Constructor: Kyle Dolan
Relative difficulty: Easy (2:39) (I felt way slower than that, so I have no idea what happened)
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THEME: BAIT to BOOT vowel-sound progression— last words of themers move through all the long vowel sounds:
Theme answers:
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Very tired tonight, so this will have to be quick. Vowel progression puzzles can be fun. I published one a while back. The answers have to be entertaining in their own right, as well as follow the pattern. Otherwise, you're just marching through a progression ... why? This set of themers is strong. I don't think the fill in general is that strong, but the themers are pretty crisp. None of them feel limp or dull and a couple of them (CLICKBAIT, PARTY BOAT) really crackle. And that's really all it takes on a Monday: a coherent set of themers that have a little bounce, and then a grid that isn't a total wipeout. This one has weak spots (ESA RETAGS LEN REN ELO CAF KAA ANO etc.) but only KAA really bummed me out (it's a crosswordesey proper name I have trouble remembering) (63D: "The Jungle Book" python). Because it's Monday, I didn't really have time to get bummed out by anything. Corners felt big, and I did not feel like I was making good time, but 2:39 is definitely good time for me on a Monday. I altered (slightly) the way I moved through the grid at the beginning, getting BEAR immediately followed by ALIKE at the top of the grid and then working straight through the Down crosses instead of solving the whole BEAR section and then solving in a continuous flow over to ALIKE's section. There's something about plowing through the Downs in order that really moves things along, and up top is where you can do that the easiest / fastest.
SW corner probably had the most snags for me, as SOFALEG was tough to come up with (47A: Furniture part that might leave a mark on a floor), as were PARTY BOAT and AFROPOP, to a lesser extent (41D: Genre for the Nigerian singer Wizkid). I am always really bad at guessing what kind of music genre the puzzle wants from me. EUROPOP TEENPOP EMOROCK ALTFOLK etc. Once I got the first and last letters of AFROPOP (I went MALES MOANERS ASPEN...), the answer was clear, but I've never actually heard of Wizkid until right now. Outside of that corner, nothing but KAA was remotely troubling. This was a light snack of a puzzle. Reasonably tasty.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (2:39) (I felt way slower than that, so I have no idea what happened)
THEME: BAIT to BOOT vowel-sound progression— last words of themers move through all the long vowel sounds:
Theme answers:
- CLICKBAIT (17A: Enticing weblinks that suck people in)
- TIGER BEAT (25A: Teen magazine founded in 1965)
- FROSTBITE (37A: Hazard of being outside in the cold for a long time)
- PARTY BOAT (52A: Place for a blast offshore)
- ANKLE BOOT (62A: Footwear that extends a little above the foot)
The hectare (/ˈhɛktɛər, -tɑːr/; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is about 0.405 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres. (wikipedia)
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SW corner probably had the most snags for me, as SOFALEG was tough to come up with (47A: Furniture part that might leave a mark on a floor), as were PARTY BOAT and AFROPOP, to a lesser extent (41D: Genre for the Nigerian singer Wizkid). I am always really bad at guessing what kind of music genre the puzzle wants from me. EUROPOP TEENPOP EMOROCK ALTFOLK etc. Once I got the first and last letters of AFROPOP (I went MALES MOANERS ASPEN...), the answer was clear, but I've never actually heard of Wizkid until right now. Outside of that corner, nothing but KAA was remotely troubling. This was a light snack of a puzzle. Reasonably tasty.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]