Constructor: Adam Fromm
Relative difficulty: Medium? (don't know, had to slow down and fuss with rebus squares—couldn't remember the exact keystroke pattern I needed—so my time ended up in the 7s but it probably should've been in the 6s)
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THEME: TOUCH TONE PHONES (37A: Products since the 1960s ... on which you can see five "key" things depicted in this puzzle) — rebus squares contain a number (for the Down answer) and the letter string associated with that number on a touch tone keypad (for the Across)
Relative difficulty: Medium? (don't know, had to slow down and fuss with rebus squares—couldn't remember the exact keystroke pattern I needed—so my time ended up in the 7s but it probably should've been in the 6s)
Theme answers:
- GRAB CONTROL / IN 2 (17A: Stage a coup / 3D: Bisected)
- DEFLATE / 3 DOG NIGHT (9A: Let the air out of / 9D: Band with the 1970 #1 hit "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)")
- GENGHIS / CONNECT 4 (64A: First name of a famous Mongol ruler / 38D: Classic checker-dropping game)
- FILM NOIR / 6ERS (52A: Genre of "The Big Sleep" and "Kiss Me Deadly" / 55D: Dr. J's team)
- TUVALU / 8 TRACK (46A: Coral island nation north of Fiji / 46D: Cassette tape predecessor)
Word of the Day: ARGOS (23D: City of the Peloponnese) —
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TOUCH TONE PHONES! You know ... for the kids. I think this would've been much cooler in a Sunday-size grid with the keys roughly where they're supposed to be (the keypad is a *grid* after all). Also, a larger grid probably would've allowed for more interesting long theme answers. As is, this was a bit of a grind—a bit of effort to figure out what the hell was going on, and then just that extended minefield feeling as you move semi-carefully through the grid trying to dig up the next rebus square before it destroys you. As usual, getting started was the hard part. Got IN (TWO) easily, but then had no idea what the (TWO) was supposed to be doing in the Across, even when I had most of it. I think I actually got the DEF square first, *then* the revealer, *then* was able to fill in the ABC part of GRAB CONTROL. Because ABC and DEF appeared in succession (reading L to R across the top of the grid), I made the reasonable assumption that these rebus "buttons" were going to appear in order. But no. Almost, though, I guess. ABC DEF GHI and MNO appear in successive quadrants, but then you get that weird TUV crammed in there in this strange position; that one was by far the hardest of the keys to turn up, first because it took me a while to remember that 8 TRACKs ever existed and then because I couldn't remember the country name and sorta had to run the alphabet to figure out what letter string could go there. TUVALU sprang to mind, but for some reason felt wrong. But it wasn't. The end.
Argos (/ˈɑːrɡɒs, -ɡəs/; Greek: Άργος [ˈarɣos]; Ancient Greek: Ἄργος [árɡos]) is a city in Argolis, the Peloponnese, Greece and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the largest city in Argolis and a major center for the area.Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 138.138 km2. It is 11 kilometres (7 miles) from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour. A settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7,000 years.– The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.
A resident of the city of Argos is known as an Argive (/ˈɑːrɡaɪv/ AR-ghyve, /-dʒaɪv/-jyve; Greek: Ἀργεῖος). However, this term is also used to refer to those ancient Greeks generally who assaulted the city of Troy during the Trojan War; the term is more widely applied by the Homeric bards. (wikipedia)
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Some notes on the fill ... TWEENAGER, still not a thing. At all. You call them TWEENs if you must call them a demographic name. Literally never heard anyone use TWEENAGER, which feels like a word someone invented under the assumption that it must have predated the shortened TWEEN. Blargh. Drop it from your wordlists, it's superdumb. Also, how have you not dropped UNPC from your wordlist by now. It's such a bigoted concept. You're offensive. You want to call yourself UNPC because you imagine yourself some kind of free-speech hero, but you're just a run-of-the-mill asshole. The whole "PC" thing is a self-exonerating defensive lie. Stop. The proper names today were weirdly obscure, almost as if they were designed to make many solvers just have to infer Some kind of name from crosses. I had to do this inferring four different times. For character names (MIA, MARGE), and for some "Funny Girl" song (SADIE) (22A: Titular "married lady" in a "Funny Girl" song) and for the real name of a person not-at-all known by her real name? (NORA) (15A: ___ Lum, a.k.a. actress/comedian Awkwafina). Luckily, the crosses were easy enough to make all the names gettable, but yikes. Some hoary crosswordese in this one (NAE, ENLAI). Oh and a note on ENG(lish). The clue [Grade school subj.] is absurd, as it's also a high school subj. and a university subj., a grad school subj. Hell, I will be teaching two ENG. courses later *today*. The clue [Grade school subj.] is fine for SCI., as in grade school you haven't moved onto specific science courses yet. But for ENG. ... it's not wrong, obviously, but it's misleadingly specific.