Constructor: Colin Ernst
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:19)
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THEME: "[verb] YOUR [article of clothing]" — idioms in the imperative voice that follow this pattern:
Theme answers:
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Quick write-up this evening. Not much going on here. There's a kind of unity, in that all the phrases are 15-letters long and all are in the imperative voice and all have YOUR in them and all involve an article of clothing. And yet KEEP and HANG ON TO, being precise synonyms, set up a pattern that the last themer, which begins TIGHTEN, breaks. You end up with the last themer feeling like a clunky outlier. Retain an article of clothing, retain an article of clothing, and then ... merely cinch up ... an article of clothing. It's a weirdly deflating climax. With this little theme pressure, the fill should be much Much better than it is. It's not bad, but this is about the easiest-to-fill grid that you're ever going to see. Only three themers, and since they're 15s, there's no pesky black squares hanging off the ends, complicating your grid-building (hard to explain in brief, but 15s are Really easy to deal with for this reason ... unless you stack them ... but I digress). There should be more long fill in a grid this simple, and certainly there should be sparklier fill. FRIVOLOUS and MONOLITHS are fine, but they're all there is today, interest-wise. Everything else is in the 3-to-6-letter range, and even for 3-to-6-letter fill it's pretty pale stuff. There's no way we should be dealing with obscure-ish, crosswordesey stuff like MERL in a grid that's this easy to fill (7D: Old World blackbird). Actually, if you'd wanted to use crossword constructing legend MERL Reagle as the clue, my objection wouldn't be so strenuous, though even that should be reserved for a later-in-the-week puzzle. Fill is flat and stale overall.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:19)
Theme answers:
- KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON (17A: Stay cool)
- HANG ON TO YOUR HAT (37A: Get ready for something amazing)
- TIGHTEN YOUR BELT (58A: Don't spend so much money)
Flora (Latin: Flōra) is a Roman goddess of flowers and of the season of spring – a symbol for nature and flowers (especially the may-flower). While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime, as did her role as goddess of youth.[3] She was one of the fifteen deities who had their own flamen, the Floralis, one of the flamines minores. Her Greek counterpart is Chloris. (wikipedia)
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Only struggle was in the center, where ... what in the world is going on with that FLORA clue? She's goddess of the spring!? Clue doesn't even bother mentioning that it's a *Roman* goddess, first of all. We're just supposed to know? Or assume? Second, five-letter goddesses ... I wanted CERES and (for some reason) VESTA before FLORA, because I never wanted FLORA, because I didn't actually know she *was* a goddess, because she's so minor that even the first paragraph of her wikipedia page mentions how minor she is. Also, FLORA is just a regular word. Goes with FAUNA. The whole FLORA thing is from outer space, especially when compared to every other straightforward clue in this puzzle.
I also had OWNS before OFFS (not sure what my brain was doing there) (29A: Slays, in gang talk) and had no idea what "swoooosh" was supposed to sound like at 34A: What a "swoooosh" sound may signal is on its way (EMAIL). So I stumbled through that center part, but beyond that, only BENDS (65A: Doesn't follow to the letter, as rules) and an -ER v. -RE hesitation at 53D: Cavalry weapon caused me even a moment's trouble. Oh, and the clue on ENSURE forced me to ponder a bit (51A: Nutritional drink brand). Somehow "Nutritional" was far too vague, did not quite capture ... whatever it is that ENSURE is. There's just not much here: not much good, not much bad, not much hard. Don't think anything really needs explaining. "?" clues are corny but not thorny. I'm gonna go spend some time with Dickens now. Good day.