Orange-nosed Muppet / MON 4-20-20 / Not watertight / Giant-sized TV, as in a stadium / Rhythmic heartbeats / Gulped down / Performed some hip-hop

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Pretty Easy (a bit under my average time)



THEME: BOY OH BOY (66A: "Wow!" ... and a hint to both halves of the answers to the starred clues) — the word "boy" can be placed after both words in the theme answers to create familiar terms

Theme answers:

• BALL GAME (17A: Something to "take me out to," in an old song)
• HIGH OFFICE (23A: The presidency, e.g.)
• BAD NEWS (38A: Unpleasant tidings)
• COWBELL (42A: Means of locating one from the herd)
• SCHOOL PLAY (56A: Drama department production)

Word of the Day: LATEEN (18D: Triangular sail) —

A lateen (from French latine, meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction.

Dating back to Roman navigation, the lateen became the favorite sail of the Age of Discovery, mainly because it allows a boat to tack "against the wind". It is common in the Mediterranean and the northwestern parts of the Indian Ocean, where it is the standard rig for feluccas and dhows (wikipedia)

Hey all and Happy Monday! I'm new here so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ben and I am a junior at the University of Pennsylvania. I have been solving crossworlds every day for over two and a half years now and reading Rex's blog for just as long. Now that we are acquainted, let's jump in and talk about this Monday.

Overall it was a fairly easy and enjoyable solve. A few hangups here and there, but mostly smooth sailing due to a dearth of crosswordese that often plagues early week puzzles. Had ANODE for ONOFF and ACACIA for ACADIA. Also jumped to put in MEMORY for "Account of one's earlier days" (6D) which made a mess of the middle area until I was able to sort that out.

The theme works well for four out of the five answers, but HIGH OFFICE just doesn't hold up. Both terms, HIGH(boy) and OFFICE (boy), are dated and drag down the otherwise crisp theme. I especially liked BALL GAME for two reasons: 1. Game Boy is not just a different type of boy, but rather a handheld video game system, and it brought back the nostalgia of playing my Game Boy Advance (pictured below) on long family car rides when I was young. And 2. I currently am missing the BALL GAMEs of the baseball season, Let's Go Mets! In the absence of baseball, I did happen to catch a couple rounds of the "Thrilla in Manila" (44D) the other night and saw ALI bob and weave.

My Game Boy Advance SP and game collection

With regard to some of the other fill, BREECH (birth) does not pass the breakfast test and can surely be clued differently. I had to look up what a nuthatch (48A) looks like and it turned out to be a very pretty looking bird so I included a picture of one.

Look at this nuthatch!

I don't really like seeing ADOBES pluralized although I happen to love the rest of the SE, with the colloquial YES YOU next to the elegant KIMONO. Also, LIBIDOis an interesting answer that I haven't seen in many puzzles, so yay for variety. And if you are wondering why the symbol for TIN is Sn, I was too and the answer is that it comes from the Latin word for tin, "stannum." So now you can add that to your list of useless chemistry facts.

Four things:

• 8A: Bump against in a crowd (JOSTLE)— I certainly hope no one is jostling in any crowds these days, stay at home and stay safe!
• 39D: Knighted actor Guinness (ALEC)— I am a huge Star Wars fan, so it's nice to see the original Obi-Wan Kenobi get some love these days. “Use the Force, Luke.”
• 25D: 1950s Communist-bashing grp. in Congress (HUAC)— The House Un-American Activities Committee was a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that conducted investigations into alleged Communist activities. Not only is the committee a manifestation of a pretty ugly period in American history characterized by xenophobia and nativism, HUAC is also just an ugly looking answer. And it is only one letter away from a delicious, and definitely less infamous, answer - GUAC....
• 27D: Astronomer Sagan (CARL) — Although I am far too young to have seen the original airing of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, I have seen a few of the episodes as well as Carl Sagan's interviews. Sagan was an incredible champion of scientific discovery and a true inspiration to generations of budding scientists. 

Signed, Ben Robinov, Apprentice of CrossWorld

P.S. Last week, ELMO and his pals demonstrated to kids (and their parents) around the country how to properly socially distance by having a virtual playdate featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anne Hathaway. Well done, Sesame Street!

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