Constructor: Robyn Weintraub
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but felt very whoosh-y)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Sholem ASCH (30D: Yiddish language author Sholem) —
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I wrote earlier this week about how seeing Zhouqin Burnikel's name on a puzzle when I open it fills (!) me with eager anticipation, and I realized when I opened today's puzzle that Robyn Weintraub's name does the same. She has developed into one of my very favorite themeless constructors. Her puzzles are breezy, bright, clean confections. Just delightful. You can give her Friday any time, as far as I'm concerned. I suppose I could complain that this was too easy—I got LIESL and then every Down cross off of LIESL straight away, and most of the rest of the puzzle wasn't much harder—but that seems petty. Also, when a themeless is good, whipping through it can be kind of exhilarating (it's the easy but pedestrian ones that are truly a drag). I did this one LICKETY SPLIT and the answer that first made me go "woo hoo!" was LICKETY SPLIT, so the quickness felt like it was part of the overall sunny solving experience. There were precisely two things about the grid that I would change if I could. First, the word ASLOPE, which as far as I'm concerned can take a trip up a slope in the ALPS and stay there (fun fact: I first thought the [Range for 1-Across] (i.e. LIESL) was not ALPS but ALTO). Also, the clue on LEE was awful, in that ... who and what? Are the *voice* actors of "The Incredibles" well known, and since when? So many LEEs in the world—so so so so so so many—that this clue seems gratuitously marginal. Weird. I think the fact that it's a voice actor made it worse for me. I mean, it's one thing to expect me to know that Beyoncé voiced NALA, and quite another to expect me to know that Jason LEE voiced ... ugh, what character? I've seen the movie!! (it's the character of Syndrome, apparently) (P.S. I actually know who Jason LEE is—by sight, at any rate—he was the star of a TV show called "My Name is Earl" that ran for four seasons back in the '00s). Anyway, ASLOPE and the LEE clue are the only parts of this puzzle that bugged me. The rest, mwah!
First place that slowed me down at all was SOULS (15D: Preacher's charge)—super tough clue, esp. considering the plural answer and the non-plural-looking clue. SOULS crossing TELE (22A: Cast opener) gave me very minor trouble. Also figured a [Leasing unit] would be a building unit and not a unit of time (MONTH). Once I got the answer to 29A: Headwear almost never worn outdoors (SHOWER CAP), I laughed out loud at the "almost." Like, when *do* you wear your SHOWER CAP outside? When you are performing some kind of SLAPSTICK? (29D: Monty Python genre). I did not know that the sides in chess are called ARMIES (40A: Sides in chess, symbolically). I mean, looking at them, yes, they seem prepared for battle, it's just that that specific word I've not heard much in relation to the game. I think of them as .... sides. I guess that's why the clue says "symbolically" and not "in common parlance" or the like. So slight delay there. But today all delays were slight. ASLANT for ASLOPE and thus MAE for MOE (36D: ___ Greene, mobster in "The Godfather"). These are rough as the rough patches got. Overall, a lovely solve. Brightened up my coldish blustery November 1 morning.
P.S. that clue on LIBRARIANS, whoever's responsible, good job! (26D: Ones turning up the volume?) ("turning up" here meaning "locating"). Same with the clue on SHE, which is an all-timer (4D: Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister?); not sure why it needs the "?"—SHE literally sells seashells in that tongue twister.... — but whatever, man.
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Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but felt very whoosh-y)
Word of the Day: Sholem ASCH (30D: Yiddish language author Sholem) —
Sholem Asch (Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz; 1 November 1880 – 10 July 1957), also written Shalom Ash, was a Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish languagewho settled in the United States. (wikipedia)
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First place that slowed me down at all was SOULS (15D: Preacher's charge)—super tough clue, esp. considering the plural answer and the non-plural-looking clue. SOULS crossing TELE (22A: Cast opener) gave me very minor trouble. Also figured a [Leasing unit] would be a building unit and not a unit of time (MONTH). Once I got the answer to 29A: Headwear almost never worn outdoors (SHOWER CAP), I laughed out loud at the "almost." Like, when *do* you wear your SHOWER CAP outside? When you are performing some kind of SLAPSTICK? (29D: Monty Python genre). I did not know that the sides in chess are called ARMIES (40A: Sides in chess, symbolically). I mean, looking at them, yes, they seem prepared for battle, it's just that that specific word I've not heard much in relation to the game. I think of them as .... sides. I guess that's why the clue says "symbolically" and not "in common parlance" or the like. So slight delay there. But today all delays were slight. ASLANT for ASLOPE and thus MAE for MOE (36D: ___ Greene, mobster in "The Godfather"). These are rough as the rough patches got. Overall, a lovely solve. Brightened up my coldish blustery November 1 morning.
P.S. that clue on LIBRARIANS, whoever's responsible, good job! (26D: Ones turning up the volume?) ("turning up" here meaning "locating"). Same with the clue on SHE, which is an all-timer (4D: Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister?); not sure why it needs the "?"—SHE literally sells seashells in that tongue twister.... — but whatever, man.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]