Constructor: Sam Trabucco
Relative difficulty: Challenging (very slow for me)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Carlos VELA (25D: Soccer star Carlos) —
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The grid seems alright, but this was a slog for me. I just kept "ugh"-ing at clue after clue, I never felt like I got any kind of solving rhythm, and in the parts where I struggled, the payoff was repeatedly just meh. I think the best bit of fill comes right off the bat with DRAG SHOW, but it's mostly just a chore from there. Two boxing (?) clues in the same section (NE)? I was just lucky to have lived through that Riddick BOWE fight, otherwise that would've been a total mystery. It was almost a mystery as is. I was like "Oh, that guy, he's not famous ... the four-letter guy ... ends in 'E' I think ... oh yeah BOWE!" Obscure today. Also obscure: boxing slang. TOMATO CAN is nice enough fill, but as boxing slang, shrug, no idea. ON ONE HAND just doesn't stand alone well. Also in that NE section, I had IN THE no idea at 11D: Short and ON ONE no idea at 13D: Start of a two-part thought. Could only think of IN THE RED, and wanted ON ONE SIDE... instead of ON ONE HAND. Most of the solve was like this. Shrug, PLOD through crosses, get answer, shrug again. Like with READ ... I needed crosses and then though "it can't be READ can it? Like ... 'get a READ on someone?'" So I eventually *got* it, but even now it doesn't feel quite right. The whole puzzle felt like it was trying too hard to Saturdayify itself rather than be fun. I mean, DEMO UNIT? UNIT, is it? (53A: iPhone on display at an Apple Store, e.g.) I know the phrase "floor model" or "display model" or "demo model," but after I got DEMO, MODEL wouldn't fit, so here I was with just DEMO waiting for whatever random defensible but not quite right word was going to fill the void. That word was UNIT. This is exactly how exciting most of this puzzle was.
Relative difficulty: Challenging (very slow for me)
Word of the Day: Carlos VELA (25D: Soccer star Carlos) —
Carlos Alberto Vela Garrido (born 1 March 1989) is a Mexican professional footballer who captains and plays for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Described as an incredibly versatile player who can play as a forward, winger, and attacking midfielder, Vela is known for being a creative player and prolific scorer.
Vela started his career at Mexican club Guadalajara, where he caught the eye of various European clubs after finishing as the top scorer at the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship, eventually joining Premier League club Arsenal that year. After joining Arsenal, he had loan spells at Spanish clubs Salamanca and Osasuna, as well as fellow English club West Bromwich Albion, settling with Real Sociedad in 2011, initially on loan and then permanently the following season. In his six-year spell with La Real, Vela played in 250 matches and scored 73 goals. In January 2018, he joined Los Angeles FC, winning the Supporters' Shield and the MLS Golden Boot in his second year, and setting a new league record for most goals in a season, with 34. He was also voted Most Valuable Player. (wikipedia)
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Seems like KENOLIN x/w VELA might trip some people up. Badly. I remember KEN OLIN, but exclusively from "thirtysomething," an old show I didn't watch. I can see people imagining KENO-IN is actually someone's last name, and then not knowing VELA (VEGA is a more common name). So maybe somebody named, I dunno, Nancy KENOGIN starred on "thirtysomething." If I never saw the show (a show with no real life in reruns or on streaming services), I'm not sure how I'd know any thirtysomething actors. Crossing proper nouns ... this is an obvious issue ... but constructors and editors keep not paying attention to it. I guess on Saturday, they feel entitled to give certain solvers the middle finger. Also seems feasible that someone wouldn't know or would be unsure how to spell RAGNAROK, which makes two VELA crosses that are somewhat dicey. Proper noun pile-up with VELA in the middle seems poorly planned.
Missteps were plentiful. Whole NW was a disaster in large part because somehow, despite believing I wrote in IT, I wrote in AT at the end of 2D: Smack a baseball hard (RIP IT). So the already slightly tough SILENT B'S looked like this: SALEN-BS. I kept looking at RIP AT, but if you are only looking at the phrase and not back at the clue, RIP AT seems just fine, so it took me a loooooong time to see SILENT B'S (19A: "Dumb and Dumber" duo). Don't like OH NO NO at all, since it's just an arbitrary number of NOs after OH and I can't hear someone using two (16A: We absolutely aren't doing that!"). One, yes, three, absolutely; two is stupid, so I couldn't commit to that first NO for a bit (I had the last NO and kept wondering what two-letter word could go between OH and NO). Do kids really say "the OLDS?" Your kids aren't all assholes, you know. Weird way to go here. Just admit you put the car in your grid and clue it as the car. Your attempts at current-ness are sad. Had BREWED before WHALED (29A: Worked in Starbuck's business) and STREET FOOD before STREET MEAT (26D: Halal cart fare, informally)—I think it was the use of "fare" in the clue that made me jump to FOOD; seems like the kind of clue word you'd use when you didn't want to say FOOD. Oh well. Bizarrely gratuitous inclusion of "gay" in the clue for PUERTO Vallarta (43D: ___ Vallarta (popular gay vacation destination)). I'm thrilled by the inclusive mindset here, but the "gay" adds nothing. PUERTO Vallarta is popular with all tourists, and if you'd watched "The Love Boat," you'd know this. HEALTH SPA feels weird and redundant (30D: Where some sweaters hang). Olden. Are there unhealthy SPAs? Non-health SPAs? Where you just sit around and, like, smoke and eat trans fats and have unprotected sex with strangers? I like that the ANGORA CAT in this puzzle has been SPAYED (which cuts right through the middle of CAT), but it's one of the few little details I truly liked today.
Tricky stuff explained:
- SILENT BSbecause the "B"s in phrase "Dumb and Dumber" are silent
- WHALED because that what the character Starbuck did in "Moby-Dick"
- READ in the sense of "get a READ on"
- HEALTH SPA because "sweaters" are "people who sweat"
- BRITON because Avon is a place, a county, in the west of England (9A: Avon lady, for one)
- WEBSITE because Safari is a web browser (8D: Safari destination)
- HEIR because "willing" is a punny reference to a will (the legal document) (22A: Willing participant?)