Constructor: Ed Sessa
Relative difficulty: no idea. super slow for me, but that was def. because of early-morning fog brain ... so: Medium!?
THEME: BALLOON DARTS (56A: Carnival projectiles that might be directed at parts of this puzzle?) — a "POP" rebus, where "POP" appears inside five circled squares:
Theme answers:
I can't try to speed-solve first thing in the morning. I have to accept that it just doesn't work anymore (if it ever did). I could not see the "POP"s even when I knew they were there, even when I'd ferreted out the theme, so "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" (38A: "Obviously! (Duh!)") and SOAP OPERA were just unparsable to me for way too long. I've never heard anyone under 60 say "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" Maybe 70. Maybe I've never actually heard anyone say it IRL, and have only seen it on (old) TV and in (old) movies. Venn diagram of people who say "Obviously! (Duh!)" (how do you *say* a parenthetical???) and people who cutesily ask "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" is just two circles side by side. I had the last letters in place and thought answer was gonna be something something ALCOHOLIC (?). Found APOPLEXY hard to see too—whole NE corner briefly threatened Never to come into view (no idea on ADOBE, no idea on BAG, no idea on LEDGE, which, to me, is just an innocuous place where birds "perch" non-"perilous"ly all the time. Every day, in fact). Spelling on SPEX is super-suspext. I had SPEC in there at first. Anyway, it was all a disaster, as over and over I just stared at grid wondering what was wrong.
Misread clue on STAYS IN as [Eschews the right life] and thought it was trying to be some politics pun. Total blank on 29D: One eating before a king (TASTER) even when most of the letters are in place. It's so dumb ... like, what year is it? I need context for this to make any sense? Again, this is from the (old) movies. Anyway, my foggy brain isn't the puzzle's problem, but the stale answers and the aggressively bygone cultural center of gravity and crosswordese like PES (oof) VENI OVO NAE SST etc. that *is* the puzzle's fault. Also, I just don't think BALLOON DARTS is a thing. The theme concept, with the balloons POPping and all, is not bad, but the revealer was a major let-down. Also a let-down to have some of the POPs hidden inside other words or phrases, and then some of them ... just be the word POP (BANDS, IGGY, TOOTSIE). But "POP" is probably not the easiest word to bury over and over and over, so the unhidden POPs were much less of a concern for me than the PFFT of the revealer. Oh, and the "POP" in POP BANDS *means* POPULAR, so ... why is POPULAR here? You can't have a word and its own abbr. in the same grid. Change POPULAR to POPLARS or POP TART, redo the NE corner. It would take a few minutes, tops. Come on, editor. Edit!!
Honestly, what is going on with the clue on ROOT?!?!? It's like someone just pounded the keyboard. I keep reading it, and it doesn't get better. That is an insanely complicated and confusing way to come at a very general word like ROOT. It would be a great clue for WHISKEY if you just cut that end bit off there. I kept wanting it to be a whiskey-related answer. But no, it's just ... ROOT. Awful. 1966's "The Bible"???? GOD? At least I know who John Huston is, but yeeeeesh, this is a clue for TRICIA Nixon, not me. Is "The Bible" even a famous movie? Why would you go all the way ... there ... for something simple like GOD. Puzzle feels hostile to anyone born after 1960. IGGY POP is a young-skewing answer, and he's like 94 (jk he's actually undead). ADMEN is appropriate, though, as there's no women here except TRICIA (and DORA). By the way, while I'm down DORA's way, look how easy it is to get rid of "TORA!"—cruddy OLD 1/3-of-an-OLD-movie "TORA!" I did this in roughly negative three seconds:
I mean, in losing DORA you lose half the female presence in your puzzle, but it's clear you never cared about that to begin with, so [shrug]. Bye bye (bye), TORA! Anyway, overall, decent theme idea somewhat squandered by iffy revealer and creaky fill.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Happy birthday, mom
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: no idea. super slow for me, but that was def. because of early-morning fog brain ... so: Medium!?
Theme answers:
- POPULAR / APOPLEXY
- HIPPOPOTAMUSES / RED POPPY
- "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" / TOOTSIE POP
- SOAP OPERA / POP BANDS
- IGGY POP / SNAP OPEN
n. pl. pe·des (pĕd′ās′)
• • •
I can't try to speed-solve first thing in the morning. I have to accept that it just doesn't work anymore (if it ever did). I could not see the "POP"s even when I knew they were there, even when I'd ferreted out the theme, so "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" (38A: "Obviously! (Duh!)") and SOAP OPERA were just unparsable to me for way too long. I've never heard anyone under 60 say "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" Maybe 70. Maybe I've never actually heard anyone say it IRL, and have only seen it on (old) TV and in (old) movies. Venn diagram of people who say "Obviously! (Duh!)" (how do you *say* a parenthetical???) and people who cutesily ask "IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?" is just two circles side by side. I had the last letters in place and thought answer was gonna be something something ALCOHOLIC (?). Found APOPLEXY hard to see too—whole NE corner briefly threatened Never to come into view (no idea on ADOBE, no idea on BAG, no idea on LEDGE, which, to me, is just an innocuous place where birds "perch" non-"perilous"ly all the time. Every day, in fact). Spelling on SPEX is super-suspext. I had SPEC in there at first. Anyway, it was all a disaster, as over and over I just stared at grid wondering what was wrong.
Misread clue on STAYS IN as [Eschews the right life] and thought it was trying to be some politics pun. Total blank on 29D: One eating before a king (TASTER) even when most of the letters are in place. It's so dumb ... like, what year is it? I need context for this to make any sense? Again, this is from the (old) movies. Anyway, my foggy brain isn't the puzzle's problem, but the stale answers and the aggressively bygone cultural center of gravity and crosswordese like PES (oof) VENI OVO NAE SST etc. that *is* the puzzle's fault. Also, I just don't think BALLOON DARTS is a thing. The theme concept, with the balloons POPping and all, is not bad, but the revealer was a major let-down. Also a let-down to have some of the POPs hidden inside other words or phrases, and then some of them ... just be the word POP (BANDS, IGGY, TOOTSIE). But "POP" is probably not the easiest word to bury over and over and over, so the unhidden POPs were much less of a concern for me than the PFFT of the revealer. Oh, and the "POP" in POP BANDS *means* POPULAR, so ... why is POPULAR here? You can't have a word and its own abbr. in the same grid. Change POPULAR to POPLARS or POP TART, redo the NE corner. It would take a few minutes, tops. Come on, editor. Edit!!
made this verion of a NE corner in under a minute—there are surely even better options |
[Björk band of the '80s-'90s]
Original |
TORA-free, properly edited version |
I mean, in losing DORA you lose half the female presence in your puzzle, but it's clear you never cared about that to begin with, so [shrug]. Bye bye (bye), TORA! Anyway, overall, decent theme idea somewhat squandered by iffy revealer and creaky fill.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Happy birthday, mom
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]