Hurt in the bullring / MON 12-2-2019 / Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, to Madonna / High point / Many an Eastern European

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: LOWER THE BAR— Theme answers contain the word BAR, which is in a lower spot each time it appears.


Theme answers:

• BARE MINIMUM (3D: Smallest possible amount)
• RED BARON (5D: WWI fighter pilot who is Snoopy's fantasy opponent)
• LIONEL BARRYMORE (7D: Classic actor who played Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life")
• CABARETS (40D: Businesses like the Kit Kat Klub in a hit musical)
• LOWER THE BAR (28D: Reduce one's standards, as illustrated, respectively, in 3-, 5-, 7-, 40- and 28-Down)

Word of the Day: AMES (City that's home to Iowa State) —

Ames (/eɪmz/) is a city in central Iowa approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Des Moines. It is best known as the home of Iowa State University (ISU), with leading Agriculture, Design, Engineering, and Veterinary Medicine colleges. A United States Department of Energy national laboratory, Ames Laboratory, is located on the ISU campus.

In 2017, Ames had a population of 66,498.^[7] Iowa State University is home to 36,321 students (Fall 2017),^[8] which make up approximately one half of the city's population.

(Wikipedia)

Annabel Monday! Woohoo! And on time this time, even! I'm still enjoying interning. Capitol Hill is a cool place. But I'm looking to apply to library school next fall! Cross your fingers for me.

I liked this one a lot! And I'm starting to notice that I tend to really like the easy puzzles, which maybe says something about me? But then again, Mondays are supposed to be easy. And at any rate, some really interesting cluing here (amid a couple typical Monday duds like ALPS and ERA).  Had TANGOS for SAMBAS which I guess means I need to go back and redo my musical education (especially with stuff like syncopation). I'm not sure that you can just call sheep's milk EWES milk but eh, I'll let it slide. And I'd like to know who a boll weevil isn't a PEST to. I guess to a spider, it's just lunch?

I can't say enough positive things about the theme! There aren't enough Monday themes that really use the crossword format in an interesting way! And this one also worked for Down-only solvers?! Awesome. Everyone, take clues from Ms. Lempel. She really raised the bar with this one. Even if there's no way on earth I would have gotten LIONEL BARRYMORE without crosses.

Bullets:

• ECTO (38D: Prefix with plasm) — Did you know I only just saw "Ghostbusters" for the first time a few weeks ago?!?!? Same with "Beetlejuice." I kind of got all my old campy must-see Halloween movies out of the way this year. 
• OGRE (42A: Fearsome figure of folklore) — Hey, ogres are more than just fearsome! Didn't anyone else have the picture book "Shrek" when they were little? All that dude wanted to do was be gross and be left alone. 
• POX (59D: Disease that causes a skin rash) — Missed opportunity for a "A pox on both your houses" reference. Just sayin', we had "Moor" (which, is that problematic? I'm not sure), we could have had a very Shakespearean puzzle!
• EEL (57D: Long-bodied fish) — That's a moray.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired.

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