Constructor: Gary Larson
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:16)
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THEME:"Pi R Squared"— "PI R" appears in ... squares ... several times :/
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Theme answers:
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Wow, this really needed ... something. Something ... else. Something besides a relentless succession of randomly-placed PIRs.Not sure how you do something like this, on a Sunday, with all that real estate, and somehow *don't* incorporate a circle into the mix somehow. At a minimum, the PIR squares should be laid out in a way where they form a circle, or ... I don't know, *something*! Also, the title is just "uh, here's the gimmick, we're just gonna put it in the title because we have no ideas, yeah it's dumb and unimaginative, whaddyagonnadoabout it?" Some of the themers would be perfectly fine, good even, as stand-alone answers, but as a Sunday theme concept, this PIR-square stuff is pretty weak. Took a while for me to figure out the gimmick, largely because I didn't look at the title first. Ran into the theme at RESPIRATORY system, when I had a few seconds of "wait ... it's spelled RESPATORY??! ... am I being Punk'd?" followed by "ohhhhhhhh, ok." And then it was just PIR after PIR after PIR after PIR. I looked at the title when I got PIR because I had no idea why you would rebus those letters, which look stupid in a square all by themselves. I figured maybe there was some meta-puzzle going on where all the rebus squares were going to spell out some message. But nope, PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR, that's the message, enjoy.
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:16)
Theme answers:
- CONSPIRACY THEORY / EMPIRE STATE
- PUMP IRON / PIRATE'S BOOTY
- VAMPIRE BAT / SPIRE
- RESPIRATORY SYSTEM / PIROUETTES
- SPIRO AGNEW / SPIRIT
- TAPIRS / AWE-INSPIRING
- MISSISSIPPI RIVER / BABY ASPIRIN
Margo Rae Price (born April 15, 1983) is an American country singer-songwriter and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Fader has called her "country's next star." Her debut solo album Midwest Farmer's Daughter was released on Third Man Records on March 25, 2016.[8][9] The album was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, and was engineered by Matt Ross-Spang. The album was recorded in three days. On tour, she is backed by her band the Pricetags.
In December 2018, Price received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. (wikipedia)
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Not much trouble today, difficulty-wise ... speed was impeded almost entirely by finding and then entering the rebus squares (lots of extra keystrokes). There were a few hesitations, but that's about it. I think I get BITMAP confused with SITEMAP (?) so though I wanted BITMAP, I had to leave the last three letters blank because I just didn't trust myself (107A: Computer image format). Wasn't entirely sure if Lily ALLEN was -EN or -AN (also, haven't thought about her in like a decade, so it took me a few beats just to retrieve her name) (20A: British pop singer Lily). I have listened to MARGO Price a bunch and still had no idea who [Country singer Price] was until I had MARG-. I don't really slot her as a country singer, though I guess she's got some Venn-diagram overlap with that genre, sure. I had OPA before OMA (both of them answers I would be happy never to see again ... OPA being the male equivalent of OMA) (114D: German granny). Last thing in the grid was TOY (104A: Kiddy litter?), which I honestly didn't understand at all ... I'm not entirely sure I get it now. I think the idea is that children, i.e. kiddies, leave their TOYs everywhere, i.e. litter the ground ... with them. The issue is that a TOY is a word for small breeds of dogs and "litter" is a group of puppies and between that and the "kitty litter" homophone, I assumed the whole thing was pet-related, maybe. Pfffft. All that confusion for three dumb squares. Two long RE-answers is one two many (REIGNITE, REENGAGE). What is a REE Drummond??? (125D: Food writer/TV personality ___ Drummond). Oh ... "The Pioneer Woman," whose actual name isn't even REE. Mkay. If you think this makes it OK for you to put REE in your grid, please, I beg of you, think again. ENO ONO ONEG ONEL ORO, this write-up is Over.