Constructor: Byron Walden
Relative difficulty: Medium, leaning Medium-Challenging (?) (untimed, but with all those longer answer, I dunno, it felt like it played a little bit slower than usual)
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THEME: REC CENTER (33D: Community sports facility ... or a hint to the answers to the five starred clues) — themers are phrases that all have the letter string "REC" sitting dead center:
Theme answers:
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Ironically, not dreck! Thought this one was really NIFTY. The meaning of the revealer is precise (those RECs are very much in the CENTER of their respective answers) and the arrangement of the long themers in a relatively intricate interlock pattern (with every themer intersecting at least *two* others) makes this puzzle that rare feat: an architectural achievement that is also a pleasure to solve. While the themers aren't always scintillating, they hold up fine, and since the requirements for inclusion in the theme set are so narrow (needing REC at the center and needing to cross two other themers at exactly the right letters), it's slightly surprising the themers hold up as well as they do. I found the puzzle a little tougher than usual largely because I had trouble finishing off the long themers. Got SOFTWARE, couldn't finish it off without crosses. Got FORECLOSURE, couldn't finish it off without crosses. The question "WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?" seems very much the right phrase and yet my brain fumbled with it for a bit. But these were all very small hangups. The difficulty level felt more or less appropriate for a Tuesday. Nice to have a Tuesday (i.e. an "easy") grid that has so many interesting longer answers. There's a lot of your typical 3-to-5-letter stuff, but it's mostly clean and you don't really notice it. The theme is the attention-grabber, and when your theme is successful, the rest of the puzzle simply has to not fall on its face. Mission Accomplished.
Relative difficulty: Medium, leaning Medium-Challenging (?) (untimed, but with all those longer answer, I dunno, it felt like it played a little bit slower than usual)
THEME: REC CENTER (33D: Community sports facility ... or a hint to the answers to the five starred clues) — themers are phrases that all have the letter string "REC" sitting dead center:
Theme answers:
- SOFTWARE COMPANY (17A: *Many a Silicon Valley business)
- HOME FORECLOSURE (39A: *Devastating event in a real estate bust)
- "WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?" (61A: *Question suggesting "That just about sums things up")
- IMPRECISE (10D: *Like a guesstimate, by nature)
- PRESSURE COOKERS (7D: *Highly stressful situations, metaphorically)
: to stop, check, or hinder by or as if by enclosing with bars: such as
• • •
Weirdly, the toughest answer for me today was CHANGETO (5D: Replace with). Something about the verb-preposition arrangement was so unexpected that even when it was clear that the first word was CHANGE, I wasn't quite sure what the next two letters were going to be (?). CHANGETO sounds like the arch-nemesis of "X-Men" villain Magneto. Although if CHANGETO is made entirely of change, i.e. coins, seems like Magneto might have an advantage, but only if the coins were magnetic, like the 1943 steel cent, and certain UK coins. Against ordinary US pocket change, Magneto would be powerless. CHANGETO! Copyright Rex Parker 2020! Moving on: EMBAR, yikes (16A: Put a stop to). I had the "E" and confidently wrote in ENDED. I made EMBAR the Word of the Day today, and you will notice that the three definitions Merriam-Webster.com provides begin "obsolete""archaic""obsolete," respectively. This suggests to me that no one should use this word ever. Never ever. Unless you are writing a novel about the past, or about a fellow who likes to sound smart but isn't. I could've also done without the prosperity-gospel huckster (not naming him, ultra-wealthy televangelists can rot). College football is the least interesting thing on the planet to me, sports-wise, so GINO ... well, I know I've heard the name, but I had to get the top half to guess the bottom (26D: Heisman winner Torretta). I had no idea LAGOS was the most populous city in Africa (23A: Africa's most populous city (21+ million)). Really wanted CAIRO there at first (population a mere 20.9M). Oh, I just noticed RCAS, which is unfortunate, as I never saw it while solving, and it's easily the worst thing in the grid. I'm going to go try to forget about it now. Puzzle: good. 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]