Constructor: Joe DiPietro
Relative difficulty: Challenging (roughly 2x last week's time)
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THEME:"A Shot in the Dark"— in addition to two answers that have the clue [Shot in the dark] (23A: UNEDUCATED GUESS / 127A: LAST DITCH EFFORT), there are six black (so, "dark") squares that actually represent words that are also types of "shots"; each of said squares is the intersecting point for two themers, and you need to supply the word in the black square to make sense of those themers. Thus:
Theme answers:
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This is a puzzle with a dense, multi-layered, architecturally impressive theme, and I viscerally disliked almost every second of solving it. Torture. What made it godawful was not knowing when I was dealing with a theme answer. No clue. Couldn't see it. Over and over. The worst was obviously HEDGET, which was the first black-square-gimmick answer I came to; since I *already got one of the theme answers* (UNEDUCATED GUESS), and it didn't have any missing parts, I was not looking for missing parts. So the black square thing blindsided me. I was probably way over on the other side of the grid, at the BETTER MOUSETRAP / "PRAISE TO GOD!" cross, when I finally figured out the gimmick, but even after figuring it out, those black squares kept being a mystery, and I could never tell when I was dealing with one unless I looked at a subsequent Across or Down, which is just not the way I solve puzzles. It took *forever* for me to run into my first "-" clue (at 37A), which was the first point at which I realized I was dealing with one of these "jump or cross a black square, or maybe turn a corner"-type answers. So much of this solve was spent not being able to see I was even dealing with a themer, or else staring at part of an answer that had "-" for a clue, which kept requiring me to move the cursor back to see what the actual clue was. The amount of fussiness was staggering.
Relative difficulty: Challenging (roughly 2x last week's time)
Theme answers:
- 4D: Tools for landscapers (HEDGE TRIMMERS) / 43A: Fix for a bald spot (HAIR IMPLANT) (rim shot)
- 33A: Improved version of an existing product (BETTER MOUSETRAP) / 15D: "Hallelujah!" ("PRAISE TO GOD!") (set shot)
- 65A: Real deal (GENUINE ARTICLE) / 35D: Carefully avoid (TIPTOE AROUND) (earshot)
- 78A: Highly resistant elastomer (SILICONE RUBBER) / 57D: Phenomenon by which electrons radiate from a heated filament, so named for a famous observer (EDISON EFFECT) (one-shot)
- 100A: Detectives (PRIVATE EYES) / 74D: When the first "Peanuts" comic appeared (NINETEEN-FIFTY) (tee shot)
- 110A: Like some roller chains and ball bearings (SELF-LUBRICATING) / 89D: Very easy living (LAP OF LUXURY) (flu shot)
• • •
This is one where solving on paper was probably easier, because solving in software, where you can't see all the clues at once, it was just disorienting. And the theme was so dense it never ended. And the themers often felt very forced (see "PRAISE TO GOD!" which is missing the word "BE"; or EDISON EFFECT, which, LOL, what is that? Or SILICONE RUBBER, shrug, or SELF-LUBRICATING, if you say so, etc.). I see now that all the "shot" squares are symmetrical, but during the solve, that didn't help any. It was the sloggiest slog I've slogged in a good long time. The fill was also under tremendous pressure because of the dense theme, so it was frequently not good (CIAOS? more than one CIAO?). And on top of *that*, it was clued really difficult much of the time. This never evened out. Never got better. Just pain and annoyance from start to finish. Put it in the "Great Architecture" Hall of Fame if you want, but solving it was an extremely off-putting experience.
"Dude" is already slang, so the clue on BRAH is so weird (1A: Dude, slangily). Also, ugh, that can be spelled so many ways (BRAH, BRUH, BRO ... pretty sure I've seen BRUV, but maybe that's British ... yes, it is). What the actual [beeeeeeep] is CRUMP!?!?! (21A: Loud thudding sound). I thought there was some theme action going on somewhere there because that is not a word I've ever seen without an "-ET" on the end. Wow. The BOP-IT / BEER crossing nearly killed me, as I don't know BOP-IT at all, and the BEER clue was a Zappa quote, where the missing word could have been An-Y-Thing! (59D: "You can't be a real country unless you have a ___ and an airline": Frank Zappa). Again, ugh. The ENZI / 'ZONA cross, also double-ugh. I forgot ENZI existed (and was perfectly happy that way), and then, wow not terribly familiar with that abbr. of "Arizona." Seems reasonable, I guess, but really this crossing is a long, horrible way to go just to get a "Z" in the grid. Bizarre. You don't get a Razzy for being PANNED, you get it for being terrible, and while terrible movies do often get PANNED, the connection there between clue and answer is awfully weak. PANNED!? (98A: Like Golden Raspberry-"winning" films). Took forever, and then getting it was so disappointing. So many little short annoying answers that it felt like someone was throwing small rocks at me the whole time (the MITE / ATOMS / IOTA section was particularly noisome, but it was bad all over, frankly). Had IMS instead of DMS (direct messages) because it felt like it worked better (129D: Chats over Twitter, briefly). I "chat over Twitter" all the time but hardly ever DM anyone. DMS are specifically *private* chats. Again, appalling, sloppy cluing. So the final indignity today was not being able to see LAST DITCH EFFORT for a time because of this IMS / DMS muck-up. I must stop writing about this puzzle now. BOOP. Goodbye.
"Dude" is already slang, so the clue on BRAH is so weird (1A: Dude, slangily). Also, ugh, that can be spelled so many ways (BRAH, BRUH, BRO ... pretty sure I've seen BRUV, but maybe that's British ... yes, it is). What the actual [beeeeeeep] is CRUMP!?!?! (21A: Loud thudding sound). I thought there was some theme action going on somewhere there because that is not a word I've ever seen without an "-ET" on the end. Wow. The BOP-IT / BEER crossing nearly killed me, as I don't know BOP-IT at all, and the BEER clue was a Zappa quote, where the missing word could have been An-Y-Thing! (59D: "You can't be a real country unless you have a ___ and an airline": Frank Zappa). Again, ugh. The ENZI / 'ZONA cross, also double-ugh. I forgot ENZI existed (and was perfectly happy that way), and then, wow not terribly familiar with that abbr. of "Arizona." Seems reasonable, I guess, but really this crossing is a long, horrible way to go just to get a "Z" in the grid. Bizarre. You don't get a Razzy for being PANNED, you get it for being terrible, and while terrible movies do often get PANNED, the connection there between clue and answer is awfully weak. PANNED!? (98A: Like Golden Raspberry-"winning" films). Took forever, and then getting it was so disappointing. So many little short annoying answers that it felt like someone was throwing small rocks at me the whole time (the MITE / ATOMS / IOTA section was particularly noisome, but it was bad all over, frankly). Had IMS instead of DMS (direct messages) because it felt like it worked better (129D: Chats over Twitter, briefly). I "chat over Twitter" all the time but hardly ever DM anyone. DMS are specifically *private* chats. Again, appalling, sloppy cluing. So the final indignity today was not being able to see LAST DITCH EFFORT for a time because of this IMS / DMS muck-up. I must stop writing about this puzzle now. BOOP. Goodbye.