Constructor: Amanda Rafkin
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:29)
![]()
THEME: WIN-WIN SITUATION (57A: Circumstance that's good for everyone ... with a hint to 17-, 25- and 44-Across) — themers have the letter string "WIN" inside them twice:
Theme answers:
![]()
Gotta be brief today. Exhausted. Also, either my wife or I seem to have bumped one of the dials on the stove before we went upstairs to sleep (in her case) or solve (in mine) because after I finished the puzzle I printed it out on the downstairs printer and as soon as I opened my office door I could smell gas. Ran downstairs to find the knob clicked (barely) on. So now it's all I can smell and it's making me sick. Windows open, ceiling fans going ... it's just still in my nostrils. Awful. Also exhausted because my cat got neutered today and his post-op has been ... interesting. He has zero chill so of course immediately he's jumping onto counters and chasing imaginary things and well long story short, blood, blood, blood. Not that much, actually, but a little blood looks like a horror movie, frankly. So back to the vet, ice, cone of sadness, and now a very unhappy cat in confinement for 24 hours. Oh, and somewhere in there I baked a chocolate cake. For my wife's birthday (Wednesday). I suppose I could've spent this paragraph actually talking about the puzzle, and then the write-up could've been less brief, but that's not what my fingers wanted to do, man.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:29)
Theme answers:
- "BLOWIN' IN THE WIND" (17A: Bob Dylan song that was a #2 hit for Peter, Paul & Mary)
- KNOWING WINK (25A: Sly signal)
- TOWING WINCH (44A: Device for pulling a vehicle)
Jule Styne (/ˈdʒuːli staɪn/; born Julius Kerwin Stein, December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was a British-American song writer and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl. (wikipedia)
• • •
Happy to see the Monday puzzle. Better late than never. No idea what that thing was yesterday, but this puzzle reassures me that someone out there can still make a competent Monday-type puzzle, so I look forward to things being back to normal next week. In the meantime, yes, this theme is just fine. Revealer is original and themers express it well. Not sure how I feel about *all* of the first words in the themers being present participles, but ... no, actually I do know how I feel, which is I don't care that much. A little more variety in word type might've been nice, but it's a pretty restrictive theme. The fill is the fill—bit of a YAWN, listing toward olden (STYNE, BWANA ... ELD) and clunky (ONEBC, NOSTEP, YOS). I had most of my trouble in and around ONEBC, where I had two crosses wrong (one from HIS instead of YOS, the other from BLOTS instead of BLOBS). Also couldn't remember STYNE's name at first. Otherwise, very easy overall. OK, that's it. See you tomorrow.
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]