Constructor: Jessie Bullock and Ross Trudeau
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I would've set a personal Wednesday speed record for sure)
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THEME: SORRY, NO RETURNS (51A: Sign in some clothing stores ... or a hint to 19-, 25- and 44-Across)— theme answers are examples of things that provide "no returns":
Theme answers:
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Well either waking up from a stress dream at 2am gives you solving super-powers or this puzzle was way way way easier than your average Wednesday offering. I felt like Neo in "The Matrix" when he finally manages to perceive and control The Matrix. I couldn't miss. Everything I looked at, I knew. Crazy. I am way too tired to write very much, and I have a full day of final examinations ahead of me, and my cats are starting to go a little crazy wondering why I'm up at this hour and also why I haven't fed them, so I'm gonna try to cut to the chase. First, well, it was easy, as I indicated earlier in this paragraph. Second, it seems just fine, themewise. I don't really understand why this wasn't a Monday puzzle. It played like a Monday. The theme type seems perfectly Mondayish. Maybe the Wednesday pile just needed bolstering. At any rate, no one's going to complain (much) about destroying a Wednesday puzzle, so no danger in serving up easy fare like this. I hope you enjoyed your brief feeling of power. The theme is a basic repurposing theme—take a phrase from one arena, apply it punningly to other arenas. You have three answers that appear to have nothing in common ... until they do. The revealer reveals! Are there really stores that don't let you return things? I, uh, don't go to stores if I can help it, and certainly don't linger long enough to read signs, so I'll take your word for it. SORRY, NO RETURNS does like something a sign would say, so Good Enough.
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I would've set a personal Wednesday speed record for sure)
Theme answers:
- BAD INVESTMENTS (19A: Speculations that don't pay off) ("no returns" on your investments)
- ONE-WAY TRIPS (25A: Journeys for people who are relocating) ("no return" tickets)
- SERVICE ACES (44A: Some court winners) ("no returns" of serve)
Adela Nora Rogers St. Johns (May 20, 1894 – August 10, 1988) was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies but is best remembered for her groundbreaking exploits as "The World's Greatest Girl Reporter" during the 1920s and 1930s and her celebrity interviews for Photoplay magazine.
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The nice feature about this puzzle are the longer answers in the NW and SE. Oh, and then a couple more long Downs in the NE and SW. TEEN CRUSH is probably the highlight of the long-Down parade, but LOCAL PRIDE and LORD IT OVER are also nice. The only hesitations I had when solving this one came with the PRIDE part of LOCAL PRIDE and the CRUSH part of TEEN CRUSH, and truly those were mere hesitations, not actual struggles. I just needed a cross or two to get that sweet, "oh, right!" moment. ADELA Rogers St. Johns is the kind of ancient crosswordese that I would normally bark at but in this otherwise clean grid, she seems more like an old friend than a gruesome apparition. Thus ends the longest ADELA drought (2017-2021) of the Shortz era, or any era since the '40s. The previous ADELA drought record (Shortz era) was ... the last one (2014-2017). For comparison: ADELA appeared nine times in 1997 alone. And back then she had clues like [Daughter of William the Conqueror] (!?!?!) and ["Passage to India" woman] (ADELA Quested). I used to get ADELA confused with ADELE a lot, back when the most likely ADELE clue was stuff like [Designer Simpson] or [Fred's dancing sister] (Fred Astaire, that is).
It took me a few beats to come up with HOST (43A: Large number), and I had a FOCI vs. LOCI dilemma in my head for a few seconds (59A: Centers of activity), but I knew what SULFA drugs were, so sorting that last bit out was no problem. I also balked at 21D: Shortest month of the year (MAY) until I realized the clue wanted shortest name length, not shortest time period. Clever. Overall, a very pleasant breeze, this one. I could've done without the spitting at 7D: Expectorated (SPAT), but otherwise, no real complaints. Take care. Seriously, take care: omicron is spiking like crazy here in central NY (see the news re: Cornell from yesterday). Other regions are having similar outbreaks. Please assume it's all around you and act accordingly. You mean a lot to me. Sorry for the mushiness. I haven't slept much. See first paragraph, above. Also, see you tomorrow.
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]