Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners
Relative difficulty: Medium (5:50 I think, somewhere in there)
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THEME: National PANDA Day (17A: National ___ Day (March 16 observance, appropriate to this puzzle) — grid looks like a panda, I guess. Plus there are two panda-related answers, both huge reaches:
Theme answers:
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I don't have time for this. I don't have time for bad Fridays. I especially don't have time for bad *themed* Fridays. I don't have time for puzzles that try so hard to be cutesy and miss the mark this bad. There is no such thing as National PANDA Day, or, if there is, it is no more an "observance" than National Artichoke Day (also March 16). And anyway, today is not March 16. It is, however, Friday the 13th, and yet we somehow *dont* have a Friday the 13th-themed puzzle (unless the badness of this puzzle ... is the point? Is it all of our bad fortune to have to do this puzzle? If that is the point, then kudos, man, that is some Jedi mind stuff). OR WORSE is awful fill. INDENTER is awful fill. VERISMO crossing MUR at the "M" is dicey and bad. AT NINE, bad. DISTAL crossing NSC, ugh. SOLD AS IS, genuine woof material. Are the unchecked "P" and "A" supposed to be cute. "Look at me, I'm breaking rules!" This puzzle is not good enough—not nearly good enough—to break the rules. But in the end, the worst rule it broke was "Where Is My Bouncy *Themeless* Friday!!?!?"
Crossword Twitter hates it too. Half of poster are mad because SPIRIT ANIMAL is some culturally appropriative new-agey borderline-racist junk, and the other half are mad because apparently no one says "The WASHINGTON ZOO." Looks like all humans except the people responsible for this puzzle call it the National Zoo. Ugh, SPIRIT ANIMAL. The clue is tin-eared (15D: Representation of one's personality in the natural world). The concept of the SPIRIT ANIMAL has its roots in Native American spirituality, but then the phrase became an internet meme of sorts where people would claim "so and so is my SPIRIT ANIMAL" and often the "animals" weren't even animals. They'd be celebrities, sports stars, whatever. Anyway, as clued, SPIRIT ANIMAL made me wince. It is the Washington Redskins of crossword answers. It is the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop of answers. It's gross. Do better, NYTXW.
Wadding this one up and throwing it in the garbage. We're in a time of national crisis; crosswords are gonna have to step up! This one promised good times, with its silly panda-looking black square arrangement, but it was all horrible after that. I think my favorite thing about the puzzle, besides the great and (unlike this puzzle) entertaining Allen IVERSON, is OREOS, because that answer runs right across the pictorial panda's nose and, like PANDAs, is BLACK AND WHITE. Look at me, ending on a positive note!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (5:50 I think, somewhere in there)
Theme answers:
- 10D: Like 17-Across (BLACK AND WHITE)
- 11D: Home for some famous 17-Acrosses (WASHINGTON ZOO)
noun
the use of everyday life and actions in artistic works: introduced into opera in the early 1900s in reaction to contemporary conventions, which were seen as artificial and untruthful. (dictionary.com)
• • •
Crossword Twitter hates it too. Half of poster are mad because SPIRIT ANIMAL is some culturally appropriative new-agey borderline-racist junk, and the other half are mad because apparently no one says "The WASHINGTON ZOO." Looks like all humans except the people responsible for this puzzle call it the National Zoo. Ugh, SPIRIT ANIMAL. The clue is tin-eared (15D: Representation of one's personality in the natural world). The concept of the SPIRIT ANIMAL has its roots in Native American spirituality, but then the phrase became an internet meme of sorts where people would claim "so and so is my SPIRIT ANIMAL" and often the "animals" weren't even animals. They'd be celebrities, sports stars, whatever. Anyway, as clued, SPIRIT ANIMAL made me wince. It is the Washington Redskins of crossword answers. It is the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop of answers. It's gross. Do better, NYTXW.
Wadding this one up and throwing it in the garbage. We're in a time of national crisis; crosswords are gonna have to step up! This one promised good times, with its silly panda-looking black square arrangement, but it was all horrible after that. I think my favorite thing about the puzzle, besides the great and (unlike this puzzle) entertaining Allen IVERSON, is OREOS, because that answer runs right across the pictorial panda's nose and, like PANDAs, is BLACK AND WHITE. Look at me, ending on a positive note!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]