Constructor: Tomas Spiers
Relative difficulty: Easy (maybe Easy-Medium if you somehow don't know who BRIE LARSON is)
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THEME: STOP, DROP AND ROLL (65A: Fire safety technique ... or 17-, 29- and 49-Across together) — three theme answers, each of which is a type of stop, drop, and roll, respectively:
Theme answers:
Yes, this works. Those are indeed a stop, a drop, and a roll. It's a cute little gimmick. Simple, with clever and easy-to-grasp wordplay. Just the right concept for a Monday. I have one little complaint. I'm not sure it actually rises to the level of complaint. There's just one part of the theme that seems weaker than the others, for somewhat subtle reasons, and so it's kind of barking at me a little. I wonder about MARKET CRASH for a couple of reasons. First, there must have been a gajillion kinds of "drops" out there that you could've used. MARKET CRASH is indeed vivid, but somehow it doesn't veer as much away from the literal meaning of "drop" as the other answers veer away from their verbs. The verbs "stop""drop" and "roll" are imagined as nouns in the theme answers, but the only one of the three answers that really takes the wacky misdirection to heart is CINNAMON BUN. That answer is in another galaxy from the revealer's meaning of "roll," and I love it. This is repurposing / reimagining wordplay the way it's meant to be. Really take the word in a completely different direction. Leave the building. Go for it. It's good. RAILROAD STATION is a place where a train "stops," so the change of meaning there is much less wild, but mostly what I think of is the station, not the act of stopping, so ... that one gets a semi-reluctant pass from me. But something about MARKET CRASH is too literal a drop. An act of going down. There are other kinds of "drops"—raindrops, for instance, or small amounts ... I dunno, album releases. The themer here just doesn't veer away from the revealer's meaning enough for me. Part of the problem is that it actually includes the word that is synonymous with "drop" (CRASH). Part of the problem is that CRASH is way, way stronger than a mere "drop." Yes, it's in the drop category. But the phrase MARKET DROP is a thing, which makes you (me) aware that MARKET CRASH is really something else ... and yet still a fall, a descent. I just wanted this answer to go to a much more different meaning of "drop." That's all. This is fine. It's Monday, it's easy, no one cares, I know. But I will shout about craftsmanship and elegance every chance I get, whether anyone else notices or not.
Relative difficulty: Easy (maybe Easy-Medium if you somehow don't know who BRIE LARSON is)
Theme answers:
- RAILROAD STATION (17A: Grand Central, for one) (the STOP)
- MARKET CRASH (29A: Event of October 1929) (the DROP)
- CINNAMON BUN (49A: Pastry with a swirl) (and the ROLL)
Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress and filmmaker. Known for her supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockbusters. Larson is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. [...] Larson's breakthrough came with a leading role in the acclaimed independent drama Short Term 12 (2013), and she continued to take on supporting parts in the romance The Spectacular Now (2013) and the comedy Trainwreck (2015). For playing a kidnapping victim in the drama Room (2015), Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The 2017 adventure film Kong: Skull Island marked her first big-budget release, after which she starred as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel in the 2019 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. (wikipedia)
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| 21A: Music genre often labeled "heavy" |
Hell, I spent about ten minutes making the northern section of this puzzle only about 25% better, just because the inclusion of FOIE bugged me (partly because force-feeding geese to produce a "delicacy" disgusts me, partly because if you don't need French you should mostly avoid French, partly because CFO wasn't doing anyone any favors...). I find myself always wishing that constructors would polish their grids just a little more (sometimes a lot more, but mostly just a little). Like, I get distracted by the "Z" in the southwest because I think "that's Scrabblef***ing"; that corner is not improved by the "Z," it really isn't. The way I know is: that corner has PSST *and* ATTA. Weirdly PEZ would make it instantly a notch better because PEZ (unlike PAZ) is not a name partial and ETTA beats ATTA any day. But honestly, the whole thing should probably be rebuilt without PSST or ATTA. It's such a tiny corner that I'm certain it can be done. Might try getting rid of OLDE there in the SE while you're tearing out small corners. All the parts I'm talking about, all the tiny things I'd change, they are absolutely acceptable, but only that. They're things you put up with. But unless the grid is challenging to fill, unless the theme is demanding or the long fill really splashy, you shouldn't have to put up with below-average stuff in the short fill. Normal names and words, as often as possible. But as I say, it's Monday, the puzzle's easy, the theme is cute, and no one's looking in the corners for dust the way I am. I get it. Again, I say, this is good work. I'll take a decent theme with Just OK fill any time on a Monday, or with any theme. Themes are hard. But still, please, constructors, as much as you can without driving yourself insane: polish the grid, even the short parts that you think no one's going to care about. Thank you.