Constructor: Freddie Cheng
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal Monday)
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THEME: ART FORMS (37D: Various creative mediums ... or a hint to variations found in the shaded squares) — just the letters "ART" in various different orders a bunch of times:
Theme answers:
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What are we even doing here? Another total non-theme. This is an extremely thin concept, and the resulting themers aren't even terribly interesting. Look at how many of these ART FORMS are just ... ART (!?!?!). One two three ... four five ... nearly half the ART FORMS are just the word "ART"!! How is this a thing? And there's not a single "RTA or "ATR." Is the idea that the only "forms" that count are ones that are also words (or, in the case of "TRA,""words")? What a mess. TARGET HEART RATE is at least interesting and original on its own, though it's also the one that slowed me down the most, as my brain failed to parse it correctly, so much so that until almost the very last cross I was reading it as "TARGET THE something something." So weirdly, I liked best the thing that held me up the most. How often does that happen? Anyway, back to the theme? Nope, away from the theme. Nothing more to say about that. Except that the clue on STAR QUARTERBACK is very bad, actually. STAR QUARTERBACKs get sacked and throw interceptions All The Time. The career leader in interceptions thrown is one Mr. Brett Favre. Other Hall-of-Famers in the Top Ten of that stat are George Blanda, Fran Tarkenton, Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, and Peyton Manning (inducted into the HOF just this year).
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal Monday)
Theme answers:
- STAR QUARTERBACK (17A: Athlete who rarely gets sacked or has a pass intercepted)
- RATTRAPS (29A: Run-down places)
- TARGET HEARTRATE (33A: Figure to aim for, according to personal trainers)
- PEAR TART (42A: Pastry made with an orchard fruit)
- DEMOCRATIC PARTY (56A: Political group symbolized by a donkey)
Odeon or Odeum (Ancient Greek: ᾨδεῖον, Ōideion, lit. "singing place") is the name for several ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for musical activities such as singing, musical shows, and poetry competitions. Odeons were smaller than Greek and Roman theatres. (wikipedia) (lots of movie theaters are also named ODEON, mostly in Britain, though, I think)
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I wish there was better news where the fill was concerned, but as you can see for yourself, there is not. Your typical OTTO-OTOE olde-tymey dance party, this one. SEAAIR? BAABAA? AAAS? OOH?APEMEN? ATIT? EKE IRENA? This fill is as creaky as ... I dunno, the ODEON that they somehow haven't condemned and razed to the ground yet, as yesteryear-cool as the dog name FIDO (still never, ever met a FIDO irl). I can only shake my head and shrug at this puzzle, which would've been filler material even 25 years ago. I didn't even have interesting mistakes or hiccups. What's worse, the hiccups I did have involved the most tedious of fill. I assumed [Pal] was not being said by a '50s cab driver with a 5 o'clock shadow and a cigar stub hanging out of the corner of his mouth, so I went with BUD, but apparently the correct answer is BUB, which no one has ever called their actual "pal." I also screwed up the laugh syllable (shocker), going with HARS instead of HAHS at first for 51D: Disbelieving laughs. I also had to read "nonvegan" a number of times because it looked like "norivegan" or ... I don't know, but it didn't look right without the hyphen. Looked like a chemical or pharmaceutical term. Ask your doctor about "norivegan." Really, truly baffled by everything about this puzzle. Again I'm left wondering where the fun is.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]