Constructor: John Wrenholt
Relative difficulty: Challenging (nearly 2x avg)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: SCOW (52D: Garbage disposal unit)—
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Having trouble concentrating on the details of the puzzle tonight since a morally rotten and sadistic police culture is currently gleefully bludgeoning unarmed people all over the country but I'll see what I can do. This was very much a Saturday puzzle, which is irritating. It was hard even for a Saturday (for me). I got completely and utterly stuck. Twice. This hardly ever happens, and certainly not on a Friday. The grid looks OK, I guess, but the cluing was irritatingly tough and/or off. Seriously, the whole NW was empty despite my having both lead-in answers (INKBOTTLE and SEAHORSE). I eventually guessed SIC (4D: Editorial insertion), but even then ... I don't associate SAUNAs with skiing, I don't know about skateboard parts (?), AGAIN is absurd (and I *have* a personal trainer...) (14A: Exhortation from a personal trainer). I thought maybe it was DIG IN (??). Yuck to struggle in such a confined space. And I had very similar though slightly less severe issues in the SW, where NSFW is attributed to a ... trailer? (62A: Trailer advisory) ... and the PUSH PIN clue is beyond hard (38D: Colorful spot on a map) and what the actual hell is a POODLE CUT (55A: Hairdo famously sported by Lucille Ball) ("famously"?). The expression HIS NIBS makes my skin crawl (50A: Mr. High-and-Mighty). I can't imagine using it, I hate hearing it, and I don't think I even know what it means, really. SCOW clue, superhard. The recycling code (??) for STEEL. I just couldn't follow any of this. Whatever sense of fun or entertainment the clue writers had, I did not share. I liked TRAIL BOSS and very little else about this thing (11D: Cattle drive leader).
THREE DOG on its own is idiotic (45A: Like a very cold night, idiomatically). Also, literally no one calls a "cold night" that. No! It's a band. THREE DOG ... just sitting there ... on its own. That's nonsense. BEAR is a [Direction word] sure I guess in the sense that if you give someone directions you might tell them to "BEAR right" but ugh over and over with this Trying Too Hard to be hard instead of fun. That "seasonal rut" clue on STAG, same issue. AIRALERT meant nothing to me. DEMOLITIONIST fit in BALLOON ARTIST's spot (37A: One whose work is always blowing up?). FOGY looks so dumb in print, my god. I thought it was an -IE word but FOGIE ... also looks kinda dumb. Had FRONT LAWN before FRONT YARD, so that (really) hurt (18A: Spot for a campaign sign). LHASA crossing DHAKA? A miniature crosswordese geography conference, cool (not cool). The grid design is part of the problem. When you try to make a grid with lots of short stuff difficult, ugh, disaster. It's a 70-worder but it feels much higher because of the choppiness of the grid and the attendant flood of 3-4-5-letter answers. I guarantee you I finish the Saturday puzzle faster than this (it's a Doug Peterson puzzle, I hear, so I know it will be good...)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging (nearly 2x avg)
Word of the Day: SCOW (52D: Garbage disposal unit)—
: a large flat-bottomed boat with broad square ends used chiefly for transporting bulk material (such as ore, sand, or refuse) (merriam-webster.com)
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THREE DOG on its own is idiotic (45A: Like a very cold night, idiomatically). Also, literally no one calls a "cold night" that. No! It's a band. THREE DOG ... just sitting there ... on its own. That's nonsense. BEAR is a [Direction word] sure I guess in the sense that if you give someone directions you might tell them to "BEAR right" but ugh over and over with this Trying Too Hard to be hard instead of fun. That "seasonal rut" clue on STAG, same issue. AIRALERT meant nothing to me. DEMOLITIONIST fit in BALLOON ARTIST's spot (37A: One whose work is always blowing up?). FOGY looks so dumb in print, my god. I thought it was an -IE word but FOGIE ... also looks kinda dumb. Had FRONT LAWN before FRONT YARD, so that (really) hurt (18A: Spot for a campaign sign). LHASA crossing DHAKA? A miniature crosswordese geography conference, cool (not cool). The grid design is part of the problem. When you try to make a grid with lots of short stuff difficult, ugh, disaster. It's a 70-worder but it feels much higher because of the choppiness of the grid and the attendant flood of 3-4-5-letter answers. I guarantee you I finish the Saturday puzzle faster than this (it's a Doug Peterson puzzle, I hear, so I know it will be good...)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]