Constructor: Jesse Goldberg
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (more like an Easy Thursday, just because of the theme type)
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THEME: STONEWALL (34A: Historic inn commemorated during Pride Month, as suggested by this puzzle's border answers)— all the answers on the edges of the grid (so, forming a kind of WALL around the grid) are types of STONEs (you must mentally supply STONE to make them work):
Theme answers:
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Hello! It's Pride Month and today we get the first of what I hope will be many Pride-related puzzles. The theme worked well for me, as I went from ??? to "oh, there are two STONE answers in the (NW) corner, so ... CORNER + STONE = cornerstone, I get it" to "wait, but BIRTHstone is not in the corner, what is happening?" until I eventually stumbled into the revealer, where all was made clear and the Aha was genuine. The only "stone" I had trouble with was HEARTHSTONE, which I've never heard of and let me tell you, I won't be alone here. I don't love the gaming clue on this answer, and not just because I've never heard of it. If you actually read this blog, you'll know I don't know things practically every day. It is a rare puzzle that is full of only things I know. I am used to encountering things I don't know regularly, and the vast, vast majority of those I just chalk up to normal human ignorance (in this case, mine), and I move along. But *some* answers I don't know irk me either because they seem genuinely obscure or because they are extremely niche, and even then I'm usually only truly irked if the thing I didn't know ends up feeling like a boring thing that's not really worth knowing. How is my life improved by learning about one of seemingly infinite gaming properties? HEARTHSTONE is some combo of niche and I-don't-care forgettable. If a clue has to tell you how popular its answer is ("no, seriously, 100 million people play this thing! The company that makes the game said so!") then that's a tell. The clue knows that a huge chunk of solvers are going to have no idea what it's talking about. And in this case ... what it's talking about is a subset of the Warcraft universe, and not (by a longshot) the most popular subset: that would be World of Warcraft, which is massively popular, and which I've actually seen in puzzles (abbr. WoW). But HEARTHSTONE? I'm going to forget HEARTHSTONE exists as soon as I'm done typing this. I think the clue is an attempt to make the puzzle a little more contemporary, to give it a little more Now energy (the grid is otherwise heavily laden with olden fill). But there's gotta be a better way than this. "Look, fellow youths! Gaming!" This was a sore-thumb / outlier clue, turning an ordinary word into a niche proper noun in what feels like a desperate attempt to include something "youthful." Is this mere opinion on my part? Well, yes. Hi. What did you think was happening here? Anyway: I was able to work around HEARTHSTONE easily enough, so whatever, I guess. If you're going to teach me something new, just make it interesting, I beg of thee.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (more like an Easy Thursday, just because of the theme type)
Theme answers:
- HEAD (1A: *Graveyard sight)
- BIRTH (5A: *Emerald or ruby)
- GEM (10A: *Ring centerpiece)
- CHERRY (16D: *Pit that's spit)
- COBBLE (47D: *Quaint street material)
- LODE (64A: *Magnetite)
- BROWN (63A: *Kind of building seen on "Sesame Street")
- KEY (62A: *Pennsylvania state symbol)
- CORNER (37D: *Vital piece)
- HEARTH (1D: *Online card game with over 100 million players)
Hearthstone is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled Heroes of Warcraft, Hearthstone builds upon the existing lore of the Warcraft series by using the same elements, characters, and relics. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in March 2014, with ports for iOSand Android releasing later that year. The game features cross-platform play, allowing players on any supported device to compete with one another, restricted only by geographical region account limits.The game is a turn-based card game between two opponents, using constructed decks of 30 cards along with a selected hero with a unique power. Players use their limited mana crystals to play abilities or summon minions to attack the opponent, with the goal of destroying the opponent's hero. Winning matches and completing quests earn in-game gold, rewards in the form of new cards, and other in-game prizes. Players can then buy packs of new cards through gold or microtransactions to customize and improve their decks. The game features several modes of play, including casual and ranked matches, drafted arena battles, and single-player adventures. New content for the game involves the addition of new card sets and gameplay, taking the form of either expansion packs or adventures that reward the player with collectible cards upon completion. [...]
The game has been favorably reviewed by critics and has been a success for Blizzard, earning nearly US$40 million per month as of August 2017. As of November 2018, Blizzard has reported more than 100 million Hearthstone players. The game has become popular as an esport, with cash prize tournaments hosted by Blizzard and other organizers.
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The fill was olden, as I say (feels like ages since I've seen ONEL and TRU, which used to roam the grids of the late 20th-century in great numbers), but I can forgive the crusty short stuff today because we are dealing with a highly restrictive theme (all around the edges *and* in the middle with the revealer). The IVIES should've changed their name as soon as they added a fifth U. to their number. By rights, they should now be called the VIIIies (pronounce it how you will!). Not much to highlight or complain about today. The theme is pretty much the thing. I would really love it if I never saw DTS again. This is largely how I feel about the puzzle's whole alcoholic-mocking vocabulary (WINO! SOT! HIC!). DTS (delirium tremens) is the flip side of mockery—but it's still gawker-y, and it's crosswordese to boot, so why not just make it DES Moines and EASE here today and spare us the spectacle of the suffering alcoholic? I don't get it. I also don't get why you'd put RNC in anything, since they're essentially a white supremacist terrorist group now, but there's not as easy a fix there, as that corner was under a lot of theme pressure (CRAT, OAS ... RNC is merely the worst part of a very rough patch there). Let's end with something fun. EROSION! No, wait, that's depressing. The ALAMO!? No, still not fun. Oh, ERIC hiding inside "America," that's kinda cute (15A: Man found in America?). Let's wave at ERIC. Hi ERIC. We see you there.
The theme was fun! The rest ... was the rest. Not great, but it was easy, so it never genuinely detracted from the theme, which is a winner.