Constructor: Gary Larson
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: Baseball I guess? — The first word of each theme name is connected in some way to baseball, as in baseball diamond, as in "Diamond" Jim Brady. ...Yeah I know.
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: OLEO (24D: Bread spread) —
Sorry, man. Anyway, on to the puzzle itself. I hate to be so Rex-y on this one, but I was really kinda disappointed by this fill. It felt like the puzzle had so many names that barely any room was left for interesting words! To the point that there's almost not a whole lot to talk about here. I will admit there are some good English-major words in here though--MORN, ALIT. Weirdly enough, I haven't read much D.H. LAWRENCE in the course of my college career. I think of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century canon I prefer Virginia Woolf. I'm working on a paper about Orlando right now...what a cool weird book.
The theme was...okay I guess? It feels like the last few Mondays I've done have been pretty sports-oriented, which I'm getting kind of tired of. And while I guess I understand the connection between the beginnings of all the clues and "baseball diamond," it just feels kinda tenuous. I mean, they could have based that connection on any of the answers, not necessarily ol' Diamond. Bat Masterson is a great name though. It's even got that sweet sweet assonance.
Bullets:
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.
Next time I write one of these blogs, I'll have graduated! This has been such a journey. I can't believe how much I've changed since my first July entry. I've thought a lot about starting my own projects, now that I don't have classes to exhaust me anymore, but tbh no matter what I do I can't imagine leaving Rex's blog. (Unless he's done with me now that I'm no longer a bright-eyed bushy-tailed young whippersnapper, which honestly would be totally valid, and don't worry, I'll have plenty of other stuff around to tire me out.) I dunno...Annabel Mondays are fun. Thanks for sticking with College Annabel after High School Annabel grew up. I'm excited to see what the future brings!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Annabel Thompson on Twitter]
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: Baseball I guess? — The first word of each theme name is connected in some way to baseball, as in baseball diamond, as in "Diamond" Jim Brady. ...Yeah I know.
Theme answers:
- D.H. LAWRENCE (17A: "Lady Chatterly's Lover" novelist)
- HOMER SIMPSON (23A: Bart and Lisa's dad)
- DIAMOND JIM BRADY (39A: Early railroad tycoon whose nickname is a hint to the starts of 17-, 23-, 51- and 62-Across)
- BAT MASTERSON (51A: Real-life lawman who lent his name to a 1950s-'60s TV western)
- MITT ROMNEY (62A: Utah senator who once ran for president)
Word of the Day: OLEO (24D: Bread spread) —
Oleo is a term for oils. It is commonly used to refer to a variety of things, [including being a] colloquial term for margarine, a.k.a. oleomargarine not just vegetable fats but can be tallow.
(Wikipedia)
• • •
Boom it's a surprise Annabel Monday! So as a comics geek, my first reaction to the constructor was "oh my god, Gary Larson? Like, the Gary Larson, the guy who does 'The Far Side', makes puzzles now?" I would like to apologize to Mr. Larson for that assumption because this was literally on the first page of Google results for his name + "crossword": | Two things I would like to mention: 1) I am not the Far Side cartoonist, and 2) no animals were harmed during the construction of this puzzle.
Sorry, man. Anyway, on to the puzzle itself. I hate to be so Rex-y on this one, but I was really kinda disappointed by this fill. It felt like the puzzle had so many names that barely any room was left for interesting words! To the point that there's almost not a whole lot to talk about here. I will admit there are some good English-major words in here though--MORN, ALIT. Weirdly enough, I haven't read much D.H. LAWRENCE in the course of my college career. I think of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century canon I prefer Virginia Woolf. I'm working on a paper about Orlando right now...what a cool weird book.
The theme was...okay I guess? It feels like the last few Mondays I've done have been pretty sports-oriented, which I'm getting kind of tired of. And while I guess I understand the connection between the beginnings of all the clues and "baseball diamond," it just feels kinda tenuous. I mean, they could have based that connection on any of the answers, not necessarily ol' Diamond. Bat Masterson is a great name though. It's even got that sweet sweet assonance.
Bullets:
- AGE (45A: 18 or so, for a typical first-year college student) — AAAAAA MY FIRST YEAR OF COLLEGE WAS FOUR YEARS AGO. Aaaaaaaaaa it has been so long since I was 18. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
- MAMMA MIA (40D: Abba song or musical) — Okay, if you haven't seen the sequel that came out last summer you're really cheating yourself. Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again is exactly as corny and unnecessary as you think it would be...but that's exactly the point. Plus, I'm low-key in love with Lily James, who plays young Donna. That scene where she dances through the orange grove...sigh. That being said I feel obligated to share the campiest scene in the movie instead, because, come on, that's what the series is all about.
- DICES (8D: Cuts into small cubes) — Speaking, sort of, of DICE, the Dungeons and Dragons session I'm in is wrapping itself up for the school year (and all our graduations). I play a seven-foot-tall lizard woman with a giant sword, who I definitely plan to use in future campaigns, and last session we defeated a tyrannical dictator and celebrated by attending a concert by an all-skeleton-bard band named Bone Time Rush. If that's not the coolest thing then IDK what is.
- ETTA (43A: James of jazz) — This song always makes me homesick for Miss Shirley's, which is a breakfast place in Maryland. I don't know why. I think it was playing the first time I ate there and the pancakes were so good that it instantly provoked a Pavlovian response. Anyway, fitting song for a Sunday night.
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.
Next time I write one of these blogs, I'll have graduated! This has been such a journey. I can't believe how much I've changed since my first July entry. I've thought a lot about starting my own projects, now that I don't have classes to exhaust me anymore, but tbh no matter what I do I can't imagine leaving Rex's blog. (Unless he's done with me now that I'm no longer a bright-eyed bushy-tailed young whippersnapper, which honestly would be totally valid, and don't worry, I'll have plenty of other stuff around to tire me out.) I dunno...Annabel Mondays are fun. Thanks for sticking with College Annabel after High School Annabel grew up. I'm excited to see what the future brings!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Annabel Thompson on Twitter]