Constructor: Howard Barkin and Victor Barocas
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:03)
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THEME: Initial Public Offerings— three-letter answer that either precedes or follows long themer is just that themer in monogram form (i.e. it's that themer's initials):
Theme answers:
No idea what was happening here while I was solving. Went back to figure it out and, wow, it is all kinds of awkward and disappointing. So many things to say. First, couldn't you do this ... forever. For, like, anyone with a middle initial who is famous? Why these people? Especially when their particular three-letter initials are (often) *so bad* as fill (ABT? HST? SBA!?). And STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS isn't even the most famous STEPHEN A. any more (ask anyone who has ever watched ESPN). The middle letter is pretty iconic with about half of these folks, but some just aren't as famous others, and honestly every single one of the answers is so old (i.e. long dead) that it seems a stretch that anyone under 40 will know all these names *complete* with their middle initials. I know all these names, but STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, woof. I know him *solely* from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and even then, the "A."? You gotta be a household name for your middle initial to be common knowledge. GEORGE M. COHAN *was* famous, but isn't so much any more, and ARTHUR C. CLARKE is an important-ish writer, but still ... lots of people won't know him at all, let alone know that C. But the main problem here is ... why does this theme exist? What is it expressing, exactly? The [PREVIOUS] and [NEXT] bits in the themer clues are so inelegant, so ugly, so distracting, and so useless that ... I don't even know what to say. Why Next? Why Previous? What is even happening? I just don't get the reasoning behind the concept at all.
BOSOM is weirdly clued (76D: Place of security) (although, honestly, good luck cluing BOSOM in any non-weird way beyond ["___ Buddies" (Tom Hanks / Peter Scolari sitcom)]). Same with BETROTH, which I think of only in relation to a *marriage* "promise" (85D: Promise). GRP STKS WDS are, as a GRP, really trying my PTNCE. Multiple BELAS with multiple OBES is quite a sight. I am very much here for "A ROSE IS A ROSE ..." and DEADSPIN and "SILENT SPRING," but the irksome short stuff is really running amok today. I finished in a pretty normal time. Slow start right out of the gate because I assumed the rotors would SPIN (turns out they WHIR) (1A: What helicopter rotors do), and I forgot SNAP was a cereal mascot (would've guessed TONY but I already had the "S"). ACCURST is not the wurst but the clue is (11D: Hex'd) (like, honestly, sincerely, literally, 'hex'd' has never been written in human history before this clue except perhaps by some dime-store Auden searching for a rhyme for "sext"... not googling to confirm, but I know in my heart I'm right). Gonna go watch some baseball now. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:03)
Theme answers:
- ALICE B. TOKLAS (25A: [PREVIOUS] Memoirist) / ABT (24A: N.Y.C.-based dance troupe) (the "PREVIOUS" is because the answer that provides the initials of ALICE B. TOKLAS is the "previous" Across answer: ABT)
- HUNTER S. THOMPSON (39A: [NEXT] Journalist and author) / HST (42A: Maui setting: Abbr.) (I honestly had no idea there was an "HST" (Hawaiian Standard Time??). The only HST I know is the initials of Harry S. Truman ... guess they couldn't use him here, for obvious reasons: awkward)
- ARTHUR C. CLARKE (55A: [PREVIOUS] Sci-fi author) / ACC (54A: Org. for the Demon Deacons and Blue Devils)
- SUSAN B. ANTHONY (73A: [NEXT] Famed rights advocate) / SBA (75A: Agcy. that supports entrepreneurs) (note: it stands for "Small Business Administration")
- STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS (89A: [PREVIOUS] Noted politician and orator) / SAD (88A: The so-called "winter blues," for short)
- GEORGE M. COHAN (106A: [NEXT] American composer and lyricist) / GMC (109A: Canyon maker)
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is a United States government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses and by assisting in the economic recovery of communities after disasters". The agency's activities are summarized as the "3 Cs" of capital, contracts and counseling. (wikipedia)
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| [Airline to Stockholm] |
BOSOM is weirdly clued (76D: Place of security) (although, honestly, good luck cluing BOSOM in any non-weird way beyond ["___ Buddies" (Tom Hanks / Peter Scolari sitcom)]). Same with BETROTH, which I think of only in relation to a *marriage* "promise" (85D: Promise). GRP STKS WDS are, as a GRP, really trying my PTNCE. Multiple BELAS with multiple OBES is quite a sight. I am very much here for "A ROSE IS A ROSE ..." and DEADSPIN and "SILENT SPRING," but the irksome short stuff is really running amok today. I finished in a pretty normal time. Slow start right out of the gate because I assumed the rotors would SPIN (turns out they WHIR) (1A: What helicopter rotors do), and I forgot SNAP was a cereal mascot (would've guessed TONY but I already had the "S"). ACCURST is not the wurst but the clue is (11D: Hex'd) (like, honestly, sincerely, literally, 'hex'd' has never been written in human history before this clue except perhaps by some dime-store Auden searching for a rhyme for "sext"... not googling to confirm, but I know in my heart I'm right). Gonna go watch some baseball now. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]