Constructor: Nam Jin Yoon
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I'm somehow up at 4am (???) and still solved it with very little trouble, *well* under 10, probably closer to 5)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: FORTY (27D: Beer purchase in a large bottle, informally) —
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Wow, this was excellent. I'm genuinely taken aback by how good this is, especially since I've never seen this constructor's name on a byline before (that I can remember). Talk about making the most of your marquee (8+ answers). Once I hit FAIR'S FAIR I was very much rooting for this puzzle, and then by the time I circled around, through the SW corner, over to PITY PARTY, I was completely won over (with half the puzzle still to go). That is a very nice feeling: to be midway through a puzzle whose quality you are confident of, and to be able to genuinely look forward to finishing off the second half. I struggled a bit more in the SE than I did elsewhere, but that had no effect on how nice I thought that corner was, and then I finished up in the NE, which was just as clean and snappy as the rest of it. A nearly perfect counterclockwise solve, with no anomalously grueling parts and no ugly parts to haunt my memory of the solving experience. If I'm being honest, I think it's the slang clue on FORTY, at the heart of the puzzle, that really let me know I could relax; I was in good hands. This puzzle's sensibility was going to be my kind of thing.
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I'm somehow up at 4am (???) and still solved it with very little trouble, *well* under 10, probably closer to 5)
Word of the Day: FORTY (27D: Beer purchase in a large bottle, informally) —
4or 40, US, informal : a forty-ounce bottle or other container of an alcoholic beverage (such as beer or malt liquor) Kelvin finished his forty in seven or eight long gulps. Tossed the bottle in the median carpeted with brown grass.— Dave Byrne… smoking weed and drinking 40s while her kids run loose.— Jim Schutze (merriam-webster.com)
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How to start a Saturday? Well, 1D: Designates looked like it had to end in an "S" so I wrote that in, then saw the clue on 19A: Originator of parody ads for 5-hour Empathy and Tylenol BM, in brief, and honestly all I needed to read was "parody" to know the answer was SNL. Guessed MEWL (3D: Little cry) and IRON (2D: Shellfish have lots of this) off their last letters right away. Then 15A: "Any interest in doing this?" looked like it was going to start "ARE YOU...?" so I tested the "Y," which led me to a cross-referenced clue at 34A: 4-Down, for CBS ... so obviously the "Y" was in the middle of EYE, which is the CBS LOGO. I think I dropped RUSHERS off just the "U" (6D: Running backs and defensive ends). TOE was easy. TORTOISE fell in line after that (5D: Fabled beneficiary of a nap). The short Downs at the end of the longer answers up there were all pretty easy (VAIN EMT LES), and before I knew it, I had a lovely NW corner all sewn up.
First real challenge came at 29A: Style guide? I had -RESS and figured the answer had something to do with the ... PRESS. I did not take that "P" out for a comparatively looooong time. I was honestly willing to believe there was such a thing as a PRESS CODE. The problem was I had PROPALINE at 29D: Write, and I just couldn't make it make sense. I'm always willing to believe there is a word out there I just haven't heard of, but PROPALINE, yeah, that seemed dubious. Then all at once my one-letter error became clear. Not one-word PROPALINE but three-word DROP A LINE, gah! OK, back to work. SE corner was toughest, as I didn't know what followed SURE at 33D: It can't miss and had trouble getting both GPAS and PRAT. This made getting into that SE corner tricky. I guessed OPT and TRY on those first short Downs with identical clues ([Go (for)]). TRY was wrong, but once I put SHOT after SURE and then wrote in ALA at 51D: Like, the correct "P" from OPT was weirdly enough for me to be able to see PIÑA COLADA, and that pretty much took care of that corner. Finished up in the NE, where there was virtually no resistance. Knowing Donna TARTT very much helped. Made up for not having known Jacky ROSEN in the SW (40D: Nevada senator Jacky). Anyway, done and done and very content. Hurray. Hope you're enjoying your post-Thanksgiving weekend. Cheers.