Model for bust at Musei Capitolini / SUN 6-23-19 / Quaint contradiction / Fruit that surprisingly is slightly radioactive / Provincial capital south of lake with same name / Item carried in academic procession / Objects spinning in orrery

Constructor: David Liben-Nowell and Victor Barocas

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (9:49) (super duper easy "theme," weirdly hard clues in many other places)

THEME:"Take Two"— nine different times, the same Across answer succeeds itself—in the second appearance, the word "SECOND" must be mentally supplied before the word in order for the answer to make sense:

Second answers:

• HAND (19A: Previously owned)
• PLACE (26A: Silver)
• STRING (32A: B-team)
• PERSON (55A: What you will always be (but he or she isn't)?)
• RATE (64A: Low-quality)
• BANANA (79A: Supporting role)
• NATURE (101A: Deeply ingrained habit)
• CLASS (110A: Not having full rights, as a citizen)
• BASE (116A: It's halfway around a diamond)

Word of the Day: CISCO (66A: Major name in network hardware) —

noun

1. a freshwater whitefish of northern countries. Most species are migratory and are important food fishes.

I need you to see this for what it is: a puzzle where four-to-six letter words of no great interest are duplicated within the grid. That Is It. Look how few longer / interesting answer there are! The puzzle absolutely squanders the one thing Sundays have going for them: size, and then the upshot of the theme is just repeating a word in the grid. Yes, there's a reason (the whole "second ___" thing), but at its core, this is a grid that just has two identical successive short answers nine times. And once you figure out the theme, which I stumbled into relatively early, then the rest of the themers become absurdly easy to get—look for stuff on the mid/right side of the grid (mostly) and then once you hit one of the "second" answers, just move to the previous Across answer and write it in again. I never saw the clues on half the "first" answers because why would I? Didn't need to. The fill was definitely second-RATE for the most part (ATEM ELAL STEN TISNT etc). The whole design of the grid didn't really allow for much in the way of interesting fill. Feels like the NYT is in emergency mode with Sundays. I hear their in-the-pipeline stack is very, very shallow. If this is the caliber of theme being accepted—something I'd expect to find in a lesser daily—then the situation must be pretty bad. But the app is making money hand over fist so who cares!?


Weirdly, I don't think I've ever had such a hard time starting a Sunday puzzle. I couldn't get anything to work at all in the NW. 1-Across is just such a godawful clue (1A: Word in Facebook and Disney Channel's original names), and then HASIT? (???) and the clue onUSDA (23A: Org. concerned with grades) and then two different themers before I had any idea what the theme was, and the rough clue on INCISORS (6D: Things that most people have eight of) and the stupidly clued TDS (7D: Bear necessities?) (you don't "need"TDS to win a football game). I had ORCS and WARN and that's about it (not sure why I didn't have DAVIES, which is a gimme—sometimes when I'm flailing around I don't actually see Every clue in a section). Cream is one of a category of BEIGES???? Blecccch. So bad. BEIGES, plural. Why doesn't anyone at this establishment care about fill? -ENCE next to SSE? It's not like the theme is so demanding. Fill on a theme like this should be Creamy. Beige, even.


I had MEADE before BRAGG (10D: Confederate general with a fort named after him) (MEADE  does have a fort named after him, but he was Union, my bad). Speaking of confederate generals ... you really parking COLIN Kaepernick next to a Confederate general? Is that intentional? Ironic? Performance art? You know he got blackballed from the NFL for protesting systemic racism, right—you know, that thing ... legacy of the Civil War? Anyway, it's an uncomfortable juxtaposition. Maybe there's a MORAL there somePLACE?

Had ETON before STEN (90A: Product from the Royal Small Arms Factory). I had "T" and "N" and I thought "well, it's British, probably, so ..." No one calls a $1 bill a George and no one calls a $5 bill an ABE seriously what is the editor doing (11D). Had MMM for YUM (60A: Indication of good taste?). Misspelled LARSSON (with an "E") but I forgive myself for that. See you all tomorrow.


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