Constructor: Patrick Blindauer
Relative difficulty: ha ha, apparently Easy, but my time was Medium-Challenging (4:44)
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THEME: ice cream cones — three answers depict different cone orders: a SINGLE , DOUBLE, and TRIPLE SCOOP, consisting of some combination (I guess) of VANILLA, CHOCOLATE, and/or PISTACHIO
Theme answers:
Well, I see that lots of people are setting personal best times on this one, but I'm guessing they were fully awake. I solved this at 5am, first thing out of bed, and the whole gimmick just didn't compute, especially the cone pictures, which had clues, so ... I thought they should actually form words, especially since the Os kept seeming like they wanted to be the starts of OH or OOH or OOOH. So my brain never fully grasped that those answers were supposed to look like cones. Also some stuff was just not for me. If you put "dog" in a clue for a three-letter answer that begins with "C" then I'm putting in CUR, that's just how that works. Ugh. Very much resent [Dirty *dog*] for CAD. I don't know the ranks of people in "Sound of Music" :( and despite knowing very well what a RABBLE is I couldn't see it to save my life, even with the "R" in place, so the NE corner alone had me flailing around badly.
Further, I can never remember who this MCKAY person is (even though I've said this before) (53D: Adam who directed "Vice" and "The Big Short"), and wow that is the weirdest CIA clue I've ever seen (43D: Org. with a World Factbook). Rest of the puzzle was indeed pretty easy, but the above issues caused me to come out very much on the slow end of things. Oh, the other thing I resent about this puzzle: PISTACHIO???? Yuck, what? That flavor seems very much not iconic (anymore?). Also, I had the CHI- at the end of it and figured it *had* to be some kind of CHIP. PISTACHIO is not a flavor I think of, ever, when I think of ice cream. So, again, 5am me just couldn't process this theme effectively. I love that the grid is wonky and asymmetrical, though I can't say I love the theme answer placement (random) or the cluing (either [See this, see that] or those cone clues. Cone answers look cool, but I don't like the cluing on them at all. Oh, and the clues on the flavors? I mean, look at them. [Ice cream flavor]. That's it. Three times. That's boring. Like a TRIPLE SCOOP cone in mid-summer, this was tasty but messy.
Other things that happen when you try to speed thru a puzzle at 5am: eyes got only as far as "Vladimir" in the clue 5D: Leader born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (LENIN), and I had the -IN, so I wrote in PUTIN. I read [Had a competition] at 47A: Had a conniption, so LOST IT took a few stabs. We've already gone over the whole CUR issue (in both these places, as with my first pass at PISTACHIO, the letters I had in place before looking at the clue really really misled me). Rest of the grid was pretty VANILLA. I knew the "COLUMBO" clue right off the bat (10D: Detective show whose premiere episode was directed by Steven Spielberg), so that really should've opened up that recalcitrant NE corner, but all it did was give me the "C" that made me think 10A: Dirty dog was CUR. Pah, bah, and pish. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: ha ha, apparently Easy, but my time was Medium-Challenging (4:44)
Theme answers:
- OV (14D: Yum! This won't last long, though!)
- OOV (31D: I bet these flavors taste great together!)
- OOOV (56D: Wow! Look at the size of this thing!)
Moa were nine species (in six genera) of now-extinct flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg (510 lb). It is estimated that, when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1280, the moa population was about 58,000.Moa belong to the order Dinornithiformes, traditionally placed in the ratite group. However, their closest relatives have been found by genetic studies to be the flighted South American tinamous, once considered to be a sister group to ratites. The nine species of moa were the only wingless birds lacking even the vestigial wings that all other ratites have. They were the dominant herbivores in New Zealand's forest, shrubland, and subalpine ecosystems for thousands of years, and until the arrival of the Māori, were hunted only by Haast's eagle. Moa extinction occurred around 1300–1440 ±20 years, primarily due to overhunting by Māori. (wikipedia)
MOA, Haast's Eagle, and me
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| The constructor, depicted here at the 2014 ACPT with an imaginary MOA |
Further, I can never remember who this MCKAY person is (even though I've said this before) (53D: Adam who directed "Vice" and "The Big Short"), and wow that is the weirdest CIA clue I've ever seen (43D: Org. with a World Factbook). Rest of the puzzle was indeed pretty easy, but the above issues caused me to come out very much on the slow end of things. Oh, the other thing I resent about this puzzle: PISTACHIO???? Yuck, what? That flavor seems very much not iconic (anymore?). Also, I had the CHI- at the end of it and figured it *had* to be some kind of CHIP. PISTACHIO is not a flavor I think of, ever, when I think of ice cream. So, again, 5am me just couldn't process this theme effectively. I love that the grid is wonky and asymmetrical, though I can't say I love the theme answer placement (random) or the cluing (either [See this, see that] or those cone clues. Cone answers look cool, but I don't like the cluing on them at all. Oh, and the clues on the flavors? I mean, look at them. [Ice cream flavor]. That's it. Three times. That's boring. Like a TRIPLE SCOOP cone in mid-summer, this was tasty but messy.
Other things that happen when you try to speed thru a puzzle at 5am: eyes got only as far as "Vladimir" in the clue 5D: Leader born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (LENIN), and I had the -IN, so I wrote in PUTIN. I read [Had a competition] at 47A: Had a conniption, so LOST IT took a few stabs. We've already gone over the whole CUR issue (in both these places, as with my first pass at PISTACHIO, the letters I had in place before looking at the clue really really misled me). Rest of the grid was pretty VANILLA. I knew the "COLUMBO" clue right off the bat (10D: Detective show whose premiere episode was directed by Steven Spielberg), so that really should've opened up that recalcitrant NE corner, but all it did was give me the "C" that made me think 10A: Dirty dog was CUR. Pah, bah, and pish. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]