Constructor: Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (a bleary-eyed 4 minutes, first thing in the a.m.)
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THEME: SOCIAL CAPITAL (54A: Network of personal relationships ... or a punny hint to 3-, 7- and 11-Down) — themers are all phrases where first part (verb) is an action one might perform on "social" media and second part (noun) is a form of $$$ (or "capital"):
Theme answers:
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Good morning and happy July. I am solving / writing early in the morning for the first time in a long time. Once we got the kitten (mid-May), going to sleep early became nearly impossible, as his nighttime routine involved being a terrorist until well after 10pm (and then sleeping very peacefully in a very large dog crate next to our bed for the whole night). In short, I could not just crash out in bed when tired because he is still very much a kitten and will attack all of your parts relentlessly if he is awake and not properly distracted. Sooooooo ... I've been writing at night while P puts the cat through his go-to-bed routine, and then sleeping "in" (which, for me, is ~7am). But last night I finally cracked; just couldn't make it to puzzle time, couldn't imagine being clear-headed enough to write. So I passed out on the couch, then went to bed after cat and wife were zonked, THEN woke up at 4am anticipating my alarm going off (man, that dawn chorus of birds starts Early), then lay there half awake until 5ish. It's now 5:34. You actually didn't need to know any of this. The main point is that I adore my kitty but also am kinda looking forward to the day when he is a giant slug of a cat who will let me just fall asleep at night (if he wants to wake me at 5am for food, that's fine, it's the Getting to sleep that's the issue). He may end up sleeping in his own room very soon. My sister keeps her kitty downstairs in her own room. But OK, right, this is a puzzle blog. Puzzle!
I like the unusualness of this one. The grid shape was weird in a cool way, and despite the choppy grid with lots of short stuff, it often felt (in a good way) like a themeless. The upper middle was by far my favorite part, with WIPER BLADES (29A: They go back and forth in bad weather) crossing ARENA ROCK (6D: Style of music for Pat Benatar or Bon Jovi) and ON THE LINE (8D: At risk). As for the theme, it definitely works, even if it isn't a theme that's going to delight *me* in particular. Financial stuff just leaves me cold, and also the whole revealer didn't land right. Didn't aha me. I had to think about it and then rule in its favor, which is a whole different mental process and feeling. The revealer should be les mots justes, bam, nailed it. This one ... I didn't really like the clue on the revealer, since your "network" of "personal relationships" is, of course, your "social network" (a very snappy phrase—also the title of a movie ... a movie about social media, it turns out). SOCIAL CAPITAL is a fine phrase, but I don't think of it as your network per se. It's something bigger and more ineffable. It's clout, not the contents of your rolodex (omg I wish rolodexes were still a thing, the way I wish pay phones were still a thing ... I watch a lot of old movies). I think it's the uncountable noun "capital" that's throwing me. Anyway, it's all technically defensible. I told you financial stuff just leaves me cold.
There's some junk in the grid but not much, and I didn't get too hung up on it, which is really key if you need to put junk in your grid (and sometimes you do). EAPOE, for instance—an abbr. I despise, but it was easy (53A: "The Pit and the Pendulum" author, in brief). Slammed right through it, no time to brood on its regrettability or make a sad WAH WAH sound in its honor. It helped to know your crosswordese names like EVEL TAYE GOA OCHOA not to mention OTTO and RHEA. And then stalwarts like OKAPI LOOIE SRO ERE OXEYE EASYA IOTA RAE STYE ... it is to the puzzle's credit that these answers are all rendered fairly unobtrusive, so that the longer answers can shine. Only trouble for me today was right out of the gate, with GIFS for PDFS (1A: JPEG alternatives), and then a bizarre struggle just to see LOOT (14A: What might be taken away in a getaway). Sometimes I struggle for what, in retrospect, is no good reason at all. After that, the puzzle actually felt Very easy except for the NOURI / MARTA crossing, which is *kinda* harrowing. I will never remember MARTA (51A: Atlanta's public transport system). Thank goodness NOURI's name has somehow sorta stuck. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (a bleary-eyed 4 minutes, first thing in the a.m.)
Theme answers:
- FOLLOWS THE MONEY (3D: Joins a Federal Reserve Facebook group?)
- POSTS BOND (7D: Uploads a photo of a government security?)
- SHARES THE WEALTH (11D: Retweets a photo of the U.S. gold repository?)
Michael Nouri (born December 9, 1945) is an American television and film actor. His father, Edmond Nouri was born in Iraq.He may be best known for his role as Nick Hurley in the 1983 film Flashdance.[1] He has had recurring roles in numerous television series, including NCIS as Eli David, the father of Mossad officer (later Special Agent) Ziva David, The O.C. as Dr. Neil Roberts, and Damages as Phil Grey. He also appeared as Congressman Stewart with Queen Latifah in the 2006 comedy movie Last Holiday and LAPD Detective Thomas Beck in the science fiction action film The Hidden. He also starred opposite Julie Andrews as King Marchand in the 1995 Broadway adaptation of Victor/Victoria. (wikipedia)
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I like the unusualness of this one. The grid shape was weird in a cool way, and despite the choppy grid with lots of short stuff, it often felt (in a good way) like a themeless. The upper middle was by far my favorite part, with WIPER BLADES (29A: They go back and forth in bad weather) crossing ARENA ROCK (6D: Style of music for Pat Benatar or Bon Jovi) and ON THE LINE (8D: At risk). As for the theme, it definitely works, even if it isn't a theme that's going to delight *me* in particular. Financial stuff just leaves me cold, and also the whole revealer didn't land right. Didn't aha me. I had to think about it and then rule in its favor, which is a whole different mental process and feeling. The revealer should be les mots justes, bam, nailed it. This one ... I didn't really like the clue on the revealer, since your "network" of "personal relationships" is, of course, your "social network" (a very snappy phrase—also the title of a movie ... a movie about social media, it turns out). SOCIAL CAPITAL is a fine phrase, but I don't think of it as your network per se. It's something bigger and more ineffable. It's clout, not the contents of your rolodex (omg I wish rolodexes were still a thing, the way I wish pay phones were still a thing ... I watch a lot of old movies). I think it's the uncountable noun "capital" that's throwing me. Anyway, it's all technically defensible. I told you financial stuff just leaves me cold.
There's some junk in the grid but not much, and I didn't get too hung up on it, which is really key if you need to put junk in your grid (and sometimes you do). EAPOE, for instance—an abbr. I despise, but it was easy (53A: "The Pit and the Pendulum" author, in brief). Slammed right through it, no time to brood on its regrettability or make a sad WAH WAH sound in its honor. It helped to know your crosswordese names like EVEL TAYE GOA OCHOA not to mention OTTO and RHEA. And then stalwarts like OKAPI LOOIE SRO ERE OXEYE EASYA IOTA RAE STYE ... it is to the puzzle's credit that these answers are all rendered fairly unobtrusive, so that the longer answers can shine. Only trouble for me today was right out of the gate, with GIFS for PDFS (1A: JPEG alternatives), and then a bizarre struggle just to see LOOT (14A: What might be taken away in a getaway). Sometimes I struggle for what, in retrospect, is no good reason at all. After that, the puzzle actually felt Very easy except for the NOURI / MARTA crossing, which is *kinda* harrowing. I will never remember MARTA (51A: Atlanta's public transport system). Thank goodness NOURI's name has somehow sorta stuck. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]