Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners
Relative difficulty: Easy (5:26 without trying hard at all)
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THEME: no nope not counting it you can't make me
Word of the Day: SHO (4D: Japanese instrument with 17 bamboo pipes) —
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Really enjoyed this Friday puzzle. Yeah, I know it's Saturday, but this wasn't anywhere near the difficulty level you'd expect from a Saturday. It was an easy breezy Friday with interesting fill. The puzzle can call itself a Saturday if it means that much to it, but it's not fooling anyone. I tend to despise themed puzzles that show up on my beloved themeless days (Fri, Sat), and I see how this one is trying to convince me that it's themed (what with the clues on SWISSROLL and PATISSERIE), but it's all pretense. Just as it's not a Saturday puzzle, it's not a themed puzzle. Know thyself, little puzzle! I got off to a rough start because I had SAT instead ofESL (3D: Subj. of many an after-school class) and had not idea what a SHO was (besides an HBO competitor) and thought the stat in question at 6D: Defensive football stat: Abbr. (INT) was a plural ending in -S. Also, I blanked on the FX police drama, which is absurd. I must have missed the "FX" part and only registered "police drama," because the "FX" part would've been a dead giveaway. Ugh. Anyway, clunky start. Not really sure who DEWITT Clinton or Clinton DEWITT is, and SPICES, really??? (15A: Big exports of Sri Lanka). All of them?!?!?! SPICES is weak. I wanted something specific. Give me a specific country, I expect a specific export. It's like getting [New Zealand dwellers] for a clue and having the answer be BIRDS. Boooo! But after I got stuff up there straightened out, zoom down the east coast and through the bottom section in like a minute, and then back up top to move methodically into the center, which I devoured last and fast. Last square was the very very bottom of the swirl (the "U" in the 18 square).
Speaking of swirl, I had SWI- at 16D: Sweet treat depicted in this puzzle's grid and wanted it to be a SWIRL ... something. SWIRL ROLL, maybe. I know SWISS ROLLs exist, but I've never seen one in the wild or on a menu and never had one, to my knowledge. I see them on the Great British Baking Show, that's how I know they're real. I went to lots of PATISSERIEs in Montreal, don't remember seeing a SWISS ROLL. Anyway, it just didn't come to me quickly, is all I'm saying. Other issues included going with CBS before TBS (30A: Final Four airer in even years), hesitating briefly on the middle letter of TAT (thought maybe TIT would be involved), and tentatively writing in SHAWARMA, which looked fake to me, as I'm pretty sure I first encountered it as SHWARMA (with just the two A's) (10D: Street food prepared on a rotisserie). I also don't really know what TEAR SHEETS are so I wanted TEST ... something (1D: Printing samples). Thank goodness I watched a lot of ESPN at one point in my life. I forget who, but one of the anchors on SportsCenter would routinely talk about a hot player (hot in terms of success, not looks!) as being EN FUEGO. Crossing that with PURTY seems slightly risky, but it's hard to imagine someone's getting genuinely hung up there. OK, good, fun time. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. It looks like a lot of people don't know who WALLACE STEVENS is ... which ... advantage, English professor, I guess, but I thought he was super famous (as poets go). Shows what an ivory-tower dwelling tweed-wearing pipe-smoking New York Review of Books-reading snoot I am. (Actually, I've never read WALLACE STEVENS and totally confuse him with William Carlos Williams)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (5:26 without trying hard at all)
Word of the Day: SHO (4D: Japanese instrument with 17 bamboo pipes) —
The shō (笙) is a Japanese free reed musical instrument that was introduced from China during the Nara period (AD 710 to 794). It is descended from the Chinese sheng,[1] of the Tang Dynasty era, although the shō tends to be smaller in size than its contemporary sheng relatives. It consists of 17 slender bamboopipes, each of which is fitted in its base with a metal free reed. Two of the pipes are silent, although research suggests that they were used in some music during the Heian period. (wikipedia)
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Speaking of swirl, I had SWI- at 16D: Sweet treat depicted in this puzzle's grid and wanted it to be a SWIRL ... something. SWIRL ROLL, maybe. I know SWISS ROLLs exist, but I've never seen one in the wild or on a menu and never had one, to my knowledge. I see them on the Great British Baking Show, that's how I know they're real. I went to lots of PATISSERIEs in Montreal, don't remember seeing a SWISS ROLL. Anyway, it just didn't come to me quickly, is all I'm saying. Other issues included going with CBS before TBS (30A: Final Four airer in even years), hesitating briefly on the middle letter of TAT (thought maybe TIT would be involved), and tentatively writing in SHAWARMA, which looked fake to me, as I'm pretty sure I first encountered it as SHWARMA (with just the two A's) (10D: Street food prepared on a rotisserie). I also don't really know what TEAR SHEETS are so I wanted TEST ... something (1D: Printing samples). Thank goodness I watched a lot of ESPN at one point in my life. I forget who, but one of the anchors on SportsCenter would routinely talk about a hot player (hot in terms of success, not looks!) as being EN FUEGO. Crossing that with PURTY seems slightly risky, but it's hard to imagine someone's getting genuinely hung up there. OK, good, fun time. See you tomorrow.
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| 40D: NSFW (LEWD) |
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. It looks like a lot of people don't know who WALLACE STEVENS is ... which ... advantage, English professor, I guess, but I thought he was super famous (as poets go). Shows what an ivory-tower dwelling tweed-wearing pipe-smoking New York Review of Books-reading snoot I am. (Actually, I've never read WALLACE STEVENS and totally confuse him with William Carlos Williams)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]