Constructor: Sam Trabucco
Relative difficulty: Challenging (I got stuck, stopped trying, let the clock run ... this was just a really unpleasant experience)
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THEME: MARRIED MEN (62A: Bachelors no more ... or, literally, the answers to the six starred clues) — "literally" being pushed to its limits here ... the theme answers are all two men's names squished together (so ... "married?"):
Theme answers:
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This is just wrong in so many ways. First, it's a Thursday puzzle, in difficulty level and trickiness. Misplaced, badly. I stopped timing, but if I'd finished in a normal fashion—if the upper middle hadn't stopped me cold, and I hadn't just stopped caring / trying—I'd've come in wellllll over my Wednesday average. So it's misplaced. It's also oversized for insufficiently good reason. You need to put an 8 in the middle? OK, but ... if you're gonna screw w/ grid dimensions, your theme better be super good, and this one really is not. It's Abutting Men, not MARRIED MEN. How are they "married"? That is an ATROCITY of a revealer. Also, who is named "Anders"? OK, in other countries, sure, but ... yeesh, that is one hell of an outlier "name." CAL? Silent or Ripken or GTFO. Again, I don't know how "married" works here. Like ... yoked? MARRIED MEN is just so bad, so unsnappy, so nothing. And the little numbers in parentheses after the clue ... not helpful. Just confusing.
Then there's the grid design—so instead of just contenting with the weird theme, solvers have to contend with these absurd huge Saturday corners. Separate puzzles unto themselves. Whole puzzle had Fri/Sat cluing. Had trouble getting little stuff like ERIE, OFT, TSA, TOLL, TRIG. Then there's the painful crosswordese. ITER!?!?! AUER!? LOL I haven't seen that antiquated name for like a decade. ECARTE, ugh. It's like that old Latin saying: ICEE OPER OMNIA. ["Lohengrin" soprano]?!?!?! Why? Why? On a Wednesday, why? I don't even know what "Lohengrin" is (I see it's Wagner. Great.). The worst was ADAH. Who? My god that is crosswordese. So stale, so obscure, it hasn't been in the NYTXW for eight years, and this is only the third appearance in the 13 years I've been blogging. Makes AMAH look fresha and fun. These answers, with characters from minor operas and tertiary biblical characters and 19th-century Russian violinists, cause this puzzle to Reek of the Maleska era (aka the bad old days). Because I didn't know ADAH, and I didn't know CODONS (only the third appearance, singular or plural, in this century), and I thought GRAYED was the English spelling, I had absolutely no idea what was going on at 28A: 27-Across, e.g. (SHADE). This is what my grid looked like when I basically quit:
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That ridiculous cross-reference (why do that?) is so dumb. It's already gonna be hard enough to get, running through weird answers, colloquialisms, and obscurities. I have no confidence in the way you're gonna spell HOO BOY (I thought puzzle might go "WOO BOY!"); BAD COP has a nutso clue (25D: Dark blue?); ADAH is from the mustiest corner of the Bible; GREYED is an English variant ... and through all that, you run an answer with a lousy (truly lousy) cross-ref clue. Why? Because it x-refs the clue immediately before it? Why Is That A Thing? Who Reads The Across Clues Sequentially? How has this puzzle managed to make a gay marriage puzzle this off-putting and dull?
Had SLOVEN for SCHLUB (2D: Disheveled sort), and that pretty much encapsulates my entire experience with this thing—trying vainly, at every turn, to figure out a disheveled thing. Also BERT for BURT (and thus EXTRA for ULTRA) (19A: Very, very). Pfft. THANK GOD it's over.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Aimee Lucido's American Values Crossword Club (AVXC) puzzle (Jun. 19, "Shrunken Heads") (subscribe here) was so much more delightful than this thing. Wish I hadn't done it first. I need something to get the taste of this one out of my mouth.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (I got stuck, stopped trying, let the clock run ... this was just a really unpleasant experience)
Theme answers:
- PHIL/ANDERS (17A: *Plays around (4 & 6))
- RUSS/IAN (23A: *Language in which "hello" is "privet" (4 & 3))
- BAR T/RICK (25A: *Opening a beer bottle with a ring, e.g. (4 & 4))
- RICO/CHET (38A: *Bounce (4 & 4))
- NORM/ANDY (53A: *Omaha Beach locale (4 & 4))
- CAL/GARY (55A: *1988 Winter Olympics host (3 & 4))
nounBIOCHEMISTRY
• • •
Then there's the grid design—so instead of just contenting with the weird theme, solvers have to contend with these absurd huge Saturday corners. Separate puzzles unto themselves. Whole puzzle had Fri/Sat cluing. Had trouble getting little stuff like ERIE, OFT, TSA, TOLL, TRIG. Then there's the painful crosswordese. ITER!?!?! AUER!? LOL I haven't seen that antiquated name for like a decade. ECARTE, ugh. It's like that old Latin saying: ICEE OPER OMNIA. ["Lohengrin" soprano]?!?!?! Why? Why? On a Wednesday, why? I don't even know what "Lohengrin" is (I see it's Wagner. Great.). The worst was ADAH. Who? My god that is crosswordese. So stale, so obscure, it hasn't been in the NYTXW for eight years, and this is only the third appearance in the 13 years I've been blogging. Makes AMAH look fresha and fun. These answers, with characters from minor operas and tertiary biblical characters and 19th-century Russian violinists, cause this puzzle to Reek of the Maleska era (aka the bad old days). Because I didn't know ADAH, and I didn't know CODONS (only the third appearance, singular or plural, in this century), and I thought GRAYED was the English spelling, I had absolutely no idea what was going on at 28A: 27-Across, e.g. (SHADE). This is what my grid looked like when I basically quit:
Had SLOVEN for SCHLUB (2D: Disheveled sort), and that pretty much encapsulates my entire experience with this thing—trying vainly, at every turn, to figure out a disheveled thing. Also BERT for BURT (and thus EXTRA for ULTRA) (19A: Very, very). Pfft. THANK GOD it's over.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Aimee Lucido's American Values Crossword Club (AVXC) puzzle (Jun. 19, "Shrunken Heads") (subscribe here) was so much more delightful than this thing. Wish I hadn't done it first. I need something to get the taste of this one out of my mouth.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]