Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (my typing was alarmingly poor—I think I typo'd ever entry somehow) (4:11)
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THEME: SWIPE LEFT / SWIPE RIGHT (60A: Reject romantically ... or a hint to the starts of the answers to 18- and 35-Across, phonetically / 65A: Show interest romantically ... or a hint to the ends of the answers to 20- and 44-Across, phonetically) — language from the Tinder dating app, where you SWIPE RIGHT on people you're interested in and SWIPE LEFT on those you're not. Here, in the puzzle, "swipe" must be interpreted as a word meaning "take illegally"—you will find words that mean "take illegally" (or sound like they do when you say them aloud) on the "LEFT" or "RIGHT" side of their respective answers
Theme answers:
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Well that was a chore to explain. And also a slight chore to figure out in the first place. Didn't take me long, but I did have to think about it, and when I figured it out, well, GROAN, for sure (43A: Response to a computer crash). I'm having trouble getting past the repetition of SWIPE, for starters. I get that in order for the theme to work at all (probably), you've got to repeat the word, but it's just such an ugly solution, somehow. Might've been nice to indicate that the revealers were app-related phrases, as I probably struggled more with the front end of -PERIGHT than I did anywhere else in the grid besides HUSSAR (which I confused with HESSIAN, and which I haven't seen in a puzzle since god knows when). The ostentatious app-iness of this whole puzzle (see also TIKTOK) gives it a very strong "Hello, fellow youths!" feel, as in "Hello, fellow youths! Did you see that KEYSTONE KOPs one-reeler at the Rialto last night!? ROFL, amirite!? Hey, who are your favorite EARPS? Mine's Virgil, duh! Do you like 'KOJAK?''Who loves ya, baby?' Ha ha Yeah, he's cool. Oh, hang on, BRB, gotta go TOT up the SODAS for our field trip to Six Flags. I mistotted last time and we DRANK 'em all before we even left the parking lot: epic FAIL! Hey, you guys wanna make an OPERA TIKTOK?! I mean RAP! RAP is what I listen to for sure. Anyway, think about it ..." Etc. This theme is just ... a lot. Extra. Trying real hard. I see the wordplay and the theme density and all of it, and I am sort of nodding at it appreciatively, but it wasn't really for me. Two of the answers get their homonyms from fanciful made-up words (Lyft, Kop). The fill, especially around where the revealers meet (i.e. the south), is really rough. ITSYITISIIIISPY!?!? Yeesh. Oh, wow, I just realized that this puzzle is 16 wide. It really can't follow any of the rules, can it? What a rebel... I can't believe this puzzle doesn't have a hit show on Nickelodeon already.
Five things:
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (my typing was alarmingly poor—I think I typo'd ever entry somehow) (4:11)
Theme answers:
- LYFT DRIVER (18A: One competing with Uber) (actually lots of LYFT DRIVERs are also Uber drivers, I think) (here, "lift" means "swipe" ... and LYFT is at *front* of its answer, so it's a SWIPE LEFT)
- BLUE STEEL (20A: Iron alloy that includes a bit of tungsten and chromium) (here, "steal" means "swipe" ... and STEEL is at the *back* of its answer, so it's a SWIPE RIGHT)
- KNICK KNACKS (35A: Tchotchkes) ("nick" means "swipe"... SWIPE LEFT)
- KEYSTONE KOP (44A: Incompetent figure of old slapstick) ("cop" means "swipe"... SWIPE RIGHT)
A hussar (/həˈzɑːr/ hə-ZAR, /hʊˈzɑːr/) (Polish: huzar, Hungarian: huszár, Serbian Latin: husar, Serbian Cyrillic: хусар) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europeduring the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry regiments in European armies in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.A number of armored or ceremonial mounted units in modern armies retain the designation of hussars.
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Five things:
- 39D: Kiss amorously (SNOG)— I get that they use this word a lot in Harry Potter, but it still needs some indicator that it's foreign slang, imho.
- 50D: Harry Potter's Quidditch position (SEEKER) — this puzzle has definitely read all the Harry Potter books, multiple times. Or, he's seen all the movies. Probably the latter.
- 28A: Volunteer for another tour (REUP)— this was the final answer on the first Sunday puzzle I ever successfully completed (in 1991), so even though it is semi-garbage fill, I can't bring myself to hate it the way it needs to be hated.
- 61A: Legislature V.I.P. (WHIP) — probably the hardest single answer for me, weirdly. It's down in that thicket where the revealers overlap and before I knew what the revealers were doing, it was rough, and even after I had the "W" from SWIPE and and the "P" from I SPY I still couldn't see what was going on. W--P ... my brain wanted only WIMP.
- 47A: ___ pony (POLO)— yes, very "relatable."
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