Constructor: Daniel GrinbergRelative difficulty: Medium (normal easy Monday)
THEME: "FIRESTARTER" (58A: 1980 Stephen King novel ... or a hint to the beginnings of 17-, 29- and 45-Across) — themers all start with things that start fires:
Theme answers:- MATCHBOX CAR (17A: Collectible toy vehicle
- FLINT, MICHIGAN (29A: Birthplace of General Motors)
- TINDER PROFILE (45A: Certain online dating bio)
Word of the Day: LEDS (
27A: Energy-efficient illumination sources, for short) —
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photons) is determined by the energy required for electrons to cross the band gap of the semiconductor. White light is obtained by using multiple semiconductors or a layer of light-emitting phosphor on the semiconductor device.
Appearing as practical electronic components in 1962, the earliest LEDs emitted low-intensity infrared(IR) light. Infrared LEDs are used in remote-control circuits, such as those used with a wide variety of consumer electronics. The first visible-light LEDs were of low intensity and limited to red. Modern LEDs are available across the visible, ultraviolet (UV), and infrared wavelengths, with high light output. (wikipedia)
• • •
Yes, those all start fires, and they all start answers, so there you are: theme. It works just fine. Would've been nice if you could've steered the themers away from the fire-starting meaning a little bit more. Hard to do with TINDER, so
TINDER PROFILE seems like the best you can do there, even though the app is named that for fire-related reasons, for sure. It's metaphorical, obviously, but still. This is the logo:
So I'm not mad at that answer; in fact, it's probably the most interesting of the bunch.
FLINT, MICHIGAN is also probably the best you're gonna do for FLINT. But the MATCH answer ... feels like you coulda steered harder away from the literal "match"-ness there. Matchbox is in fact "given its name because the original die-cast Matchbox toys were sold in boxes similar to those in which matches were sold" (wikipedia). So even though we're in the realm of cars there, the whole "box" part brings us back to the literal fire-starting match, when you could've gone with other meanings of MATCH: MATCH POINTS, MATCHMAKERS, MATCH DOT COM (if you wanna continue the whole dating-site angle). Yes, I am being picky, none of this matters, really, but I always think that the ideal expression of this type of theme has theme answers where the relevant words in each case steer hard away from the revealer meaning. So if the theme is fire, you put 'em in non-fire theme answers if you can. But again ... this is fine. What's not fine is the clue about Frosty's eyes, because, look, the song goes "with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of
coal," not
COALS. It's a general noun, not a countable noun. The only time I accept
COALS is as a general term for pieces of coal that are already glowing hot. If I see the phrase "the
COALS," I assume those suckers are definitely red, and in a heap, not discrete and positioned on a talking snowman's face. The dry cold stuff ... that's coal. Maybe pieces of coal. But
COALS ... feels wrong. Definitely not Frosty canon.
I was flying through this until TRIP WIRE (36D: Security alarm trigger) and SYNTAXES (37D: They establish order in language classes); with the former, I just couldn't fathom what followed TRIP (I don't think of "wires" as being part of regular, non-elaborate, non-spy-movie alarms), and with SYNTAXES ... I just don't think that's a word I've ever seen or thought of in the plural before. I had SY-T- to start and wanted SYST-something. Also somehow couldn't get UPTO (48A: No more than), which crossed those two long Downs, and so slowed me up even further. That section alone took this from Very Easy Monday to Normal Easy Monday. That is all. The end. Good day / night.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on
Twitter and
Facebook]
