Big employer in Delaware / THU 9-5-19 / Grass with prickly burs / Some bygone service stations / Measures of newspaper ad space / Annoyance for oyster eater / 1946 role for Fonda 1994 role for Costner

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Medium (felt predominantly easy, but I didn't know several things, which slowed me down) (5:44)
THEME: More than a ___, but less than a ___ — all theme clues follow this pattern, and the answer is a word that is one letter longer (in the front) than word that means [first blank], and one letter shorter than a word that means [second blank]:

Theme answers:

• 1A: More than a bird, but less than a facial expression (COWL)
• 5A: More than a symptom, but less than a jerk (WITCH)
• 10A: More than a card, but less than a track bet (LACE)
• 20A: More than a snake, but less than a bodily organ (LADDER)
• 36A: More than a British islander, but less than a team symbol (ASCOT)
• 39A: More than a court filing, but less than a status change (EMOTION)
• 42A: More than a bagel, but less than a walk (TROLL)
• 59A: More than a color, but less than a trade occupation (LUMBER)
• 67A: More than a boat, but less than an idea (PARK)
• 68A: More than a weather forecast, but less than a muscle injury (TRAIN)
• 69A: More than an insect, but less than U.S. president (RANT)

Word of the Day: HAILE Gebrselassie (15A: ___ Gebrselassie, two-time Olympic running gold medalist) —

Haile Gebrselassie (Amharic: ኃይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ, haylē gebre silassē; born 18 April 1973) is a retired Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathonfour times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.

Haile had major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. He broke 61 Ethiopian national records ranging from 800 metres to the marathon, set 27 world records, and is widely regarded as the greatest distance runner in history.

In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:03:59, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. The record stood for three years. Since he was over the age of 35, that mark still stands as the Masters Age group world record in addition his 10000 m Masters record has not been challenged since 2008. (wikipedia)

This is a themeless pretending that it's not. Looks like tons (tons) of words can do this: lose a first letter, still be a word, gain a new first letter, still be a word. And, like many a weak-themed puzzle, this puzzle tries to impress by burying you in an avalanche of themers. Sadly, the themers aren't really interesting words, so the grid ends up being pretty blah overall. Now, I did enjoy the fact that I torched the themers—fire through dry grass; that always feels good. I don't think I hesitated on any except the first one (where, of course, I had no idea what was going on). With every other themer, I had at least one cross before looking at the clue, and only once or twice did I not know instantly what it was. Success makes the solve feel pleasant, for sure! But I still can't say I think a lot of this theme, or this grid. Not bad, by any means, but not nearly as impressive as it (really) wants you to believe it is. Also, when your marquee answers are this dull and/or niche (LINAGES? SANDSPUR?), maybe try harder.


Tough getting started, as the NW corner has two themers, and I didn't yet understand the theme. Plus I forgot the mountain nymph and wrote in NAIAD even though I knew that was a river nymph. First answer into the grid was EDSEL :( (always makes me feel slightly guilty when I get my traction from rank crosswordese) (24A: Classic auto with a so-called "floating speedometer"). Eventually righted the ship on OREAD, got ELI RIME LARDERS AREA, and then the fact that there were two themers up there really helped, because it somehow drove the theme concept home hard, and after that—no trouble with the theme. Really should've taken a hard look at the Olympic running gold medalist's last name, because the -selassie part really was trying to give me HAILE. But as it was, I just thought it was some obscure name I couldn't possibly know, and I used all the crosses to get it (if you don't know who HAILE Selassie is ... now you do).


I'm badly misreading at least one clue a day these days (I'm blaming these new gradation lenses, which are ugh). Today, I somehow read 27D as [Big night in casinos]; I had M-- and thought "... MONday? Is MONday a big night at casinos?" (I've never been in one except to go to a pretty terrible magic show that my family insisted we go to on one of our family vacations—this one, to Tahoe). Anyway, it was [Big inits. in casinos] and MGM. Wrote in SDST instead of SDSU at first (knew the school, clearly forgot the abbr.). Had PEAK before CONK (12D: Crown). Had almost no trouble in the bottom half of the grid. Just tore through the SE in particular. SANDSPUR was the only thing keeping that half from playing like a Monday for me. My last letter was the "R" (which crossed 52D: Flowering plant that's also a woman's name (ERICA)).

Gotta run.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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