Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug PetersonRelative difficulty: Medium (3 flat, with a very strong julep in me)
THEME: give it away— ends of themers sound like "way"
Theme answers:- CURDS AND WHEY (20A: Food for Little Miss Muffet)
- AI WEIWEI (31A: Chinese dissident artist)
- "ANCHORS AWEIGH" (36A: U.S. Naval Academy anthem)
- ZIMBABWE (43A: Neighbor of Botswana)
- "GO YOUR OWN WAY" (54A: Break-up song by Fleetwood Mac)
Word of the Day: AI WEIWEI (
31A: Chinese dissident artist) —
Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, English pronunciation (help·info); born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. Ai grew up in the far north-west of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile.[1] As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.
Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and his personal poetry in his many sculptures, photographs and public works. In doing this, he makes use of Chinese art forms to display the Chinese political and social issues.
After being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany, in Cambridge, UK, with his family, and, since 2021 in Montemor-o-Novo, in Portugal. (wikipedia)
• • •
All the final sounds are the same. Yes, that is a theme type. I have seen that. A tried-and-true, apparently infinitely renewable theme type. This one is largely successful because several of the theme answers are genuinely interesting answers in their own right, particularly
AI WEIWEI. Funny story—Will Shortz made me (and my co-constructor, Caleb Madison) take AI WEIWEI out of a Sunday grid we made in 2012 because "
He's not so well-known yet, and his name is crazily spelled and not inferable" quote unquote. Two years later, he came around on
AI WEIWEI. This same thing happened (to a different constructor ... hey, I think it was actually today's co-constructor, Andrea Carla Michaels) with HELLO KITTY, which is a thousand times more hilarious because HELLO KITTY is roughly a million times more famous that
AI WEIWEI. Ah, editorial dictatorship. It's fun. Anyway, looks like they pretty much exhausted the "way" rhymes here, so that's cool. Although, I really do not think that WHEY sounds like all the others. I really do blow that "H" out, precisely to distinguish it from "way," though, let's be honest, when do I actually have occasion to say WHEY? When I'm in the protein shake
AISLE, maybe. It's a good "way" set. The Fleetwood Mac gave me strong happy summery childhood vibes and reminded me of my dad, so that is also cool, happy father's day (is that today? hey, I'm a father ... dammit! All I got was a delicious mint julep from my beautiful life! Life is unfair!!!! ... oh, OK, no, Fathers Day is
next weekend ... phew).
Two things I did not like about this puzzle were clue-related—the two clues that slowed me down and made this puzzle Medium instead of Easy or Easy-Medium. First, that clue on GREW (8D: Increased, as the pot). Wanted "upped" or "anted" or "raised" or "bet" or something, but none of them fit. Needed every single cross to get GREW, and yeah, I can see how it's defensible, but the reason it's icky is that the *only* reason it has this awkward clue instead of a more routine clue is so that the puzzle can get its dumb little "watch me double the clue" gimmick in: see 25A: Increases, as the pot (ADDS TO). That answer slowed me down too. Why, why? Neither of those words want to be related to poker, and yet you pokered them. Awkwardly. Boo. Also, the clue on BREW is similarly weird (34D: Batch of beer). It's a very normal verb, or a normalish noun for a variety of coffee or beer, but a "batch"? "Batch" is for iced tea or cookies. I was looking for, like, a keg, or a vat, or a growler, or a six-pack, or some amount. The nebulous correspondence between BREW and "batch" just didn't compute for me at all. Feels more like a Fri/Sat-type BREW clue. It's a normal verb. Verb it! Why do weird dumb stuff, come on.
My other mistake was thinking it was Queen BAE at
46D: Queen ___ (pop nickname) (BEY). I was picturing
BEYoncé, but my fingers went with the other slangy BAE. Oh, and I put REC'D where
PAID was supposed to go (
7D: Stamp on an invoice). The end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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