Constructor: Kate Schutzengel
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: THE DOCTOR IS OUT (63A: Lucy's empty-booth sign in "Peanuts" ... or a hint to 16-, 24-, 37- and 55-Across) — "DR" is taken "out" of familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, which are clued wackily (i.e. "?"-style):
Theme answers:![]()
Word of the Day: KUSH (70A: Cannabis strain named for its regional origin) —
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Well if you're looking for a path to my heart, a "Peanuts" theme is one reasonably certain way to get there. This is a simple letter-removal theme, a wacky concept that is old as the hills but effective if don't properly, with genuinely funny answers and a clever revealer. The revealer part, this puzzle has down. I'm less certain about the answers themselves, which seem like they could've used more brainstorming. TWO INK MINIMUMS would've been fine in the singular, but feels awkward in the plural (feels like the puzzle was desperate for a 14 to match the revealer's 14 and this was the best it could come up with). ILL PRACTICE is both awkward and depressing. I would've liked ILL SERGEANT better here, probably. "The practice of pretending to be ILL" doesn't really translate to ILL PRACTICE very smoothly. The main problem is that the concept just doesn't evoke a particularly funny situation. Maybe there's a wacky clue out there that can save it, but this ain't it. I do like UM MACHINE. A lot. Then there's BEAT TO THE AW, which has the best clue by far (55A: Preceded in commenting on an adorable kitten photo, say?), but also has the weakest base phrase. That is, "beat to the draw," while a real idiom, is far far less common and idiomatically snappy than BEAT TO THE PUNCH, or, from another angle, QUICK ON THE DRAW. It's not just the weaker of two base phrases, it's the weakest of three. If you're going to do something basic like "drop-a-letter" (or, in this case, two letters), then those themers really Really have to land. These answers kinda sorta land, here and there. So it's a very fine concept with only a so-so execution.
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- TWO INK MINIMUMS (16A: Possible requirements for joining a tattoo club?)
- ILL PRACTICE (24A: A healthy person regularly calling in sick, e.g.?)
- UM MACHINE (37A: What a nervous public speaker sounds like?)
- BEAT TO THE AW (55A: Preceded in commenting on an adorable?)
Kush generally refers to a pure or hybrid Cannabis indica strain. Pure C. indica strains include Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Green Kush, and Purple Kush. Hybrid strains of C. indica include Blueberry Kush and Golden Jamaican Kush.
The origins of Kush Cannabis are from landrace plants mainly in Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and North-Western India with the name coming from the Hindu Kush mountain range. "Hindu Kush" strains of Cannabis were taken to the United States in the mid-to-late 1970s and continue to be available there to the present day. (wikipedia)
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Well if you're looking for a path to my heart, a "Peanuts" theme is one reasonably certain way to get there. This is a simple letter-removal theme, a wacky concept that is old as the hills but effective if don't properly, with genuinely funny answers and a clever revealer. The revealer part, this puzzle has down. I'm less certain about the answers themselves, which seem like they could've used more brainstorming. TWO INK MINIMUMS would've been fine in the singular, but feels awkward in the plural (feels like the puzzle was desperate for a 14 to match the revealer's 14 and this was the best it could come up with). ILL PRACTICE is both awkward and depressing. I would've liked ILL SERGEANT better here, probably. "The practice of pretending to be ILL" doesn't really translate to ILL PRACTICE very smoothly. The main problem is that the concept just doesn't evoke a particularly funny situation. Maybe there's a wacky clue out there that can save it, but this ain't it. I do like UM MACHINE. A lot. Then there's BEAT TO THE AW, which has the best clue by far (55A: Preceded in commenting on an adorable kitten photo, say?), but also has the weakest base phrase. That is, "beat to the draw," while a real idiom, is far far less common and idiomatically snappy than BEAT TO THE PUNCH, or, from another angle, QUICK ON THE DRAW. It's not just the weaker of two base phrases, it's the weakest of three. If you're going to do something basic like "drop-a-letter" (or, in this case, two letters), then those themers really Really have to land. These answers kinda sorta land, here and there. So it's a very fine concept with only a so-so execution.
On first opening the puzzle my heart sank just a tiny bit because the grid is so choppy-looking. Just pockmarked in a way where all you notice is short answer after short answer after short answer, everywhere, all the time. Saturation. This leads to a predictable glut of crosswordese, which is rarely bad on an individual-answer basis, but which can be enervating in any significant accumulation. ADEN ATTA TWERE LEAS ELENA NAS ECO LEIA WWII OLIN ASP APBS etc. I'm not gonna notice a small handful of these, many of which are fine words, but they repeaters, for sure, and today they kinda come at you en masse. Would've been nice to have a little more sass or verve in the longer Downs. There are a healthy *eight* such answers, but there's not much sizzle there. I like the NW corner's HOW NICE / SWOONED ... those seem like a lively pair. But the rest are just OK. And SO EXTRA ... feels a little forced. The "SO" part anyway. I've heard of particularly intense or emotive people referred to (semi-derisively) as "EXTRA," but SO EXTRA feels like an odd hyperbole. EXTRA on its own pretty much takes care of the "overdoing" it. It tends to be a faux-diplomatic, understated assertion anyway. I don't doubt that people say SO EXTRA. I think I'm just opposed to gratuitous SO's (especially since there's already a "SO" in the grid (1A: "I feel pretty, ___ pretty" ("West Side Story" lyric)).
[just pretend they're saying "KUSH," it's better]
I get that you want to put marijuana in your grid because it feels novel but I'm not convinced KUSH is better than PUSH there, if only because TSKS is such a dreadful plural. TSPS is at least something you see on a regular basis. I'm fine with KUSH in general, but less fine with it *here*. Never gonna like the standardized testing corp. as the clue for ETS (50A: Org. that creates the G.R.E.). Give me extraterrestrials or give me ... well, not death ... just give me extraterrestrials already. All the difficulty on this one came from trying to parse the wacky themers. Otherwise, everything was Monday-easy. This is a promising puzzle. I will spend the rest of the day thinking about Lucy, and there are worse things ...