Constructor: Sid Sivakumar
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME:"This and That"— code for "there is no theme"
Word of the Day: ARECIBO Telescope (9D: Puerto Rico's ___ Telescope, formerly the world's largest single-aperture telescope) —
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Themeless Sundays are always a cop-out, and this one is a boring cop-out at that. How do you have this many long answers and yet still not come up with one truly winning marquee answer? Smh. It's all fine, just fine, but it's 21x21 and you don't have any thematic restrictions, so if you can't get to "fine" under those conditions, you're really in trouble. I have next to nothing to say about this puzzle. ACTS THE GOAT is something I've never heard (34D: Behaves like a fool, informally). I can't tell if it's super-current or super-dated, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those things. The rest of it—right over the plate. Nothing special. The answers that are closest to special (in the sense of "most original")—VAPE SHOPS, ELIMINATION DIET—are things I don't think are that great, i.e. vaping and dieting. But at least those answers are trying. The rest are just taking up space. I guess ELIMINATION DIET is probably not about dieting so much as it is about figuring out what food specifically your body might be allergic or otherwise reacting badly to, so ... that answer goes into the plus column. There's not a lot in the minus column, honestly. It's just that there's So Much in the "meh" column. I really wish the NYTXW would stop with the Sunday themelesses, but I *really* wish that they'd stop with the tepid Sunday themelesses. This is just coasting. Space-filling. Resting on laurels. Step it up, team.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: ARECIBO Telescope (9D: Puerto Rico's ___ Telescope, formerly the world's largest single-aperture telescope) —
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
The observatory's main instrument was the Arecibo Telescope, a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector dish built into a natural sinkhole, with a cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish. Completed in 1963, it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. (wikipedia)
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Last week the puzzle had some bad timing with an Alec Baldwin clue appearing right after the horrible on-set prop gun tragedy. Today, more bad timing, as Travis Scott appears in the puzzle just days after eight people died and dozens were injured during his performance at the Astroworld music festival in Houston. The dead ranged in age from 14 to 27. Sorry to bum you out, but I just thought I'd acknowledge what thousands of solvers would've been thinking when they hit SICKO today (20D: "___ Mode" (2018 #1 hit for Travis Scott)). No reason the clue should've been removed. Just bad luck on the timing. Let's change the mood. Yesterday's puzzle + today's puzzle have me wondering ... Diane AIRBUS, is that something? Can you make a theme out of that "punny" answer? Someone please try. Are FISH SCALEs tough? I confess I've never tried to eat them, as I am not a bear. I have also never eaten MCRIBS, but I'm glad I know they exist, as I had ARECITO for the Puerto Rican telescope. Pretty sure I made that exact mistake the *last* time ARECIBO was in the grid. I had no idea "MAD MEN" caused a surge in the name "Betty" (36D: Drama linked to the resurgence of the name "Betty" for baby girls). My first thought for that clue was ".... 'Ugly Betty'?" My butcher sold RED MEAT before he sold RAW MEAT (69D: Butcher's offering), and I exclaimed "NO DICE!" before "NOWISE" (77A: Not at all). Otherwise, my solve was uneventful. Wish the puzzle had had the decency to be outright bad; at least then I'd've had something to write about. This ... I don't really know what to do with this. If you want to do a really, really good themeless puzzle, just go back and do yesterday's puzzle again. Good day.
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]