Hey, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of September! Weirdly enough, for whatever reason, this month absolutely seemed to fly by for me. Maybe it’s because I don’t have law school classes every day, or maybe because my milestones these days seem to be sports-related (go, Giants!). Speaking of sports, my sister and I decided to start learning to play tennis after watching the U.S. Open. It may be too soon to call us the next Williams sisters or the next Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, but maybe we’ll get there eventually.
Relative difficulty:Difficult for a Tuesday
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THEME:ANGLE(31D: Relationship of the circled letters to the apt words they connect to in this puzzle)— the three theme answers intersect the letters A-N-G-L-E and form an angle
Word of the Day:NAURU (8D: Island nation that’s the world’s smallest republic) —
Overall, I thought this puzzle was very impressive architecturally. There were circled letters, a theme revealer, angles formed, and even a pangram! This whole puzzle felt quite ambitious, especially for a first-time NYT Crossword constructor like Meghan Morris.
Misc.:
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On to the puzzle...
Constructor: Meghan Morris
Relative difficulty:Difficult for a Tuesday
Theme answers:
- BEING OBTUSE (17A: Refusing to understand)
- DO THE RIGHT THING (40A: 1989 Spike Lee title offering good, if vague, advice)
- ACUTE ACCENT (63A: One of a résumé pair)
Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 km (190 mi) to the east. Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world behind Vatican City and Monaco, making it the smallest republic. Its population of about 10,000 is the world’s second smallest, after Vatican City. (Wiki)
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen LIFE-GIVING (11D: Animating) or SETS ABLAZE (29D: Fires up?) used in a NYTimes crossword, so it’s fun that they were worked into the puzzle. I also liked having W.E.B. DU BOIS (6D: Cofounder of the N.A.A.C.P. and author of "The Souls of Black Folk") as another long down, as he’s an oft-overlooked historical figure whose achievements deserve a lot more attention than they get. TRYST (70A: Romeo and Juliet had one) is always a fun word to see in a puzzle, and I also liked the way it was clued. The way the ANGLEs intersected the themers was also clever; I especially liked that the word formed four right ANGLEs by intersecting with the “g” smack in the middle of DO THE RIGHT THING (40A).
Overall, though, I just didn’t find the puzzle that much fun to solve. The fill somehow felt quite clunky. There were so many clues with “abbr.” in them — 66A: To wit, abbr.; 26A: Abbr. on a wrapper; 58D: Much mail: Abbr.; 61D: Periods in the N.B.A.: Abbr.; 65: Forensic abbr. And then the answers for 58D and 61D were almost identical — LTRS and QTRS, respectively.
I really noticed the clunkiness in the southwest corner. I didn’t like the use of JAVA (55D) and UNIX (56D), let alone the cross-referencing. JAVA is designed to not be dependent on the operating system, so linking it to a specific one doesn’t make much sense: 55D: Language that may be used in [UNIX]. It just felt like this was an attempt to use these words together and trick the solver into thinking the clue was about a spoken language. For another, VIZ (66A: To wit, abbr.) seems obscure for a Tuesday (and it’s another abbreviation), and VIZ, VIA (39A), and the clue for 22A: Like Prince William vis-à-vis Prince Harry are all very similar.
Still, I like the idea of trying to go big and bold with a puzzle, and I think this one was quite well-constructed, especially for a first-timer. I hope to see more from her!
Apparently I have more miscellaneous thoughts than cohesive ones about the puzzle, so bear with me and buckle in!
Misc.:
- I feel like I should channel my inner Rex and complain about a GRN (an abbreviation for ya) — gratuitous roman numeral — at 23D: Year in the reign of Nero).
- I particularly disliked seeing BRAGG (51A: Fort __, N.C.) in the puzzle. BRAGG was a Confederate general — and a horrible one, at that. Like, really bad. I went down a hole on his Wikipedia page and found a goldmine — for one, his own men apparently tried to assassinate him twice, once with a 12-pound explosive under his cot. Having him, a slave owner, in the puzzle alongside W.E.B. DU BOIS is even worse. Look, BRAGG Apple Cider Vinegar is right there (and it’s my secret to great pie crusts.)
- This puzzle took me back to my geometry class in 8th grade, which was absolutely my least favorite math class (well, at least until I got to calculus in high school). Doing proofs for things was the absolute worst — who cares about why A = B? I know it does, so why should I have to explain it?
- Seeing ELI (48: One of football's Mannings) in the puzzle made me chuckle, because I’m solving this puzzle while watching Monday Night Football with the new ManningCast on ESPN2. Peyton and ELI’s chemistry and commentary and guests are just superb, and it’s delightful to watch. (More Pat McAfee, please!) I’m a little bummed they’re not going to be doing a broadcast for the next three weeks, but I’m simultaneously overjoyed that I won’t have to watch them destroy my Steelers, who are definitely NOT at their best right now.
- I love a good trip to IKEA (49A). Gotta say the best part is the $1 ice cream that you can buy after check-out.
- I tried to find a tie-in to the puzzle to talk about my latest obsession — the Korean show “Squid Game” —, but, alas, I could not. I recently binged it on Netflix after seeing a ton of people talking about... and whoa! It’s so, so dark but so, so well done. It certainly gave me some weird dreams after I watched six or seven episodes back to back. If you’re looking for The Hunger Games on steroids, this is right up your alley! Here’s the trailer (be warned: it’s quite creepy).
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