Constructor: Debbie Ellerin
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed clipboard solve)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Helmut SCHMIDT (39D: German chancellor between Brandt and Kohl) —
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Well this was pretty nice. Started out less than great, as NW is full of things I don't *love*—you can keep most murderers out of my grids, no matter how fun their names are, and LALALAND feels like the most ubiquitous 8-letter answer in existence, so I'm a little tired of it, and that clue on ELBA, yeesh, that's a cryptic clue, not a real clue, which, if I'm doing a cryptic, Great, but here, groan—but then I hit LEONARD COHEN and things got muuuuuch better, if only because LEONARD COHEN was playing in the background of my mind for the remainder of the solve (23A: Singer of "I'm Your Man" and "Hallelujah"). For some reason I found the SCIENTIST part of DATA SCIENTIST sort of a letdown (15D: Modern-day "miner"). Like, I got DATA, and thought "oh, what's the cool slangy techy whatever term for ... whatever this is?" And it was just some dork in glasses, which, I'm a dork in classes, so, hey there, but I was expecting something more zeitgeisty like a DATA, well, MINER, or FORAGER or COMPTROLLER or I don't know what. But then I was buoyed yet again by cool Acrosses, this time the colloquial pair of "I CAN'T EVEN!" and "IS THAT A THING?" (a question I am fond of, as you know ... actually, I'm more fond of the statement, "THAT'S NOT A THING," but I can get down with the interrogative if that's how you wanna play it. Just noticed that the word "sunshine" is an anagram of the word "SUSHI" (in the grid) and the direction "NNE" (not in grid). You know, in case you were thinking of writing any more of them there cryptic clues for "sunshine," which, why would you, but my brain does what it does in the morning, and I just like to roll with it.
Toughest part for me was the SW, where I finished up. MAIMS seems much stronger than 49A: Hurts. My [Stable staple] was an OAT at first. I forgot the SAMOA cookie existed. But the bigger issues down there were SCHMIDT (no memory of that dude, who left office when I was in 7th grade) and GANTRY (which I know only in its Elmer form). Fitting that NO IDEA was down there as well. But IMING and TIPIN helped me sort things out eventually. NE corner is the roughest-looking, I think. ARABIA sounds like a fictional place, though I guess I'm thinking of ARABY, which is more a poetic than a fictional place. Anyway, ARABIA is not a clearly defined location in my head. And LATEN, while it beats LOUDEN (!) (see yesterday), isn't too fun, and OBEAH I actually kind of like (learned it from xwords), but LISLE, no, no, whenever I see "fabric" in a clue and the answer is five letters I honestly think "oh, f.u." TOILE TULLE TWILL VOILE SISAL LISLE I give up.
Five things:
*Yes, this is actually the traditional 14th wedding anniversary gift, it sure is, definitely and for true
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed clipboard solve)
Word of the Day: Helmut SCHMIDT (39D: German chancellor between Brandt and Kohl) —
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈha͡ɪnʁɪç ˈvaldəmaːɐ ˈʃmɪt]; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982. (wikipedia)
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Toughest part for me was the SW, where I finished up. MAIMS seems much stronger than 49A: Hurts. My [Stable staple] was an OAT at first. I forgot the SAMOA cookie existed. But the bigger issues down there were SCHMIDT (no memory of that dude, who left office when I was in 7th grade) and GANTRY (which I know only in its Elmer form). Fitting that NO IDEA was down there as well. But IMING and TIPIN helped me sort things out eventually. NE corner is the roughest-looking, I think. ARABIA sounds like a fictional place, though I guess I'm thinking of ARABY, which is more a poetic than a fictional place. Anyway, ARABIA is not a clearly defined location in my head. And LATEN, while it beats LOUDEN (!) (see yesterday), isn't too fun, and OBEAH I actually kind of like (learned it from xwords), but LISLE, no, no, whenever I see "fabric" in a clue and the answer is five letters I honestly think "oh, f.u." TOILE TULLE TWILL VOILE SISAL LISLE I give up.
Five things:
- RATED R (26A: Rather racy, say)— Do NOT like "say," here. "Perhaps" or "in a way" feel better. RATED R is too much of a subset to warrant "say." [Sick, say] for PALLID would be bad. You *might* be PALLID if you're sick, but sickness has way too many potential effects. Movies are RATED R for all kinds of reasons, and anyway "racy" is very imprecise. I realize my negative reaction to "say" is all out of proportion, but off-sounding cluing irks me.
- 42D: In a rage (ANGRILY)— argh, adverb! Did not see that coming. I was like "Why won't ANGRY fit ... "ANGRRRY!"
- 36D: Stain on Santa (SOOT) — just glad I had the SO- in place before I saw this clue. If I'd had the -OO- in place, well, I might've had some very different ideas about how Santa stained himself.
- 4D: Major inconveniences (HASSLES) — related to my problem spelling NICKEL, I cannot comfortably spell this word either. Actually left the "LE" part blank at first because I worried it might be "EL" :(
- 41D: Mo. whose birthstone is garnet (JAN) — god save me from the damn "birthstone" clue. It's like the traditional anniversary gift clue, like, I don't *&^%ing know what you get someone on their 14th anniversary, and I refuse to learn. Find a better clue for JELL-O MOLDS!*
*Yes, this is actually the traditional 14th wedding anniversary gift, it sure is, definitely and for true
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]