Old German money / TUE 1-21-20 / Subject of interest to a 23andMe user / Vacuum cleaners featuring cyclone technology

Constructor: Carl Larson

Relative difficulty: High side of Medium for me, though it is v. early in the morning (3:56)

THEME: SIX PACK OF BEER (34A: Party purchase ... or a hint to each circled letter set) — "set of circled setters" is better, but whatever:

Theme answers:

• STELLA 
• AMSTEL
• CORONA
• MILLER

Word of the Day: FOOFARAW (36D: Hullabaloo) —

1: frills and flashy finery

2: a disturbance or to-do over a trifle : FUSS 

(merriam-webster.com)

Wrote in ISMS at 1A: Ideologies and immediately wanted to quit. 1-Acrosses matter. They set a tone. They can be neutral, fine, or they can be flashy, great, but they cannot be the worst damn thing in your grid. I then proceeded to stumble all over the first set of circled squares, though this is likely due to having just woken up more than anything else. SLATE (?) forSTEEL (4D: Shade of blue) and ... well, nothing for MANTLE (3D: Layer below the earth's crust). Just couldn't come up with it. Wanted MAGMA ... well, not "wanted," more "half-heartedly tried to write in." I think "I'M GAME!" (1D: "Sign me up!") expresses more willingness than actual commitment, so getting there from "Sign me up!" was weird. Couldn't see MALLET (23A: Xylophonist's need). I think I was just finding the clump of circled squares visually distracting—like they were a haze blocking me from seeing the grid properly. Things smoothed out from there, but I kept finding the grid fussy, a word I've been using a lot because, I think, that's an editorial style. Short answers clued oddly or weirdly or just-off or oldenly. Answers seemed fine, but clues were missing me somehow. LSD still exists, I think, so the '60s bit in that LSD clue was weird (25A: Hit from the '60s?). Do cellphones have "buttons"? (see clue on ASTERISK (!?!?!) (20A: Cellphone button) (!?!). And forget about FOOFARAW, a "word" whose second half I had to piece together entirely from crosses. Folderol, I know that word. But man ... that "RAW" part was rough. Again, seem like something you might say if you needed BICARB and took LSD with NEAL Cassady and listening to Mama Cass ELLIOT and ELO while spending MARKs and imagining that futuristic phones will still have "buttons."


I don't think themed puzzles are usually very interesting when there aren't really any theme answers. Plays like a weird choppy themeless, except for the revealer, which ... well, the revealer sounds like a robot or space alien is saying it. The perfect revealer would have been SIXPACKS. There are four, after all, and that is what people call them. Sure, you can get sixers of soda and other things, but still, the tighter, nicer, better revealer would simply be SIXPACKS. [What beer comes in ... as represented four times in this grid]. Instead some Martian pretending to be a human being is all "Would you care to try a delicious SIX PACK OF BEER. I enjoy the popular American brand of MILLER, don't you?" Feels wooden / alien. To the puzzle's credit, the fill is not bad, and the long Downs, while not splashy, are solid. Decent. Well, CAPITALA is more Chaotic Neutral, I guess. No real feelings about him. Anyway, this was not *my* cup of tea, though I don't think it's objectively poor. Hope you liked it more than I did.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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