Constructor: Howard Barkin
Relative difficulty: Medium-ish (11-something?)
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THEME:"I've Got a Feeling ..."— familiar phrases clued as if they were some specific type of person's (or cat's, or horse's, or genie's) emotions:
Theme answers:
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I didn't really notice the theme much, which I guess is better than being super-annoyed by the theme, so there's that. It was just ... some "?" wackiness. I dunno. Phrases, imagined as if they were different kinds of phrases ... you're familiar with the type, by now. The themers all seem fine as stand-alone answers, but whatever humor or wordplay was going on, whatever laughs were supposed to be generated, just went by me, and maybe that's for the best. This type of mild-chuckle / reimagined phrases with "?" clues-type theme isn't really my thing. If it is your thing, then I think this iteration of that thing is done reasonably well. Again, nothing in the theme material made me squeal or wince. But, again, I honestly didn't pay much attention to the theme clues, because I didn't have to. It was enough to register that wackiness was going on, and then to look for key words that might clue me into what familiar phrase might be the answer. I can tell you that many of the themers felt very hard to get, but that was largely because I just couldn't get the crosses to come together to make any kind of coherent phrase. Felt like I was about 1/3 of the way through the puzzle before I was able to put even the first themer together. Got everything *around* GUARDED OPTIMISM and CULTURE SHOCK without actually getting the, because the crosses (and some adjacent material) just wouldn't compute. BGAME EDS (I had SRS; 36A: Some H.S. yearbook staff) ROUSED ETD (I had ETblank; 4D: Airport info, for short) ... and then *especially* OUT TO WIN (23D: Relentlessly competitive), A CINCH (!!?) (11D: Easy as pie) and EULOGY (32D: The Gettysburg Address, e.g.). Those last three, ouch, I had most of the letters in place and still couldn't see them. The theme clues were of limited value. If anything, they confused matters. Anyway, themewise, there was no great feeling of coherence. It was there, it was fine. This is also mostly how I felt about the fill. I got absolutely zapped by a couple of proper nouns I'd never heard of, but otherwise, it was all perfectly fine. Highly competent. A very plain and inoffensive Sunday overall.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Relative difficulty: Medium-ish (11-something?)
Theme answers:
- GUARDED OPTIMISM (22A: Upbeat sentry's emotion?)
- CULTURE SHOCK (37A: Bacteriologist's emotion upon a new discovery?)
- HIGH ANXIETY (55A: Novice window-washer's emotion?)
- COMIC RELIEF (76A: Jester's emotion after the king's laughter?)
- UNBRIDLED JOY (90A: Wild horse's emotion?)
- CREATURE COMFORT (110A: Cat's emotion while sitting in its human's lap?)
- BOTTLED-UP ANGER (15D: Evil genie's emotion?)
- GROWING CONCERN (49D: Farmer's emotion during a dry season?)
Ningbo (Chinese: 宁波[...] formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 satellite county-level cities, and 2 rural counties including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Ningbo is the northern economic center of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, and is also the core city and center of the Ningbo Metropolitan Area. To the north, Hangzhou Bay separates Ningbo from Shanghai; to the east lies Zhoushan in the East China Sea; on the west and south, Ningbo borders Shaoxing and Taizhou respectively. As of the 2020 Chinese National Census, the entire administrated area of Ningbo City had a population of 9.4 million (9,404,283). [...] Its port, the port of Ningbo–Zhoushan, spread across several locations, is among the busiest in the world. The port of Ningbo-Zhoushan has been world's No. 1 busiest port by cargo tonnage and world's No. 3 busiest container port since 2010. (wikipedia)
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The toughest themer for me to come up with, though, was probably COMIC RELIEF. This is because NINGBO!?!?!? Boy howdy, I did not know that one. Have never heard of it. I am routinely humbled by how many giant cities there are in the world that I have never heard of. In NINGBO's case, even after looking it up, I'm not sure how I would remember it. All the top-level info about it on the wikipedia page seems to be about commerce and shipping and what not. Not particularly memorable stuff. And it's so close to Shanghai (which of course I have heard of), that it seems like part of one megalopolis on the East China Sea more than a distinct city (which, technically, it is: the Yangtze Delta Megalopolis). But that's just what it looks like to me, now, on a map. The eastern seaboard of the U.S. probably looks like one amorphous megalopolis from certain vantage points. Anyway, NINGBO is certainly big (27th largest city in China, 9+ million people in its greater urban area!), so I can't say it's not valid. It's just not particularly internationally famous, as Chinese cities go, so I needed every single cross. And then I couldn't figure out OCT. (70D: What "10" might mean: Abbr.), and I had DENY instead ofDEFY (67D: Oppose), so I was staring down the barrel of COM--RELIEN, oof. And that answer was sitting under AMES, another proper noun which I'd also never heard of (which was around the corner from BARTY, which, yes, another proper noun, another ???). So mainly I found this hard, even though the clock said "pretty normal, actually." And again, beyond the frustration of not knowing some proper nouns, I didn't have much of any feelings about this one. It holds up. No real highs or lows for me. There it is! Could've been worse! Good day! Have a reflective, contemplative, rejuvenating 4th of July. Peace.
[88A: One-named winner of the 2021 Grammy for Song of the Year] (H.E.R.)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S.
