Constructor: Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau
Relative difficulty: Medium (high 3s)
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THEME: "KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!" (38A: "Be patient!" ... or advice seemingly ignored by 17-, 24-, 52- and 62-Across) — cartoon characters that don't wear pants, largely because they're all animals, but whatever:
Relative difficulty: Medium (high 3s)
Theme answers:
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Garfield doesn't wear pants. Snoopy doesn't wear pants. Huckleberry Hound doesn't wear pants. Snagglepuss doesn't wear pants. Bugs Bunny? Pantsless. Cartoon animals frequently don't wear pants. And now there's a theme about that, for some reason. I guess that since the themers all wear tops of some kind (???) they seem particularly pantsless. Really seems like a phrase as colorful as "KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!" deserves a better theme than this. These aren't even all different animals. I don't know. Cartoons are fun. The revealer phrase on its own is great. But the connection between them here seems really very forced. But honestly this puzzle never stood a chance because of a fill decision I can't believe neither of the constructors, none of the editors or proofers, no one, vetoed: that is, the OUT / OUTLIE crossing. You cannot just straight up cross OUT with OUT. I mean, if "OUT" were part of a word like STOUT, where the letter string had nothing to do with the word OUT, then fine, but OUTLIE is a compound word, and one of its parts is OUT. And that part crosses ... OUT. I wouldn't put OUT and OUTLIE in the same grid *at all*, let alone crossing one another. I'm now scanning the grid to see if LIE is in there somewhere. This feels like Constructing 101 stuff, which is weird, because no one involved in the making of this is a novice. I honestly thought I had an error, but then everything checked out and I didn't know what to do, so I moved on. And yeah, no error. Just OUT crossing OUT...LIE. That's just not good.
- PORKY PIG (17A: Who says "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!")
- SCROOGE MCDUCK (24A: Disney character based on a Dickens character)
- WINNIE THE POOH (52A: "Hunny"-loving A.A. Milne character)
- YOGI BEAR (62A: Jellystone Park "pic-a-nic basket" thief)
The ALDO Group is a Canadian retailer that owns and operates a worldwide chain of shoe and accessories stores. The company was founded by Aldo Bensadoun in Montreal, Quebec, in 1972, where its corporate headquarters remain today. It has grown to become a worldwide corporation, with nearly 3,000 stores across 100 countries, under three retail banners: ALDO, Call It Spring/Spring and GLOBO. Stores in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland are owned by the Group, while international stores are franchised. The company once operated the now closed or rebranded banners Little Burgundy (which it sold to Genesco), Simard & Voyer, Christian Shoes, Access, Pegabo, Transit, Stoneridge, Locale, Feetfirst and FIRST (which was the American version of Feetfirst). (wikipedia) [the word "handbag" doesn't even appear on the wikipedia page, but I'm sure that's just an oversight]
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The longer Downs are OK, a little interesting, I guess, but the rest of the full is average or worse. Having to deal with TORIC and ALIA *and* OOP before ever departing the NW is not a fun way to open things. Why would you put a wacky "?" clue on weak fill like SNARER?? (47D: One catching the game?). You make people have to work for something very anticlimactic—never a good thing. I thought HULU was the streaming giant (15A: Giant in media streaming = ROKU). Needed every cross to get ALDO. No other real struggles, and the fill overall ... it's tolerable. Lots of crosswordese if you start to count it up (OREAD ORA OYE INHD and so on), but the theme answers are bright enough as stand-alone answers, and the long Downs are prominent enough, that the short fill doesn't have much opportunity to make a negative impression. I just thought the theme was a shrug, conceptually, and the OUT / OUTLIE cross was a total dealbreaker.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]