Constructor: BRUCE HAIGHT
Relative difficulty: Easy (6:18, below my average by 2:30)
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THEME: ON THE BENCH (59A: Place where 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across might be found)
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: OSSA (39A: Peak near Olympus) —
State Farm Ann Arbor filling in for Rex today as he continues his vacation in Montreal! I’m not the greatest at crosswords, as my Monday times show, but I have fun doing them.
This was a decent Monday puzzle! The theme was neat, but the fill varied for me.
Starting with the fill, you’ve got fun stuff like BIG IF, QUEST, ÊTRE, and BANTU, which are great fill because they cater to my specific interests: linguistics, French, and the need to make my errands sound that much fancier.
And then you’ve got the classic fill throughout: ALEE, HUH, HEE, I BET, I CARE. One could even say it was a bit EEL-y, wriggling back and forth between fun fill and slop. Okay, yeah, I broke out the EDAM for that one.
The theme was solid, I will give it that, but it wasn’t super exciting, like last week’s surprise!Rumplestiltskin. I will admit to having filled in I BET with I SEE before I got to the actual I SEE, which, when combined with a YEE instead of a HEE lead to a TRIAL CO?RE JUDGE. I think that might be a variant on the TV judge. I also was unfamiliar with both Hancock and Corea, so that took me a couple crosses and the revealer to get. I’m not much of a jazz person in general, but I’m listening to Head Hunters by Hancock while writing this and it’s kinda fun. The revealer was more of a “Yeah, that works” for me after getting most of the theme answers than it was a “Now I understand everything” as they so often can be, but overall it was solid.
Relative difficulty: Easy (6:18, below my average by 2:30)
THEME: ON THE BENCH (59A: Place where 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across might be found)
Theme answers:
- BALLPLAYER (17A: Athlete with a mitt)
- PARK VISITOR: (23A: One going for a stroll among urban greenery)
- TRIAL COURT JUDGE (37A: Official hearing a case)
- JAZZ PIANIST (48A: Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea)
Word of the Day: OSSA (39A: Peak near Olympus) —
Mount Ossa (Greek: Όσσα), alternative Kissavos (Κίσσαβος, from South Slavic kisha "wet weather, rain"[2]), is a mountain in the Larissa regional unit, in Thessaly, Greece. It is 1,978 metres (6,490 ft) high and is located between Pelion to the south and Olympus to the north, separated from the latter by the Vale of Tempe.
• • •
Hi All, Jake from This was a decent Monday puzzle! The theme was neat, but the fill varied for me.
Starting with the fill, you’ve got fun stuff like BIG IF, QUEST, ÊTRE, and BANTU, which are great fill because they cater to my specific interests: linguistics, French, and the need to make my errands sound that much fancier.
And then you’ve got the classic fill throughout: ALEE, HUH, HEE, I BET, I CARE. One could even say it was a bit EEL-y, wriggling back and forth between fun fill and slop. Okay, yeah, I broke out the EDAM for that one.
The theme was solid, I will give it that, but it wasn’t super exciting, like last week’s surprise!Rumplestiltskin. I will admit to having filled in I BET with I SEE before I got to the actual I SEE, which, when combined with a YEE instead of a HEE lead to a TRIAL CO?RE JUDGE. I think that might be a variant on the TV judge. I also was unfamiliar with both Hancock and Corea, so that took me a couple crosses and the revealer to get. I’m not much of a jazz person in general, but I’m listening to Head Hunters by Hancock while writing this and it’s kinda fun. The revealer was more of a “Yeah, that works” for me after getting most of the theme answers than it was a “Now I understand everything” as they so often can be, but overall it was solid.
Bullets:
- 30A: Abba of Israel (EBAN) — This, like the Word of the Day, is one of those things I need to just learn for crosswords, especially considering it's shown up three times since May, most recently two weeks ago. I got it off the crosses then and didn't need to pay attention to the clue, today I was not so lucky, as detailed with my I SEE/I SEE MISHAP.
- 46A: Tevye's occupation in "Fiddler on the Roof" (MILKMAN) — "If I were a rich man, Yibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum!" And now, that's stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Bruce and I totally collaborated on this one. You're welcome.
Anyway, I have a deepened respect for Rex’s depth of knowledge about crosswords and his vast experience doing them from doing this review. But I guess when I’m older than Methuselah like he is, I’ll have done rather more crosswords than I have now.
Anyways, ADIOS, everybody!
Signed, Jake Taylor, Microbiologist of Cross World
[Follow Jake on Twitter]