Constructor: Andrew Kingsley
Relative difficulty: Medium (3:02)
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THEME: GET CRACKING (37A: Hop to it ... or what to do to the various eggs in this puzzle's circled squares) — circled squares contain animals that lay eggs ... and they are, I guess, "cracked" ... because they are broken across two words, with one letter leaping a black square, which I guess represents a "crack," but ... "I" didn't "do" anything to "the various eggs," because the circled squares are already there, all pre-cracked, and anyway, those aren't "eggs," in any sense. If you told me those circled squares represented hats, I'd be like, "sure, OK ..." At any rate:
"Eggs":
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Mondays rarely miss this badly. I am dumbfounded at how ill-conceived and -executed this puzzle is. I'm not sure where to start, but I'll just go ahead and start with the revealer, which makes no sense at all. I cannot "crack" anything, and I'm not even sure what "cracking" means here. The Circled Squares Are Already There, All Lined Up In "Cracked" Formation, so I, me, I, the solver, "crack" nothing. Also, those aren't eggs. They are a line of letters that tick up for one letter—an appallingly poor representation of a "crack," if, indeed, that is what those are supposed to be, which, as I say, I hardly know. Further, why would anyone crack a dinosaur egg? That outlier, I realize, is trying to be cute, but ugh. Also, "dinosaur"? That's like having "bird" as one of your "eggs." You have specific birds, why don't you have a specific dinosaur?
Also, why is this puzzle running now and not on Easter, when it would've been Sunday and you would've had a big grid, which would've allowed you to let some of these themers breathe. Instead, they are crammed into a space too small for them, which puts incredible pressure on the grid, which results in truly dire fill. Just awful. These names. Red ADAIR *and* Jon SECADA *aaaaand* Peter RODINO!?!? I know a. only from crosswords, b. only from having been a fairly young, radio-listening person for the three years Jon SECADA was famous, and c. not at all. Not At All. Please, tell me how important RODINO is while I tell you he hasn't appeared in the NYTXW since '04, and only two times in the Shortz era before today (and never on a Monday). That's fifteen years of people dying who would've known who RODINO was. I was four when Nixon was impeached. Thank god I know what NEC is, which ... again, this is a mark of a terrible puzzle—I'm reliant on crosswordese (I never see NEC anywhere outside of grids) to avoid a full-on Natick*. On a Monday. Actually, I guess I could've used the theme to complete those squares, in an emergency. Ugh. That I finished this puzzle in normal Monday time is a bleeping miracle.
Is it OLAV or OLAF? GAIA or GAEA? Oh what fun** we get up to on Mondays! I teach college English, have for over two decades, literally never heard anyone anywhere ever refer to Lit CRIT (certainly not as a "course") (4D: Lit ___ (coll. course)). TMI? IMO, no! Are you really gonna follow KIM (56A: One of the Kardashians) with KIM... CHI? (57A: Spicy Korean side dish). That weird KIM dupe is so bad, it could really only have been unbaddened if you'd followed with CHI on the other side, creating KIM KIMCHI CHI. I'd've stood and clapped for that. There's just so much depressing fill here. AMER is just making me sad. I'd've taken a RRN (Random Roman Numeral) at 49D (DLI), just to get ATHENS at 48D and thus AMEN and NATS at the bottom of the grid. [The "A" of U.S.A.: Abbr.]??? Do you see how sad that clue is?—you clued an abbr. with a shorter version ... of the abbr.? The "A" is short for "America"; nothing is short for AMER. You avoid all this nonsense by not having stupid AMER there in the first place. OK, that's all. Make Mondays Fun Again. Please.
*see the "What is a 'Natick'" section in the first sidebar on my website
**not actually fun
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (3:02)
"Eggs":
- OST(R)ICH
- DINO(S)AUR
- GO(O)SE
- CHI(C)KEN
Peter Wallace Rodino Jr. (June 7, 1909 – May 7, 2005) was a Democratic United States congressmanfrom New Jersey from 1949 to 1989. Rodino rose to prominence as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where he oversaw the impeachment process against Richard Nixon that eventually led to the president's resignation. He was the longest-serving member ever of the United States House of Representatives from the state of New Jersey. (wikipedia)
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Also, why is this puzzle running now and not on Easter, when it would've been Sunday and you would've had a big grid, which would've allowed you to let some of these themers breathe. Instead, they are crammed into a space too small for them, which puts incredible pressure on the grid, which results in truly dire fill. Just awful. These names. Red ADAIR *and* Jon SECADA *aaaaand* Peter RODINO!?!? I know a. only from crosswords, b. only from having been a fairly young, radio-listening person for the three years Jon SECADA was famous, and c. not at all. Not At All. Please, tell me how important RODINO is while I tell you he hasn't appeared in the NYTXW since '04, and only two times in the Shortz era before today (and never on a Monday). That's fifteen years of people dying who would've known who RODINO was. I was four when Nixon was impeached. Thank god I know what NEC is, which ... again, this is a mark of a terrible puzzle—I'm reliant on crosswordese (I never see NEC anywhere outside of grids) to avoid a full-on Natick*. On a Monday. Actually, I guess I could've used the theme to complete those squares, in an emergency. Ugh. That I finished this puzzle in normal Monday time is a bleeping miracle.
Is it OLAV or OLAF? GAIA or GAEA? Oh what fun** we get up to on Mondays! I teach college English, have for over two decades, literally never heard anyone anywhere ever refer to Lit CRIT (certainly not as a "course") (4D: Lit ___ (coll. course)). TMI? IMO, no! Are you really gonna follow KIM (56A: One of the Kardashians) with KIM... CHI? (57A: Spicy Korean side dish). That weird KIM dupe is so bad, it could really only have been unbaddened if you'd followed with CHI on the other side, creating KIM KIMCHI CHI. I'd've stood and clapped for that. There's just so much depressing fill here. AMER is just making me sad. I'd've taken a RRN (Random Roman Numeral) at 49D (DLI), just to get ATHENS at 48D and thus AMEN and NATS at the bottom of the grid. [The "A" of U.S.A.: Abbr.]??? Do you see how sad that clue is?—you clued an abbr. with a shorter version ... of the abbr.? The "A" is short for "America"; nothing is short for AMER. You avoid all this nonsense by not having stupid AMER there in the first place. OK, that's all. Make Mondays Fun Again. Please.
*see the "What is a 'Natick'" section in the first sidebar on my website
**not actually fun
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]