ATV with four tires / MON 1-24-22 / UN agency awarded the 1969 Nobel Peace Prize / Fall bloom that resembles a daisy / One of two royal sleeping options / Mate for Hagar the Horrible / Calvin's tiger companion in the comics

Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: STARTING QB (59A: Key member of a football team, in brief ... or a feature of 16-, 29-, 35- and 42-Across) — two-word phrases where the first word starts with a "Q" and the second word starts with a "B":

Theme answers:

• QUICK BREAD (16A: It doesn't need time to rise before baking)
• QUEEN BED (29A: One of two "royal" sleeping options)
• QUILTING BEE (35A: Social crafting event)
• QUAD BIKE (42A: ATV with four tires)

Word of the Day: QUAD BIKE (42A) —

An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control. As the name implies, it is designed to handle a wider variety of terrain than most other vehicles. Although it is a street-legal vehicle in some countries, it is not street-legal within most states, territories and provinces of Australia, the United States or Canada. (wikipedia)

Extremely straightforward. I guess the "Q" words make it interesting. More interesting than "R" words or "D" words, for example, probably. I don't know if it's because I don't care about football at all anymore or if it's because the theme is so precisely literal, but conceptually this one just felt flat to me. But there's no question about its "working." That is a fine play on the word "starting," and those are all solid "QB" phrases, so there's nothing much to fault. I don't think I've ever heard the term QUAD BIKE before. I thought it was going to be some vehicle unknown to me, but it turns out it's just ... an ATV. Apparently they also come in 3-wheeled varieties, but I can only ever remember seeing the four-wheelers, so what this puzzle is calling a QUAD BIKE is just an ATV to me. Tellingly, QUAD BIKE is folded into the ATV wikipedia entry, offered as a virtual synonym (see the Word of the Day, above). So that was ... odd. But a QUAD BIKE is very much a thing, and even if the term wasn't well known to me, it was easy to get / infer, both from the "four" in the clue and from the theme itself. There's just not a lot to say about this one. The grid is clean enough. The theme works OK. Here it is. It's NFL playoff season, so the puzzle's got timeliness on its side as well. I like HUGGABLE and STAR TURN as answers—very vibrant. I also loved seeing ELVIS Costello (just as I've loved seeing him literally, in concert, five times). Haven't listened to his brand new album yet ("The Boy Named If"), but this oddly touching interview makes it sound really interesting. ELVIS's late career has been remarkably strong. I thought 2018's "Look Now" was one of the best albums he's ever made.