Constructor: Evan Kalish
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (3:55)
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THEME: LATE BLOOMER (61A: One who catches up eventually ... or a hint to the ends of 17-, 30- and 46-Across) — themers end with letters that spell the name of a flower:
Theme answers:
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There's nothing really wrong with this puzzle. It just feels a little ... wilted? Discovering the theme (after I was finished) delivered more of a "oh ... huh, yeah, I guess those are flowers" reaction than an "aha" or "woo-hoo" or "wow" or whatever target response you're likely going for when you make a themed puzzle. The themers themselves are fine enough answers, but nothing tricky is going on, and there are only three themers, so I feel like the fill should've been better (instead of just bigger—see the NW and SE corners). It was largely uninspiring, overall. What put me in a bad mood, though, was the cluing on a couple of longer answers. First, BANANA DAIQUIRIS—[Some sweet cocktails]!? That's it? That's what you've got for me? So many ways to go with this exotic drink and you just go [Some sweet cocktails]? Some? How many? Four? Twelve? The percentage of "sweet cocktails" that are specifically BANANA DAIQUIRIS must be in the hundredths of a percentile. Yeesh, liven it up a little. Give me something. Some color, some flavor, some *specifics*. And then there's the clue on BUCKAROO (11D: Cowboy), which also needed more specifics, specifically the phrase [Cutesy term for ...]. The difference, tonally, between mere "Cowboy" and BUCKAROO cannot be measured. It is infinite. I cannot believe that [Cowboy] was the cluing PLAN A (or B or C). Getting that answer (finally!) was a major eye-rolling moment.
For a grid with a lot of longer fill, it somehow managed also to have a lot of shorter fill, much of it overly common (ENOKI, ERR, ELI, IPA, etc.). Not bad, mind you. Just ... there. ENAMOR UNO IDO APSE ERE NOS ORG EGRESS EMO ADELE. That sort of stuff. Almost all of my slowness came in that NE corner, where BUCKAROO and GOT NASTY just took a long time to emerge, and PLAN A took some time to see (29A: Preferred option for proceeding), and BANANA DAIQUIRIS didn't come together for reasons I cover above.
Five things:
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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (3:55)
Theme answers:
- PURPLE PROSE (17A: Excessively ornate writing)
- BANANA DAIQUIRIS (30A: Some sweet cocktails)
- COURTED DISASTER (46A: Did something hugely risky)
Alexandra Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She is noted for her Netflix stand-up specials Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, as well as her television appearances in American Housewife, Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. She also wrote for the first three seasons of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. In 2019, she had her first leading film role in Always Be My Maybe, which she produced and wrote with her co-star Randall Park. (wikipedia)
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For a grid with a lot of longer fill, it somehow managed also to have a lot of shorter fill, much of it overly common (ENOKI, ERR, ELI, IPA, etc.). Not bad, mind you. Just ... there. ENAMOR UNO IDO APSE ERE NOS ORG EGRESS EMO ADELE. That sort of stuff. Almost all of my slowness came in that NE corner, where BUCKAROO and GOT NASTY just took a long time to emerge, and PLAN A took some time to see (29A: Preferred option for proceeding), and BANANA DAIQUIRIS didn't come together for reasons I cover above.
Five things:
- 28D: Unusual sexual preference (KINK) — this is a good clue. I might go with "niche" or ... some other adjective, over "unusual," but "unusual" is probably reasonable; good to see the NYTXW embrace this meaning, I think
- 41A: Word that can precede water or war (HOLY) — I am the worst at these kinds of clues. Just awful. Me today: "H... let's see ... HIGH! High water and high ... war? ... no ... OK that's it, I'm out of four-letter H-words"
- 25D: The ___ (gang for a ladies' night out) (GALS)— I kept misreading this clue as [The ___ gang] and since the clue used "ladies" I went ahead and wrote in GIRL—the GIRL gang, why not?
- 19A: Summer setting in K.C. (CDT)— I am somehow both good (unerring) and slow at these. My brain is like a computer, only it's one of those Coleco jobs from the '80s—it's *gonna* get you the right answer, but it feels like you can actually *see* the processing happening. In my mind, I can feel a little pixelated cursor moving around a map, alighting on the city, scanning the broader map for the time zones, double-checking the clue for what season we're in, and then ding! the screen goes green and Mario does a little dance or something.
- 11A: Great (BIG)— Ugh. This clue is only [Great] because the previous Across clue is [Great]. This type of sequential duplication cluing is not and has never been Great. It's supposed to be cute or clever, but mainly what it ends up doing is giving you at least one clue that's off or a stretch. Boo, I say.
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