Constructor: Mangesh Ghogre
Relative difficulty: Very (this was a Thursday-type puzzle; my time was very very high, but I kinda stopped a bunch to be actively annoyed at this thing, so the clock isn't technically telling the truth ... but it took a while)
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THEME: GANDHI (69A: Icon born 10/2/1869 ... with a hint to three squares in this puzzle) — squares contain "G" AND "HI":
Theme answers:
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Wow this was a terrible puzzle to wake up to. Not because of the subject matter (which is fine) but because of that NW corner, which was a nightmare. Didn't find the theme square until the end (which, in fact, is the moment I found *all* the theme squares). I usually turn up rebuses easily, but the combo of "it's not the right day of the week for a rebus" and the oddness of ROUGHIDEA and (especially!) HIGH INCOME as phrases meant I had no idea. But then also in that NW section, UNLINED is 13A: Not having wrinkles (????) Is this to do with human faces? So weird. I wanted UNIRONED so bad. And then ... DESC? Wow, that is bad. Just bad. Bad. Needed every cross to get a terrible abbr. Everything about the puzzle felt rough and TTH (trying too hard). I get the impulse to load the grid with Indian information, but none of it seemed terribly on-point for the man in question, and the straining for theme material meant that the grid overall suffered. Are we really trying to pass off crosswordese SRI as theme material? The theme just doesn't feel very thought-through. LONG HISTORY and HIGH INCOME are pretty green-painty* for themers. Like most tribute puzzles, it feels forced. I also thought the concept was corny. Here is this "icon" (as the puzzle itself notes) and we're celebrating his 150th birthday with ... a "GHI" rebus? Very anti-climactic. I would've liked a "Gone D" theme better, I think–where you take a "D" out of familiar phrases and ... I don't know, something. Anyway, today's theme expression is too clever for its own good.
LONGHISTORY is a rough themer, since LONGSTORY seems perfectly correct (57A: What a civilization like India or Egypt has) (why is Egypt in here?). Struggled a lot with this one, but didn't have too many outright wrong answers. WAY for SLY (68A: On the ___). ILL for WOE (31D: Misfortune). I think that's it. I enjoyed seeing MERLIN (24D: King Arthur's magician) and I like the phrase OLD MONEY (39D: Inherited wealth). Those were the highlights for me today. I gotta cram a lot into my day today, so I need to get going. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*"green paint" = answers that someone might say in normal conversation, but that don't stand alone as crossword answers very well. Adj./noun pairings are the most common type.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Very (this was a Thursday-type puzzle; my time was very very high, but I kinda stopped a bunch to be actively annoyed at this thing, so the clock isn't technically telling the truth ... but it took a while)
Theme answers:
- ROUGHIDEA / HIGHINCOME
- NOTTINGHILL / WEIGHIN
- LONGHISTORY / BIGHIT
Brahma (Sanskrit: ब्रह्मा, IAST: Brahmā) is the creator god in Hinduism. He is also known as Svayambhu (self-born) or the creative aspect of Vishnu, Vāgīśa (Lord of Speech), and the creator of the four Vedas, one from each of his mouths. Brahma is consort of Saraswati and he is the father of Four Kumaras, Narada, Daksha, Marichi and many more. (wikipedia) (wait, how can he be in an analogy with Vishnu and be an aspect of Vishnu ...?)
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LONGHISTORY is a rough themer, since LONGSTORY seems perfectly correct (57A: What a civilization like India or Egypt has) (why is Egypt in here?). Struggled a lot with this one, but didn't have too many outright wrong answers. WAY for SLY (68A: On the ___). ILL for WOE (31D: Misfortune). I think that's it. I enjoyed seeing MERLIN (24D: King Arthur's magician) and I like the phrase OLD MONEY (39D: Inherited wealth). Those were the highlights for me today. I gotta cram a lot into my day today, so I need to get going. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*"green paint" = answers that someone might say in normal conversation, but that don't stand alone as crossword answers very well. Adj./noun pairings are the most common type.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]