Constructor: Kevin Patterson
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: SILVER / LINING (33A: With 44-Across, bit of consolation ... or a feature of this puzzle's grid?) — the "lining" of the puzzle (i.e. every edge answer) begins with "silver" (which you have to mentally supply):
Relative difficulty: Easy
The SILVER / LINING:
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I can't stop laughing at RONI. Who calls it RONI? I feel like this alleged slang belongs in the same fictional pizza universe where people call it 'ZA. "Hey, I'm gonna order a 'ZA, whaddya want on it?""RONI!""OK, a RONI'ZA, gotcha. I'll call KOOPA's" (which seems as good a name for an imaginary pizzeria as any). Stop inventing slang, esp. slang abbrs.! Or, keep doing it, so I can end every puzzle laughing. Let's see, what else was in this puzzle? Oh, right, SILVER / LINING! This is one of those ideas that seems like it shoulda been done a million jillion years ago. You see the phrase and the puzzle just writes itself. It's a fine idea, but wow does it make solving the puzzle easy. Once you get the gimmick, you've basically got every edge answer handed to you on a ... hey, where's PLATTER? Why isn't PLATTER in this puzzle? PLATTER needs a better agent? Oh, wait, I'm seeing that PLATTER is just too long. Poor PLATTER. A victim of lengthism yet again (probably). I got the theme right away. Well, I should've gotten it here:
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Five things:
- BELLS (1A: Christmas classic covered by Bing Crosby and Bob Dylan, among others)
- BACK (6A: Kind of gorilla)
- AGE (10A: Second-best era)
- TONGUE (16AD: Gift of persuasiveness)
- SCREEN (51D: Metonym for the movie industry)
- SPOON (71A: Symbol of privilege)
- WARE (70A: Forks and knives, e.g.)
- FOX (69A: Attractive older fellow)
- SURFER (42D: Marvel character with metallic skin)
- BULLET (1D: Simple solution to a big problem)
The Silver Surfer is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, and video game adaptations. The character was created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, published in 1966.The Silver Surfer is a humanoid alien with metallic skin who can travel through space with the aid of his surfboard-like craft. Originally a young astronomer named Norrin Radd on the planet Zenn-La, he saved his homeworld from the planet devourer, Galactus, by serving as his herald. Imbued in return with some portion of Galactus' Power Cosmic, Radd acquired vast power, a new body and a surfboard-like craft on which he could travel faster than light. Now known as the Silver Surfer, Radd roamed the cosmos searching for planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels took him to Earth, he met the Fantastic Four, who helped him rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was exiled there as punishment. (wikipedia)
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But somehow I thought the intersection of the answers was what mattered, so I had no real idea what to expect. Also, I was still singing the "Christmas classic" in my head like this: "Jingle bells ... jingle bells .. it's Christmas tiiiiiiime in the city," so yeah, many facets of the puzzle hadn't quite sunk in yet. But then I got the silverBACK gorilla and:
At this point, I could've gone around and filled in every edge answer, but I resisted and continued to solve normally (i.e. working off crosses until I was done). So I actually forced myself to slow down, which is *not* something I'm accustomed to doing, but it meant the silver answers came in one at a time instead of in a glut, which I think was probably a nicer experience. There's nothing particularly stunning about the fill, but it's clean and it holds up. But then again I was in a good mood from the start, because, well, I have a longstanding, fervent, unwavering crush on Laura LINNEY, so it's always delightful to run into her, in the LONDON AREA or wherever. Speaking of LONDON AREA, that was probably the hardest thing in the puzzle for me to get, honestly, mostly because I was thinking maybe all those Premier League teams played in the same LONDON arena (hey, just add "n" to your AREA and bam, arena!). But no, just the area.
Five things:
- 20A: Apt foreign rhyme of "moon" (LUNE)— this is actually a non-foreign rhyme. LUNE is a geometrical term. Also, apparently, a pasta-shape term:"a filled pasta case made from a circle of pasta dough folded over" (google)
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- 26D: "Absolutely!" ("YUP!") — this is Absolutely! my least favorite clue (or one of them) because there are a bunch of viable and semi-viable three-letter "Y" answers and you have no idea which one it's gonna be. I went with "YES!""YEP!" would've been reasonable. "YEA" and "YAH" seem far less likely but you never know.
- 18D: Like some healthier potato chips (NO-SALT) — ah, I see the Snack Food Council has got its thumb on the scale again. Did a NO-SALT potato chip write this clue? There is no "healthy" (or "healthier") potato chip, please keep the word "healthy" at least six feet away from the word "potato chip" at all times. If you are cramming chips in your mouth, you've left "healthiness" behind (and that's OK!). Eat chips! Or don't! But healthy shmealthy (or healthier shmealthier, I guess)
- 49A: Some significant others, for short (BFS) — short for boyfriends. Another answer (like "YUP!") where the answer (that first letter, in particular) could've easily been more than one thing. This answer looks like a typo for BFFS.
- 59D: Pixy ___ (candy brand) (STIX) — I always want this answer to be STYX, which is apt, as this is the only candy they have in hell. Dante uses it to punish the gluttons in Ring 3. Oh, you don't think so? Yeesh, read a book once in a while, why don't you!?
