Constructor: Sean Yamada-Hunter
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:38 for me)
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THEME: That's a Big If
Word of the Day: HOAGY (20A: Carmichael who composed "Heart and Soul") —
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Hi there, Tom Quigley here filling in for Vacation Rex again. For my last review, I jotted down a series of thoughts before the puzzle was released. Some of them hit the cutting room floor, as they didn't apply or I didn't feel strongly enough about them. Two of those were "comments on grid design?" and "interesting word count?" which are frankly all I want to talk about today.
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Now for the repercussions of creating a grid out of two giant vertical letters: word count. Maybe not technically the overall word count, you'll have to wait for Rex to come back for those kinds of details, but look at ALL those 3-letter words! 31 of the 71 total words are 3 letters! 43.7%!!! None of them really make me hold my nose, other than maybe OBE (41A: U.K. honour) over VIS (44A: Word on either side of "à"). To make a 9 stack of 3s without some truly awful fill is quite the feat.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:38 for me)
THEME: That's a Big If
Word of the Day: HOAGY (20A: Carmichael who composed "Heart and Soul") —
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American songwriter, musician, actor, singer and attorney. American composer and author Alec Wilder described Carmichael as the "most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great craftsmen" of pop songs in the first half of the 20th century.[2] Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies such as television, electronic microphones, and sound recordings.
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Theme answers:
- THATSABIGIF (19D: Exclamation upon seeing this puzzle)
(that's a bi gif)
The wacky theme and the barrage of 3-letters might, but shouldn't, take away from the FIVE grid-spanning 15-letter downs, which are all amazing. I almost wish you could somehow tie a bow around these and make them a theme...
Bullets:
Bullets:
- HABANEROPEPPERS — Spicy, delicious
- ANDYETHEREWEARE — Feels like a very fresh, unique phrase for the NYT
- SUNRISEMOVEMENT — Anyone not taking them seriously about the future of our planet needs to step aside, looking at you Feinstein.
- BEYONDONESGRASP — Weakest of the quintet, still great
- ENRIQUEIGLESIAS — Spicy, delicious