Hi, everyone! It's Clare — here a week later than normal because of chaos last Monday. Law school classes started that day (all being done virtually), and Zoom had an outage, and my school's main web page crashed multiple times... It was super fun! All in all, I haven't really minded online learning so far; I'm just trying (and, yes, sometimes failing) to not get distracted.
On to the puzzle for today!
Relative difficulty:Easy
THEME: PERSONAL PRONOUNS(52A: Gender identifiers often separated by slashes)— The theme answers are all personal pronouns...
Theme answers:
- SHE / HER(as part of 22A: ARTHUR ASHE and 26A: HERD)
- THEY / THEM (as part of 33A:BUT HEY and 35A: THE MET)
- HE / HIM(as part of 46A:ACHE and 47A:HIMALAYANS)
Word of the Day: BROUHAHA (15A: Hubbub) —
Brouhaha is a French word sometimes used in English to describe an uproar or hubbub, a state of social agitation when a minor incident gets out of control… Typically, a brouhaha is marked by controversy and fuss that can seem, afterwards, to have been pointless or irrational. (Wiki)
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Overall, I thought this puzzle was a pretty good one! I really liked the idea of the theme, and it felt fresh to me, too. The theme was executed very well — the way each set of PERSONAL PRONOUNS was offset by a square in the puzzle instead of a slash was a nice touch.There was a fair amount of junky little stuff in the puzzle, though — possibly as a result of the formatting of the theme. See: ELSA, GPS, KIM, ETA, etc... I know three-letter words are to be expected out of puzzles, but some of these clue/answer combinations felt especially weak to me in an otherwise good puzzle. I especially hate those three-letter words like AHH (22D: Utterance from a hot bath) and OHO (10D: "Looky here!") because it's such a crapshoot: You never really know what combination of letters it's going to be. Having both SIRS (31A: Round Table figures) and SIRI (44A: One always getting asked questions) felt repetitive. Likewise, THE WHO (4D: Roger Daltrey's band) and THE MET (35A: N.Y.C. opera house). And, finally, I really disliked FB POSTS (7D: Social media things that can be liked, informally); that is just not a thing.
With all that being said, I really did like a lot of the words in the puzzle! A puzzle that fits in words like BROUHAHA, MIMOSAS, HIMALAYANS, CHAI LATTE, INTERVIEW, and MYOPIC is a win in my book. I also appreciated the love for Mia HAMM (26D), ROBB Stark (23D), and ARETHA Franklin (8D). And, I thought ARTHUR ASHE (22A) was especially timely, as the U.S. Open is just starting. (My dad has requested that I interject that he interviewed ARTHUR ASHE twice). SALAD (13D) as an introductory course was also fun — I didn't even fall for the intended misdirection by trying to put in something like "torts," my favorite introductory law school course.
Bullets:
With all that being said, I really did like a lot of the words in the puzzle! A puzzle that fits in words like BROUHAHA, MIMOSAS, HIMALAYANS, CHAI LATTE, INTERVIEW, and MYOPIC is a win in my book. I also appreciated the love for Mia HAMM (26D), ROBB Stark (23D), and ARETHA Franklin (8D). And, I thought ARTHUR ASHE (22A) was especially timely, as the U.S. Open is just starting. (My dad has requested that I interject that he interviewed ARTHUR ASHE twice). SALAD (13D) as an introductory course was also fun — I didn't even fall for the intended misdirection by trying to put in something like "torts," my favorite introductory law school course.
Bullets:
- This was the first time I immediately typed out ORCS (10A: Enemies of hobbits) rather than wondering if it was actually spelled "orks." Maybe I've finally turned a corner on this.
- Does anyone even know what HBO Max (30A) really is or what it does? No? Me, neither.
- My knowledge from 5th grade on the capitals comes in handy again for TOPEKA (54A). I really only memorized the capitals then to beat a classmate on the test...
- This puzzle finally taught me who TARA Reid (35D) is. I'd pictured her in my head as a different actress for so long, but I finally Googled her, and I've got it all cleared up now.
- THE MET (35A) threw me at first because I had the first five letters and kept trying to pronounce the answer as "theme"-something: "themer,""themed," etc.
- In case you need a serotonin boost, here is a clip of BTS performing at a recent awards show (where this amazing k-pop group swept the four categories they were nominated for). Also, in case you missed the news, BTS just got their first number 1 ever on the Billboard Hot 100 for their song "Dynamite"! No, this has nothing to do with the puzzle. But, I'm making it my mission to get everyone to love BTS as much as I do. You'll enjoy the happiness boost — trust me.