Constructor: Trenton Charlson
Relative difficulty: Easyish (5:15 in early-a.m. / non-speed mode)
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THEME: CONSONANT (53A: Something each of this puzzle's answers begins with) — sigh, just what it says. That is it:
Theme answers:
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Speaking of consonants (and letters notably absent from this grid): Y!!?? As in "Y did you do this?""Y should anyone be happy to see jumbles of consonants strung all along the western and northern borders of the grid?""Y did anyone think CONSONANT (tada!?) would be a compelling revealer?""Y on god's green earth did you extend the conceit Into The Clues, making clue phrasing occasionally stupid and awkward?" So many Ys. I am trying very hard to understand a puzzlemaker sitting there and thinking "What if every answer began with a CONSONANT?" Where does the interest lie in that, exactly? Where's the joy? The wordplay? The Anything related to the reasons puzzles are fun? Sincerely thought, about halfway through, that I was solving a Friday, i.e. a themeless. Then the consonants piled up (NBC, BBQ) and I snapped back to reality: "Oh, there a theme ... some kind of abbr. theme?" Didn't matter. You didn't need to know there was a theme. You didn't need to figure anything out. This is a themeless with a ridiculous constraint most people would never see without the revealer, and most people (don't lie) aren't going to care about. Go ahead and be "impressed with the construction" or whatever, but pffft. It's a mediocre themeless (72 words! It qualifies!), and that's that.
Here's an early sampling of Twitter reaction:
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Other reactions include a general consensus that it's an Easy puzzle, and (to be fair) a couple tweets expressing at least mild admiration, though even the person who gave the puzzle a "B" spent most of the tweet telling you the "trick" wasn't worth it:
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easyish (5:15 in early-a.m. / non-speed mode)
Theme answers:
- all of them
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km). It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are major tourist attractions in Memphis. Festivals and outdoor concerts periodically bring large crowds to the street and its surrounding areas. (wikipedia)
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Here's an early sampling of Twitter reaction:
As a themeless, this was cleanish (minus the obv. xwordy abbr. stuff) and dull. LITMUSTESTS and FIREWALL and STPAULIGIRL are kinda fun, but not enough to be build a quality themeless around. Did the constructor just have SMTWTFS sitting in his wordlist and think "what the hell am I gonna do with that?" and bam, here we are? It's all so bizarre. I probably should've been much faster, but I was lolling, and I kept mistyping and misreading (I'm blaming 5am). Read [Music festival in Memphis], for instance, completely missing the (crucial) "street" part. I had AMIGA at 38A: Friend for un muchacho (CHICA) and SINE (!?!?!) at 34A: Hypotenuse, e.g. (SIDE). Actually, to be honest, my first thought was that the clue at 34-Across, was [Hypnoteuese, e.g.] ... like, a woman who performs hypnosis? Strange.
Guessed correctly at the [Davis of film] clue (three possible answers there, with BETTE actually being the *least* likely, but I guessed it anyway) (see also OSSIE, GEENA). Could not figure out what the last letter of PROTOZOA- was supposed to be (16A: Single-celled organism). I find all stock clues exceedingly dull and painful, though I guess I have heard of STOPLOSS (40A: Kind of liability-limiting stock order). Had PHI for PSI briefly (37A: Penultimate letter). Not sure why "Safe" is in quotation marks in 25D: "Safe" kind of film? (HEIST). You've got your "?" to do the work of telling the solver there's wordplay involved. No Need for quot. marks. Strange. Oh, and finally, the clue on RADIO can f&!^ right off (26D: Rush job?). White supremacists do not deserve your cutesy *$&%&ing wordplay (clue is referring to this guy, in case it wasn't clear). Or I guess we can all just pretend the clue refers to this band, heard frequently on the RADIO (esp. in Canada):
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]