walk through all the parts of this grid that gave me trouble. Minimal trouble in every case, but still, trouble. I had the "A" and wrote in AMNIO at 2D: Kind of test for a baby (APGAR). I learned APGAR from crosswords, and let's be honest about "learned," because even today, when I "remembered" it, I couldn't actually remember it. Needed "APG-" before I "remembered." I did get BADGE right away, though, so that's something! (1A: Evidence of merit). Not sure why I wrote in DRAB at first for 33D: Minute amount (DRIB), but I did. "Dribs and drabs" is a phrase, right? Anyway, easy to fix because the [Fairy tale villain] at 40A obviously had to be EVIL something. But this led to my next problem: EVIL what??? What fairy tale? I was looking for something generic. I feel like EVIL QUEEN is very specific, though now that I think about it, I guess there have been a number, though not all in "fairy tales." Anyway, not having QUEEN halted my progress, and also meant that I wrote in PHOTO IDS instead of QUORUMS for 41D: Requirements for voting. I know, I know, you don't need PHOTO IDS for voting (not in NY anyway). I was mad as I was writing the answer in, like "how dare you!?" But as we now know, it was wrong. Last hold-up came with RANTO, which I just couldn't parse as a past-tense verb phrase for a while (49D: Totaled). I also was thinking of the wrong kind of "totaled." Finished up in the name-heavy NE—not sure why you turn URBAN into a name there, when you've already crammed the corner with names, but no biggie (for me, anyway). Knocked out that corner no problem and ta da, finished. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]