Constructor: Evan Kalish
Relative difficulty: Easy (very easy)
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THEME: increasing water flow amounts—
Theme answers:
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I think the puzzle thinks that DROPS and OCEAN have something to do with the theme too—maybe the DROPS of rain amass on a mountainside and flow down, trickling into streams, gathering together with other streams to form a river, and then eventually emptying into the OCEAN. Is that the narrative? Still doesn't explain FLOOD, which is not a stage in that progression. In fact, FLOOD is a pretty static concept, generally, where the other long theme answers all suggest water that is specifically moving. Is FLOOD the static *end* point of the progression? Or is the water still moving to the OCEAN? The ambiguity here makes things messy, and they were slightly messy even before I noticed that DROPS and OCEAN might be involved. The water-ness of the first words in the themers is "disguised"(nicely, as it should be) with STREAMLINE and FLOODLIGHTS. "Trickle" still very much suggests water, even if it is delivered today in an economics metaphor, and then "RIVERDANCE" ... feels like a cop out. It's not a regular noun or verb or metaphorical expression. It's a proper noun, so the "river" there just represents ... a "river"? The meaning of the word isn't disguised or redirected in any meaningful way. I guess it would be hard / impossible to redirect the meaning of "river" in *any* expression. Still, the nature of the theme isn't precise. It's trying to do a lot, maybe too much with the DROPS / OCEAN add-ins. If any of the answers, or *any* of the rest of the grid were interesting, the slight clunkiness of the theme wouldn't really matter. But the puzzle is So easy, So plainly clued, So loaded with overfamiliar 4-letter words, that the only real joy people will have today is the setting of personal-best Monday times (do not underestimate how much the rush of a personal speed record colors a solver's estimation of a puzzle). The theme doesn't quite cohere, and the puzzle overall is dull. That's all.
The way I knew this was easy and dull was: instead of racing through it, as I usually do, I just sat here at the kitchen table and read clues out to my wife. For most of them, she gave me the answers quickly and easily, without my even having to tell her how many letters were in the answer or what letters I already had in place. Mostly she just looked at me deadpan because the clues were so easy it hardly seemed worth her effort to tell me the answers. Here's how exciting this all was. Me: "[Regarding]." Her: "IN RE." Me: "the other one..." Her: "AS TO." Me: "yup." Repeat 78 times. Well, no, they weren't all that lackluster. But LSAT IKEA ATV ERIC ANEW ... it wasn't just that they were easy to get, it was that their clues seemed like they were pulled out of the "Frequently Used Clue" bin. HEDONISTIC is a nice word (11D: Committed to the pursuit of pleasure), but few things express the spirit of hedonism less aptly than this grid. But it was all over fast, and solving fast can be fun, so if that was enough for you, fantastic.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (very easy)
Theme answers:
- TRICKLE-DOWN (21A: Kind of economics, disparagingly)
- STREAMLINE (26A: Make more aerodynamic)
- "RIVERDANCE" (44A: Theatrical show featuring traditional Irish music)
- FLOOD LIGHTS (50A: Ballpark illuminators)
Trickle-down economics, also called trickle-down theory, refers to the economic proposition that taxes on businesses and the wealthy in society should be reduced as a means to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long term. In recent history, the term has been used by critics of supply-side economic policies, such as "Reaganomics." Whereas general supply-side theory favors lowering taxes overall, trickle-down theory more specifically targets taxes on the upper end of the economic spectrum.The term "trickle-down" originated as a joke by humorist Will Rogers and today is often used to criticize economic policies that favor the wealthy or privileged while being framed as good for the average citizen. (wikipedia)
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The way I knew this was easy and dull was: instead of racing through it, as I usually do, I just sat here at the kitchen table and read clues out to my wife. For most of them, she gave me the answers quickly and easily, without my even having to tell her how many letters were in the answer or what letters I already had in place. Mostly she just looked at me deadpan because the clues were so easy it hardly seemed worth her effort to tell me the answers. Here's how exciting this all was. Me: "[Regarding]." Her: "IN RE." Me: "the other one..." Her: "AS TO." Me: "yup." Repeat 78 times. Well, no, they weren't all that lackluster. But LSAT IKEA ATV ERIC ANEW ... it wasn't just that they were easy to get, it was that their clues seemed like they were pulled out of the "Frequently Used Clue" bin. HEDONISTIC is a nice word (11D: Committed to the pursuit of pleasure), but few things express the spirit of hedonism less aptly than this grid. But it was all over fast, and solving fast can be fun, so if that was enough for you, fantastic.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]