Constructor: Ori Brian
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: ___ & ___ — a uniclue xword where all Across/Down answers that share a first letter are part of a "___ & ___" phrase, which is clued just once (in the Across). The "&" part of the answer is implied (i.e. not in the grid):
Theme answers:
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This one went from irksome to easy, but never got anywhere near enjoyable. I was completely put off the puzzle right from the start, maybe even earlier—I knew going in that was a "uniclue" puzzle because for once I actually looked at the "puzzle notes" before solving (in my software, a little message pops up when you start the puzzle to tell you if there are "note"). Same clue for Across and Down is not new and in my experience not pleasant. Normally what happens there is you have to absolutely torture the affected clues to make them work for both the Across and Down portions of the answer, and that's definitely what I thought was going on with this puzzle at first. That is, I thought 1A: Reposition an icon, maybe had two discrete answers, one of which was DRAG and other of which was DROP. It is totally reasonable to have thought this, as those are both plausible as standalone answers for that clue. They're also both semi-awful as standalone answers, so I braced myself for a grid filled with similar clue torture. But just after I finished that corner, I dropped down a section and got YIN & YANG, at which point I realized, "Oh, the Across and Down are linked by "and" and form a single phrase. OK, that's much less painful." Sadly, it's also much less interesting. And it made the remainder of the puzzle a cinch. The only pair that gave me any joy or stood out in any way was "BUTTONS AND BOWS," which ... I don't even know how I know that song. It just floats in my consciousness, probably via some parody somewhere in my childhood. In my head, I hear someone who doesn't actually know the lyrics and so strings together a bunch of sounds and/or nonsense before hitting the title phrase at the end of the chorus [OMG I just found it! It's "Frasier"! I didn't even watch "Frasier" regularly, how do I know the "BUTTONS AND BOWS" episode!? Anyway, see video below]. Dinah Shore had a talk show when I was little, but I was little in the '70s, not the '40s. Reading the wikipedia entry for the song (above), the song becomes less, not more familiar to me. And yet I liked the answer because it wasn't blah like the others. This puzzle is built around a structural stunt that might get an "aha" out of a solver but only the kind that comes from getting the gimmick, not the kind that (also) comes from being delighted.
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- DRAG & DROP (1A: Reposition an icon, maybe)
- STARS & STRIPES (5A: Key inspiration?) (Francis Scott "Key," that is)
- ROCK & ROLL (10A: Genre with a Hall of Fame in Ohio)
- YIN & YANG (27A: Principle of complementary duality)
- SHORT & SWEET (42A: Pleasantly concise)
- MIX & MATCH (51A: Combine, as versatile wardrobe pieces)
- "BUTTONS & BOWS" (59A: Fashion accessories in a 1940s #1 Dinah Shore hit)
"Buttons and Bows" is a popular song with music written by Jay Livingstonand lyrics by Ray Evans. The song was published in 1947. The song was written for and appeared in the Bob Hope and Jane Russell film The Paleface and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally written with an Indian theme, but was changed when the director said that would not work in the movie. It was a vocal selection on many radio programs in late 1948. It was reprised in the sequel, Son of Paleface, by Roy Rogers, Jane Russell and Bob Hope. In 2004 it finished #87 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of the top tunes in American cinema.
The most popular version of the song was recorded by Dinah Shore in 1947 and reached the charts the following year.[3] Charting versions of the song were also recorded by The Dinning Sisters, Betty Rhodes, Evelyn Knight, and Betty Garrett the same year. In addition, the song was recorded by Gene Autry and by Geraldo and his orchestra (with vocalist Doreen Lundy). (wikipedia)
• • •
[you can skip to about the 1:34 mark if you want to get straight to the song part]
Speaking of Dinah Shore, the TV host, TV GUEST is awful. You're a TALK SHOW HOST or TALK SHOW GUEST but TV GUEST. All you have to do is consider RADIO GUEST (!?!?) to see how bad TV GUEST is. A *show* has a guest, a *medium* does not. And to make matters worse, that answer is crossing EAPOE, the nadir of name abbrevs. I have seen his name stylized that way on publications and maybe even in his signature, but it still seems clunky and it looks absolutely ridiculous in the grid, although I do enjoy imagining some small number of solver out there pronouncing it to themselves as a single word, like, "EE-po? ee-AH-po? Who the hell is this ee-AH-po guy??" It's just Edgar Allan (not Allen, don't ever do that, please). I am currently wondering what kind of TV GUEST EAPOE would've made, which is by far the most fun I've had since I started this puzzle.
Not sure there's anything worth commenting on in the grid, outside the theme. Can we get back to cluing OATS in some way that *doesn't* have to do with where they're grown as a crop. The other day, we learned that Texas was the biggest U.S. producer of OATS. Today, add Russia and Canada to the list of oat-producers. OATS are grown! All over! Not interesting! (sidenote: if you want to see how bad SEO, i.e. Search Engine Optimization, as warped the Googling environment, just search [texas is the largest u.s. producer of these] and look at how many damn clue-bot sites there are now. Page after page after page of clue farms. This was not always so). I studied medieval things during my entire time in grad school and yet still balked at GEST, a little because of GESTE (which is the Fr. spelling, which I saw more often, in phrases like "chanson de GESTE"), but a little because I thought "it's ... not JEST is it? ... no, that's wrong ... right?" I have no spelling confidence any more. Or very little. Anyway, I'd rather see a TV GEST than a TV GUEST. Enjoy your day, 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]