Constructor: Andrew J. Ries
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: Marsha P. Johnson (27A: Gay rights pioneer Marsha P. Johnson, for one: TRANS ICON) —
Daughter is in town for just a few days so ... the write-ups might be a little light today and tomorrow. Sorry about that. As for the puzzle: TRANS ICON was cool, but the rest of it didn't do much of anything for me. I guess "WEIRD, HUH?" has a quirky, colloquial vibe that's kinda nice, but stuff like SCROLL SAW leaves me cold and HONOR ROLLS is absurd in the plural and THAD and REFI and ALTA and RIPA and ELENA and AREOLA and SMEE are all threatening to take the whole train to Crosswordese Town. Plus, TORT REFORM and DICK CHENEY, man, talk about bringing the room down. Yuck. TEASER AD is really just long crosswordese. I dunno, there just wasn't much delight to be had here for me. Worse, the puzzle really really thought it was being delightful, with almost a dozen "?" clues elbowing and nudge-nudging you and begging you to laugh at their cleverness. I only just now figured out how to make sense out of the DICK CHENEY clue. I forgot that there was a movie called "Vice" that was about him. It may surprise you to learn that I spend as little of my life thinking about DICK CHENEY as possible.
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: Marsha P. Johnson (27A: Gay rights pioneer Marsha P. Johnson, for one: TRANS ICON) —
Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992), born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera. Johnson was also a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene, modeling for Andy Warhol, and performing onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches. Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street" due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP. [...] Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha" but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the restaurant Howard Johnson's on 42nd Street, stating that the P stood for "pay it no mind" and used the phrase sarcastically when questioned about gender, saying "it stands for pay it no mind". Johnson said the phrase once to a judge, who was amused by it, leading to Johnson's release. Johnson variably identified as gay, as a transvestite, and as a queen (referring to drag queen). According to Susan Stryker, a professor of human gender and sexuality studies at the University of Arizona, Johnson's gender expression could perhaps most accurately be called gender non-conforming; Johnson never self-identified with the term transgender, but the term was also not in broad use while Johnson was alive. (wikipedia)
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Blank ROOM and Blank TIME in the SE made that section a little tougher than the others, and also, ultimately, blander, or more of a letdown. EAST ROOM? FREE TIME? OK, those are things, but it's Friday and I'm looking for a good time. I actually might've liked FREE TIME if it hadn't been burdened with yet another cutesy wink of a "?" clue (62A: What's not working?). Isn't a BEER BAR just a "bar." (1A: Building with many drafts). I have heard of cocktail bars but not BEER BARs. I also have heard of Angel food cake but not ANGEL PIE (14A: "Heavenly" dessert with a lemony filling). Again, I'm sure these things exist, I just don't care about them, so there's just nothing to warm the blood here. KARACHI is cool, keep that. But a single TEA LEAF? That's almost as dumb as the plural HONOR ROLLS it sits beside. Lastly, the clue on RAE is truly awful (43A: Bob ___, Canadian ambassador to the U.N.). Maybe it's some Canadian in-joke (since ALBERTA's in here, I figure maybe...). But I know you don't know Bob RAE, because I know you don't know any ambassadors to the U.N. Even ours (it's Linda Thomas-Greenfield, by the way). You can love Canada all you want, but you've already subjected us to RAE (again w/ the crosswordese), you don't have to pretend you invented some new crossworthy RAE. It's Issa, Charlotte, that explorer guy ... RAE Dawn Chong, maybe. I dunno. I just know this Bob guy ain't it. I had ELLEN before ESSIE (19A: Woman's name that sounds like two letters of the alphabet) and thus ABEL before ENOS (2D: 905-year-old in Genesis), but otherwise no other mistakes or big struggles. See you tomorrow.