Constructor: Kyle Dolan
Relative difficulty: Medium (3:40)
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THEME: GROW A SPINE (61A: "Show some courage!" ... as this puzzle's theme can do?) — last word in first themer is "I," and each subsequent themer adds one letter to its last word (through PI, PIN, SPIN) until you end up "growing" the word "SPINE" at the end of the last themer (which is also the revealer):
Theme answers:
The editor's love affair with the grimly adequate puzzle continues. The theme does what it says it does, in its literal, punny way. The fill, outside the themers, is loaded with your typical short stuff, occasionally tiresome (ENID, ETAS, SRA, EYRE crossing AYE) but completely standard. There are some midrange highlights in "OH, GREAT" and the full-named B.B. KING (my fav answer of the day, actually) (42D: Blues legend with the hit "The Thrill Is Gone"). LAUGH LINE would be fine, except they never come in the singular, only the plural, so the lone line is awkward (34D: Facial wrinkle suggesting a jovial spirit). But all I could think about at the end of this puzzle was how awful two answers were: LATERGRAM (3D: Photo posted days or weeks after it was taken, on social media) and PEDS (as clued). I'm a constant user of social media and this is literally the first I'm hearing of this incredibly dumb term LATERGRAM. What does it rhyme with? Not "Instagram," that's for sure. I've heard of other Insta-related slang, like FINSTA (your "fake Insta" account); FINSTA makes sense to me, on multiple levels. This ... doesn't. What kind of horrible purchased word list did that come from? People post pictures they took days / weeks ago all the time. They're just pictures. Posts. The idea that you would have to invent this dumb name for them ... yikes. Admittedly, I don't use Instagram, which belongs to Facebook, which is a truly vile perpetrator of disinformation and abettor of violence. Deleted my Instagram account last year, and never really found any use for it while I had it. LATERGRAM ... phew, dumb.
Relative difficulty: Medium (3:40)
Theme answers:
- MOTHER MAY I (16A: Cousin of Simon Says)
- "LIFE OF PI" (24A: 2012 Ang Lee film set largely at sea)
- HAIR PIN (38A: Support for an updo)
- BACK SPIN (49A: What a chop shot imparts)
- GROW A SPINE
Punjab (Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬ; Shahmukhi: پنجاب; /pʌnˈdʒɑːb/, /-ˈdʒæb/; /ˈpʌndʒɑːb/, /-dʒæb/; Punjabi: [pənˈdʒaːb] (listen); also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb)[a] is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. The boundaries of the region are ill-defined and focus on historical accounts.
The geographical definition of the term "Punjab" has changed over time. In the 16th century Mughal Empire it referred to a relatively smaller area between the Indus and the Sutlej rivers.[2] In British India, until the Partition of India in 1947, the Punjab Provinceencompassed the present-day Indian states and union territories of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi and the Pakistani regions of Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory. It bordered the Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwaregions to the west, Kashmir to the north, the Hindi Belt to the east, and Rajasthan and Sindh to the south.
The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis, and their primary language is Punjabi. The main religion of the Pakistani Punjab region is Islam. The two main religions of the Indian Punjab region are Sikhism and Hinduism. (wikipedia)
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| growing a spine tower |
And as for PEDS. My dad was a physician, my mom was a nurse, my stepmom was a nurse, my sister is a nurse, I have pediatrician friends ... I've just never, ever, ever heard this term (this bad fill, normally clued in re: pedestrians) as slang for kids' meds. How do people not get confused using such bad slang? Why do you need different slang for *kid* meds as opp. to adult meds. Do they call old people's meds GEDS? (geriatric ... meds)? Look, you put PEDS in the grid, it's bad, just own it, embrace it. Don't try to shoehorn some slang in here to gussy it up. It stinks.
There's nothing much else here to comment on. The only sticking points for me were LATERGRAM and CAKEPOP / PEDS. The rest just kinda filled itself in. I did struggle briefly with COT, as I was thinking of "extra" as some kind of nice amenity, not a sad barracks-like thing they roll in so your kid doesn't have to sleep on the floor. That's all. Enjoy your Tuesday.
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]