Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley and Ben Zimmer
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: MIDDLE "C" (58A: Starting point for a piano student, or a phonetic hint to 17-, 18, 22-, 33-, 41-, 49- and 55-Across) — themers are three-syllable words / phrases that have the sound "C" (i.e. "see") in the MIDDLE of them, with that "C" sound spelled differently each time:
Theme answers:
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It was weird to zip through a Thursday grid, all the while wondering what was wrong ... when was the axe going to fall ... when was it going to get MACABRE!? (great clue there, by the way: 8A: King-like, in a way). I just knew that some vicious trick was going to be lying in wait around the next corner, or the next, but once I got well over halfway done, I realized it probably wasn't coming, and just sailed to the end of what felt very much like a Wednesday-level puzzle to me. The good news is that I solved the puzzle in exactly the right order, such that my path ended exactly where it was supposed to end, with the revealer, which at first glance felt pretty ho-hum (I was very briefly worried that the answer meant that the *letter* "C" was going to be in the "middle" of all the answers, because wow ... that would not be much of an accomplishment). But then I noticed the sound pattern, which was simple, clever, and elegantly expressed. I like the idea of the *sound* being in the "middle" (as opposed to a letter or letter string being literally physically in the middle). And I really like that the answers are all three syllables (with "see") in the middle, and that each word / phrase achieves that "see" sound with different spelling. It's got layers, this theme, which is what makes its simplicity lovely (rather than plain or boring). The "see" words are all nice stand-alone answers, too—nothing feels forced, the way some themers in a very dense theme often can. Not the usual Thursday challenge, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Had no idea about GORDO or PARR (33D: Surname of the Incredibles), but otherwise, all the answers in this one were familiar to me. I've seen "The Incredibles," but just once. Their family name is not a household name to me. Oh, and I guess I don't really know all the Braxton names ... in fact, I know only TONI Braxton, because she was a very successful R&B singer in the '90s and '00s. But TRACI slotted into the grid easily and felt right, so no trouble there (43A: One of the sisters on TV's "Braxton Family Values"). Made a few errors. Had the last "H" in MICH. but wrote in UTAH because I didn't read the clue past "State" (8D: State whose northern residents are known as Yoopers: Abbr.) (the "northern residents" live in the Upper Peninsula, or "U.P."—hence the name "Yoopers"). Wrote in INEPTLY before IN ERROR (16A: Wrongly). I don't like this whole "S"-plurals-on-fish thing. One, two, three STURGEON. Say no to TROUTS, say no to STURGEONS (20D: Once-plentiful endangered fish nicknamed "Albany beef"). Really happy that when I first looked at 32D: Make corrections to (EMEND), I already had the "E" in place, so I didn't have to suffer through my usual "wait, what's the difference between AMEND and EMEND again???" crisis. I was also happy to know SIROCCO. I have no idea why I know it, or know how to spell it, but it whooshed down my grid off of the "S" and every letter proved correct. Sometimes you luck out. Volkswagen used to make a SCIROCCO, which is why SIROCCO always looks wrong to me. But it's just a variant spelling. Wikipedia says the wind is also known as JUGO or, "rarely," simply SIROC. Why have I drifted into trivia? I better stop now. Good day.
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- TAXI CAB (17A: City transport, redundantly)
- CALCIUM (18A: Most common mineral in the human body)
- PUSSYCAT (22A: Gentle, mild-mannered sort)
- PRESEASON (33A: Warm-up time for pro athletes)
- TOP SECRET (41A: On a need-to-know basis)
- NO-SEE-UMS (49A: Camping pests)
- HALCYON (55A: Happy, as bygone days)
Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After service as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956, and was selected as an astronaut in 1959.In 1963 Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. During that 34-hour mission he became the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in space, and the last American launched on an entirely solo orbital mission. Despite a series of severe equipment failures, he managed to successfully complete the mission under manual control, guiding his spacecraft, which he named Faith 7, to a splashdown just 4 miles (6.4 km) ahead of the recovery ship. Cooper became the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight when he flew as Command Pilot of Gemini 5 in 1965. Along with Pilot Pete Conrad, he set a new space endurance record by traveling 3,312,993 miles (5,331,745 km) in 190 hours and 56 minutes—just short of eight days—showing that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from the Earth to the Moon and back. (wikipedia)
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The density of the theme is *probably* to blame for what felt like an uptick in crosswordese / repeater fill today. Lots of the very familiar short stuff, though some of it is so old-school, I feel like recent solvers might not even recognize it as crosswordese anymore. "ERI tu" and ETO are some serious throwbacks—they used to roam the grid like buffalo but then they were largely hunted out of existence (the buffalo analogy is bad, though, as the near-extinction of ERI and ETO was far less tragic). A sizable list of other common short answers are here too (e.g. ACTA, ERMA, IWO, NCO, SSN, ECTO, RAE, etc.), and then some short partials or add phrases (UPTWO, ENDIN, WASI), all of which me feel a little like I was being swarmed by the crossword equivalent of NO-SEE-UMS in the spaces between the themers and longer answers. Only I could "see um." But as I say, the themers were both plentiful and strong, as were the longer Acrosses in the corners, and so all that crosswordy stuff was occasionally annoying but not overwhelming or exhausting.
Had no idea about GORDO or PARR (33D: Surname of the Incredibles), but otherwise, all the answers in this one were familiar to me. I've seen "The Incredibles," but just once. Their family name is not a household name to me. Oh, and I guess I don't really know all the Braxton names ... in fact, I know only TONI Braxton, because she was a very successful R&B singer in the '90s and '00s. But TRACI slotted into the grid easily and felt right, so no trouble there (43A: One of the sisters on TV's "Braxton Family Values"). Made a few errors. Had the last "H" in MICH. but wrote in UTAH because I didn't read the clue past "State" (8D: State whose northern residents are known as Yoopers: Abbr.) (the "northern residents" live in the Upper Peninsula, or "U.P."—hence the name "Yoopers"). Wrote in INEPTLY before IN ERROR (16A: Wrongly). I don't like this whole "S"-plurals-on-fish thing. One, two, three STURGEON. Say no to TROUTS, say no to STURGEONS (20D: Once-plentiful endangered fish nicknamed "Albany beef"). Really happy that when I first looked at 32D: Make corrections to (EMEND), I already had the "E" in place, so I didn't have to suffer through my usual "wait, what's the difference between AMEND and EMEND again???" crisis. I was also happy to know SIROCCO. I have no idea why I know it, or know how to spell it, but it whooshed down my grid off of the "S" and every letter proved correct. Sometimes you luck out. Volkswagen used to make a SCIROCCO, which is why SIROCCO always looks wrong to me. But it's just a variant spelling. Wikipedia says the wind is also known as JUGO or, "rarely," simply SIROC. Why have I drifted into trivia? I better stop now. Good day.