Constructor: John Guzzetta
Relative difficulty: Medium (felt easy, but clock says ... 3:48, i.e. normal)
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THEME: GREEK CROSS (51A: Religious symbol resembling a plus sign ... or a hint to the three groups of circled squares in this puzzle)— Greek letters (embedded inside answers in circled squares) "cross" three times in the grid:
Theme answers:
And the fill, yikes. Here's a quick way to determine of the fill in your grid is bad: does it contain ANSE? (8D: Addie's husband in "As I Lay Dying") Honestly, even if the rest of your grid is pristine, the rotting stench of ANSE is so pervasive that net grid quality won't matter. Even with ANSE levels at one PPM, you're in trouble. And sadly, here, ANSE is just the worst of a whole slew of answers that need to be bounced from this particular bar. I'll mention just a couple. LIENEE (32A: Holder of a collateral loan) ... [hard sigh] ... I mean, it's not ALIENEE, but I'm not sure if that's worse or better. It's a word, but it's a tiresome word only a crossword (or banker?) could love. And then (much worse) ALYN. I mean, who? Ha ha ha what? What year is it? Who do you think is solving this? Was there no way to scrub this answer from your grid. 'Cause a conscientious constructor should've scrubbed until their fingers bled trying to get this answer (and ANSE) out. Archaic niche proper nouns are the mothballs of the puzzle world. There's lots of other icky abbrev'y SECY stuff in here, but I think I've made my point.
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Relative difficulty: Medium (felt easy, but clock says ... 3:48, i.e. normal)
Theme answers:
- FINAL PHASE (18A: Project's windup) / AIRHOLES (5D: What jars with fireflies need)
- RIOT ACT (36A: It's "read" during a reprimand) / FREEZE TAG (14D: Playground game with teams)
- HOME GAMES (39A: About half of a regular-season schedule) / ON THE TAKE (24D: Accepting bribes)
Kirk Alyn (born John Feggo Jr., October 8, 1910 – March 14, 1999) was an American actor, best known for being the first actor to play the DC Comics character Superman in live-action for the 1948 movie serial Superman and its 1950 sequel Atom Man vs. Superman, as well as Blackhawkfrom the Blackhawk movie serial in 1952, and General Sam Lane in 1978's Superman: The Movie. (wikipedia)
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GREEK CROSS (n.) a cross having an upright and a transverse shaft equal in length and intersecting at their middles (merriam-webster.com) |
Well, two problems here: the theme and the fill. The theme *sounds* like a good idea, and the themers yield some answers that are pretty colorful (ON THE TAKE and FREEZE TAG being the highlights of the day), but your revealer literally, explicitly describes a shape to you ("resembling a plus sign") and then gives you only one of them. Those other two crosses: Not GREEK CROSSes. Not. Not not. You point to a specific shape, and then you make three different shapes, only one of which is actually the shape you mention!?!? No. Nah naw and nope. THETA / OMEGA form an actual GREEK CROSS. You can hear the angels singing over there. But that's a non-GREEK CROSS up top (on its side), and, I don't know, scissors (?) over there in the east. Just wrong.
And the fill, yikes. Here's a quick way to determine of the fill in your grid is bad: does it contain ANSE? (8D: Addie's husband in "As I Lay Dying") Honestly, even if the rest of your grid is pristine, the rotting stench of ANSE is so pervasive that net grid quality won't matter. Even with ANSE levels at one PPM, you're in trouble. And sadly, here, ANSE is just the worst of a whole slew of answers that need to be bounced from this particular bar. I'll mention just a couple. LIENEE (32A: Holder of a collateral loan) ... [hard sigh] ... I mean, it's not ALIENEE, but I'm not sure if that's worse or better. It's a word, but it's a tiresome word only a crossword (or banker?) could love. And then (much worse) ALYN. I mean, who? Ha ha ha what? What year is it? Who do you think is solving this? Was there no way to scrub this answer from your grid. 'Cause a conscientious constructor should've scrubbed until their fingers bled trying to get this answer (and ANSE) out. Archaic niche proper nouns are the mothballs of the puzzle world. There's lots of other icky abbrev'y SECY stuff in here, but I think I've made my point.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]