Constructor: Evan Kalish
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: SOLES (45A: Currency units in Peru) —![]()
SOIL TESTS! LOLOL. Wow, that is a hell of an answer to have come back on you inside of 48 hours. I singled it out as a notable low point in the Wednesday puzzle, but apparently it didn't get the message so it has somehow wandered back on to the set. Somebody take SOIL TESTS home, give him a complimentary "Crosswords!" baseball cap, and tell him don't bother coming back, he's not on the NICE LIST (which ... is not a thing, btw ... Santa is making *a* list and checking it twice ... the naughty and nice kids are both on the same list, there are just different symbols by their names to let Santa know whether to give them crap gifts or not. Logistically, it would make no sense to keep a separate NICE LIST. Your list would be oriented toward ease-of-delivery, batched by house. This is basic logistics.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: none
Word of the Day: SOLES (45A: Currency units in Peru) —
The sol (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsol]; plural: soles; currency sign: S/) is the currency of Peru; it is subdivided into 100 céntimos ("cents"). The ISO 4217 currency code is PEN.
The sol replaced the Peruvian inti in 1991 and the name is a return to that of Peru's historic currency, as the previous incarnation of sol was in use from 1863 to 1985. Although sol in this usage is derived from the Latin solidus (English: solid), the word also means "sun" in Spanish. There is thus a continuity with the old Peruvian inti, which was named after Inti, the Sun God of the Incas.
At its introduction in 1991, the currency was officially called nuevo sol ("new sol"), but on November 13, 2015, the Peruvian Congress voted to rename the currency simply sol.(wikipedia)
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Couple of nice answers in here. Otherwise, it's just OK. Those highly segmented corners (esp. the NW / SE) really interrupt the flow and create real get-stuck opportunities. I especially had trouble with the SW, where I wasn't entirely sure about the YEAH in "YEAH, ABOUT THAT..." (probably the best answer in the puzzle, in the end), and couldn't get POSSE or HUCKS (?) from their last letters, so that corner was nearly empty, with nothing certain to build off of. Kinda wanted ASK for 34D: "___ away!" but that also didn't feel rock solid. "Fire away!" or "Shoot!" feel more on the nose. So yeah, that corner was rough. Put in LODE instead of SEAM (49D: Underground band), which briefly made things worse (49D: Underground band). Was tempted to write in PAIR at 48A: What Twix bars are sold in (TWOS). Eventually stumbled on a couple of gimmes. Well, IKEA was a gimme (55A: What Shøp on "The Simpsons" is a parody of). SAO was close to a gimme (44A: ___, Miguel Island, largest of the Azores), but some part of me feared it was actually SAN, so I left the last letter blank to start. Downs were clued pretty hard down there, the calculus clue seemed like it might be lots of things. I think I finally unlocked it all by getting TWOS, which gave me the "ST" and "I" in PHSTRIP (36D: Alternative to litmus paper). Then POSSE went down, and I was finally able to swarm the corner with enough letters to bring it to submission. I don't remember much of the rest of the solving experience, but as I say, "YEAH, ABOUT THAT..." was nice.
Speed round:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 16A: Golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, for two (AFRIKANERS) — some trouble here with the double-A that never arrived. Language is double-A "Afrikaans," people are single-A Afrikaners. Got it (for now). Also, TWOS is in the grid, so having "two" in the clue here *and* in the clue for E-SCOOTER (33D: Two-wheeler at a charging station) ... those repeats are something you might've cleaned up if you were being extra-attentive.
- 26A: Recipe direction (BEAT) — had "B," wrote in BAKE. Then, just after I changed it to BEAT, BAKES just jumped right out at me like "Surprise!"(5D: Gets the batter out, say)
- 23D: Ones making insulting offers (LOWBALLERS)— the -ER is bad and the -S is a cringey cherry on top. I like LOWBALL as an adjective and I like it as a verb, but as an awkwardly -ER'd and pluralized noun, I like it far less.
- 29D: "Black" follower ("-ISH") — referring specifically to the TV show, "Black-ish." The quotation marks around "Black" are supposed to indicate the title-ness of the context.
- 38A: Throws, informally (HUCKS) — "chucks" I know. "Chucks" means "throws, informally."HUCKS rings the vaguest of bells, but it feels weirdly archaic, like kids said it, possibly in the '50s and '60s. I have probably heard HUCKS, but not for a long time. Somehow I'm picturing kids throwing rocks and seagulls, which is just cruel, stop it, kids.
- 28A: The British royal family has one called the Cambridge Lover's Knot (TIARA) — cool, now give all your wealth back to the people and places you extracted it from, you ghoulish relics. Ahem. Annnnyway, I thought this was maybe TOWER? Shrug.
- 15A: Something that gets passed around a lot (MEME) — got the answer down to M-ME, and then confidently wrote in MIME, since, yeah, I would definitely give a MIME wide berth if I had to pass around him.
Wishing you a merry, mime-free Christmas,
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]