Constructor: Will Nediger
Relative difficulty: Easy (8:59)
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THEME: Constant Consonants — themers are nonsense two-word phrases where both words have the same consonants in the same order, yes that's it, no, yes, I am sure, yes, stop asking...
Theme answers:
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Hi everyone. I am freshly returned from Vacation the Second (this one to Montreal), and I can say with confidence that, whether you like it or not, I am back on full-time blogging duty for the foreseeable future (except of course tomorrow, which is an Annabel Monday, and Tuesday, which is a make-up Clare Tuesday ... but after *that*, back on the grind). Montreal is a gorgeous city, the most diverse and cosmopolitan city I've ever been to, and I want to go back immediately, if only for the croissants and bandes dessinées and dizzying French/English swirl that's in the air most everywhere you go (though French definitely dominates). I bought my weight in Québécois comics and graphic novels (what's up, Drawn & Quarterly and La Pastèque?), ate my weight in pastry, and walked all over hell and gone for day after day after day. Many, many thanks to my friend Kate G (whom I got to meet for the first time IRL!) for showing me around Mile End and Outremont and the whole area around Mount Royal. So exciting. Gonna go back en hiver so I can see the city in a completely different guise (iced up and cold af). I just loved everything about it. And I didn't do a single crossword while I was there, so it was nice to sit down tonight and knock this one out in under 9. I felt sloppy and unpracticed, but (relatively) I've still got it! Sadly, my happiness at finding my solving skills relatively undiminished was not accompanied by a commensurate happiness at finding the puzzle itself ... you know, good. It just lies there. It's ... didja ever order pancakes, and, you know, they're brown but only pale brown, and they're warm but not hot, and they're a little on the thick side and the butter's not melting very readily and the syrup is a little too cloying, and, you know, it's pancakes, so you're not gonna kick it out of bed, but ... you had something nicer in mind. Something genuinely pleasurable, as opposed to just blandly sufficient? Well, didja?
I don't see the appeal here. Same consonants in same order. Is this an accomplishment? I don't know. It doesn't seem hard. Maybe it is. But the point is / should be—why do this? What is the result of doing this? How does it *play* for a solver in terms of entertainment value? Are these phrases funny? Do they yield funny clues? If [Tables in an Old West saloon, e.g.?] is funny to you, or does anything for you at all, then you are fortunate, I guess, because every one of these answers and clues felt flaccid to me. And the remainder of the puzzle, the non-theme stuff, was fine. OK. Didn't like a few things, liked a few things, just plodded through the rest. I don't understand why people run with concepts when the yield is so poor. And the title doesn't even make sense, or follow the rules of the game, or anything. Dull as dirt. Not the fancy kind of dirty either. Nothing loamy* or bug-filled. Just the unamusing, forgettable kind of dirt.
Five things:
P.S. a gajillion thanks to all the people who filled in for me this past week, many of them first-timers. I'm lucky to have such generous and eloquent readers.
*n.b. I am not a dirt expert. Please send all your indignant dirt emails elsewhere.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (8:59)
Theme answers:
- BRONTOSAURUS / BRAIN TEASERS (22A: With 105-Across, "What walks on four dino legs in the morning, four dino legs at noon and four dino legs in the evening?" and other riddles?) (if the "joke" here makes no sense to you ... here)
- MISQUOTES MOSQUITOES (35A: Says "Quack" instead of "Buzz"?)
- FRONTIER FURNITURE (51A: Tables in an Old West saloon, e.g.?)
- SCARFACE SACRIFICE (75A: Chess gambit employed by gangster Tony Montana?)
- OVERSELLS VERSAILLES (86A: Claims that Louis XIV's palace is better than all the other buildings in France combined?)
Monseigneur Claude Frollo (French: [klod fʁɔlo]) is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (known in French as Notre-Dame de Paris). He is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. (read more about him here)
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I don't see the appeal here. Same consonants in same order. Is this an accomplishment? I don't know. It doesn't seem hard. Maybe it is. But the point is / should be—why do this? What is the result of doing this? How does it *play* for a solver in terms of entertainment value? Are these phrases funny? Do they yield funny clues? If [Tables in an Old West saloon, e.g.?] is funny to you, or does anything for you at all, then you are fortunate, I guess, because every one of these answers and clues felt flaccid to me. And the remainder of the puzzle, the non-theme stuff, was fine. OK. Didn't like a few things, liked a few things, just plodded through the rest. I don't understand why people run with concepts when the yield is so poor. And the title doesn't even make sense, or follow the rules of the game, or anything. Dull as dirt. Not the fancy kind of dirty either. Nothing loamy* or bug-filled. Just the unamusing, forgettable kind of dirt.
Five things:
- 111A: Nickname for the capital of the Peach State (HOTLANTA) — I am told by natives that no one actually calls it that, but OK
- 103D: South, in Brazil (SUL) — I did not know that. You'd think after nearly 30 years of solving, I'd've known this by now, but ... no. Can't recall ever seeing it. (note: looks like this is just my third time seeing it in the NYT ... ever; between 1985 and 2010 it didn't appear at all)
- 12D: Aligned (TRUED UP) — I have only so much patience for the verb+preposition thing. LUGS IN is a little much. This one's OK. But this one has its UP crossing the UP in UPTOP (41A: "High-five!"), so [raspberry!]
- 87D: Portmanteau for a TV addict (VIDIOT) — No. Come on. No. It's not 1983. And even then, to the extent that it was used at all, it was surely made up by some "kids these days..." numbskull. So it's dated and bad. So no. Please feel free to put "VIDEODROME" in your puzzle, though. That would be cool.
- 32D: Trig ratios (COTANS) — Oof. I am making a face. You can't see it. But I am definitely making it.
P.S. a gajillion thanks to all the people who filled in for me this past week, many of them first-timers. I'm lucky to have such generous and eloquent readers.
*n.b. I am not a dirt expert. Please send all your indignant dirt emails elsewhere.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]