Constructor: Hal Moore
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (maybe more Medium) (5:30, first thing in a.m.)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: ROSE ROYCE (49A: Soul group that did the soundtrack for "Car Wash") —
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Really liked this grid. The "?"-cluing game was way off today—didn't like any of them, felt like there were too many of them (in the south, anyway), and, well, ECOLI is a weirdly bleak answer to get cheeky with (25A: Cause to recall?)—but the grid itself was chock full of fun stuff. I might be riding a little high on knowing ROSE ROYCE and consequently playing ROSE ROYCE in my head for half of the solve. I wonder how hard this puzzle breaks, difficulty-wise, depending on whether you know who ROSE ROYCE are or not. If you *don't* know it, seems like you'd need virtually every letter from crosses. And since one of those crosses is also a not-necessarily-household name from pop culture (DONAGHY), I can see things getting mucky in there (46D: Jack ___, Alec Baldwin's "30 Rock" role). But when you know the proper names, and crash through them, *and* enjoy them irl, then the solving pleasure factor all of a sudden goes zooom. Not even the horrific-on-every-level YACHTIE could completely eliminate the high I got from the better answers in this grid (43D: Marina frequenter, informally).
It was not easy going at first, though. I thought it was going to be a slog after I made my first pass at the Downs in the NW (which is how I typically approach a grid like this, with long Acrosses up top). That first pass yielded me precisely one solid answer: WES Unseld (5D: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Unseld). So yet again I was a beneficiary of knowing a proper name ... sometimes things just fall your way; I would be very sympathetic to any solver who was like "f*** all these names!"—WES Unseld and ROSE ROYCE are both solid '70s answers, and not everyone remembers / was alive during the '70s. Anyway, not sure WES felt like such a huge get early on, since he was all I had. But then I turned to the long Acrosses up there and EVIL EMPIRE was a gimme (another benefit of being oldish and having lived through a bygone era) (15A: The U.S.S.R., to Reagan). With EVIL EMPIRE in place, the NW got a lot easier. Once I got out of that corner, there weren't many serious hold-ups after that. The NW often feels the hardest to me because that's where I typically start, so I have no toeholds. But looking back now, I think it's actually empirically the hardest, today, EVIL EMPIRE aside. The clues on every Down from 6- to 10- is at least ambiguous if not downright tricky. But once out of there, smooth sailing. Oh, hey, I knew "YAKETY SAX" too, and I'm beginning to realize that my age may have something to do with my sailing (if not yachting) through this (26A: Instrumental that might recall a blooper reel). "YAKETY SAX" is familiar to me from "The Benny Hill Show," which aired ... well, a while ago.
All these pop culture answers are *right* over the plate for me. There's a boomer/Xer quality to the puzzle. I guess I don't think showing your age (whatever your age is) is a bad thing. This one manages to feel very '70s/'80s without, to me, feeling dreary and bygone in that lazy, crosswordese-ish kind of way. Helps that the grid is clean and not ICKY. I enjoyed seeing PATRIARCHY, which, coming from the NYTXW, has a certain aptness to it, but ... at least today, it's crossing DRUG.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (maybe more Medium) (5:30, first thing in a.m.)
Word of the Day: ROSE ROYCE (49A: Soul group that did the soundtrack for "Car Wash") —
Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B group. They are best known for several hit singles during the 1970s including "Car Wash", "I Wanna Get Next to You", "I'm Going Down", "Wishing on a Star", and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore". (wikipedia)
• • •
Really liked this grid. The "?"-cluing game was way off today—didn't like any of them, felt like there were too many of them (in the south, anyway), and, well, ECOLI is a weirdly bleak answer to get cheeky with (25A: Cause to recall?)—but the grid itself was chock full of fun stuff. I might be riding a little high on knowing ROSE ROYCE and consequently playing ROSE ROYCE in my head for half of the solve. I wonder how hard this puzzle breaks, difficulty-wise, depending on whether you know who ROSE ROYCE are or not. If you *don't* know it, seems like you'd need virtually every letter from crosses. And since one of those crosses is also a not-necessarily-household name from pop culture (DONAGHY), I can see things getting mucky in there (46D: Jack ___, Alec Baldwin's "30 Rock" role). But when you know the proper names, and crash through them, *and* enjoy them irl, then the solving pleasure factor all of a sudden goes zooom. Not even the horrific-on-every-level YACHTIE could completely eliminate the high I got from the better answers in this grid (43D: Marina frequenter, informally).
It was not easy going at first, though. I thought it was going to be a slog after I made my first pass at the Downs in the NW (which is how I typically approach a grid like this, with long Acrosses up top). That first pass yielded me precisely one solid answer: WES Unseld (5D: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Unseld). So yet again I was a beneficiary of knowing a proper name ... sometimes things just fall your way; I would be very sympathetic to any solver who was like "f*** all these names!"—WES Unseld and ROSE ROYCE are both solid '70s answers, and not everyone remembers / was alive during the '70s. Anyway, not sure WES felt like such a huge get early on, since he was all I had. But then I turned to the long Acrosses up there and EVIL EMPIRE was a gimme (another benefit of being oldish and having lived through a bygone era) (15A: The U.S.S.R., to Reagan). With EVIL EMPIRE in place, the NW got a lot easier. Once I got out of that corner, there weren't many serious hold-ups after that. The NW often feels the hardest to me because that's where I typically start, so I have no toeholds. But looking back now, I think it's actually empirically the hardest, today, EVIL EMPIRE aside. The clues on every Down from 6- to 10- is at least ambiguous if not downright tricky. But once out of there, smooth sailing. Oh, hey, I knew "YAKETY SAX" too, and I'm beginning to realize that my age may have something to do with my sailing (if not yachting) through this (26A: Instrumental that might recall a blooper reel). "YAKETY SAX" is familiar to me from "The Benny Hill Show," which aired ... well, a while ago.
["YAKETY SAX" is the closing credits song]
All these pop culture answers are *right* over the plate for me. There's a boomer/Xer quality to the puzzle. I guess I don't think showing your age (whatever your age is) is a bad thing. This one manages to feel very '70s/'80s without, to me, feeling dreary and bygone in that lazy, crosswordese-ish kind of way. Helps that the grid is clean and not ICKY. I enjoyed seeing PATRIARCHY, which, coming from the NYTXW, has a certain aptness to it, but ... at least today, it's crossing DRUG.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]