Constructor: August Miller
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: DOT THE [I]'S (62A: Attend to details .. or a hint to entering six Down answers in this puzzle) — all "I"s in this puzzle are "dotted," which is to say that they are "I"s in the Across but they are "DOT"s in the Downs:
Theme answers:
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Just one week after CROSS YOUR "T"S, we get this. Publishing handwriting-based puzzles is peak New York Times-level with-it-ness. Very now. I have nothing against handwriting. I prefer it to typing / digital missive-ing most of the time. But it is weird to have your puzzle lean so hard into APP-dom and general digital-ness and then throw puzzles at solvers that absolutely do not translate on the screen. Actually, the CROSS YOUR "T"S one asked you to imagine the *clues* differently (all lowercase "L"s turned to lowercase "T"s), so that wouldn't affect the screen experience so much. Maybe through some APP magic, today's puzzle (on the APP) gives you actual dotted "i"s when you're done. I just wrote "DOT" in all the affected squares and hoped my brain would remember that they were "I"s in the Acrosses. That seemed to work fine. I think it's a clever theme and I like that Every Single "I" in the grid is "DOT"-ted. That is, there are six theme squares, six DOT / I squares, and no other "I"s anywhere in the grid. Of course, most people, even if they are filling out their puzzles by hand, don't solve in lowercase letters, but I assume everyone's flexible enough to just [extreme Tim Gunn voice] "make it work." The only weak element to the theme was that the DOT in POLKA DOTS is the only "DOT" that's not broken up inside its phrase, and it's also an actual DOT, like the DOT over a lowercase "i," so it's not hidden or disguised in any way, the way it oughta be. Good work handling all the other "DOT"s, though.
I thought "The ROOM" was the movie that Brie Larson won the Oscar for. No? Ah, looks like that movie was just called "ROOM." I have no idea what "The ROOM" is, which means it's probably a horror movie ... nope, just a famously bad movie. Seems to have been popularized by the book (and then the movie) "The Disaster Artist." Huh. OK. Thankfully, that answer was not hard to infer. Never heard of MATT Bomer, and even after looking him up, despite his extensive resumé, it's really really hard for me to place him (48D: Actor Bomer of "Magic Mike"). Never saw "Magic Mike" (this is a hole in my pop culture knowledge I actually *do* feel bad about). Looks like Bomer is best known for his run on a TV show called "White Collar" ... which I couldn't even pretend to describe. Like "Suits" (LOL, "Suits"), it seems like a fictional fictional show to me. People say that it exists, and I believe them, but I know nothing. He was on "Chuck" for a bit back in the '00s. I watched that for a while. So I've probably seen him. I'm just glad I only had to get the MATT part today. BOMER might've killed me (though you are now encouraged to bring BOMER on! Lower the BOMER! I am ready).
More:
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- LARE[DO, T]EXAS / [I]T'S WAR (4D: Southern border city in a Larry McMurtry title / 22A: "The time for diplomacy has passed")
- JU[DO T]HROW / S[I], SEÑORA (7D: Certain martial arts takedown / 17A: Polite Spanish assent)
- AVOCA[DO T]OAST / [I]MO (10D: Trendy brunch order / 28A: Letters of qualification)
- YOU [DO T]HE MATH / OU[I]S (25D: "It's not hard to guess how this will end" / 38A: French agreements)
- TORPE[DO T]UBE / [I]HOP (33D: Underwater weapon-launching apparatus / 54A: Denny's competitor)
- POLKA [DOT]S / DOT THE "[I]"S (40D: Spotty pattern / 62A: Attend to details .. or a hint to entering six Down answers in this puzzle)
Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. [...] In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019. (wikipedia)
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The only SUCKY thing about the puzzle, and it was only semi-SUCKY, was the idea that I would know "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." characters or model train lingo (!?!?). Look, Willy LOMAN and Ford LTDS and the Beatles'"White Album," OK, but I can follow you into Olde Tymey-ville only so far. And anyway, how are people *watching* "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." supposed to know the weird-ass way that LOUANN (LOU-ANN?) Poovie *spells* her first name!? Oof. As for the model trains, that clue is just perverse. G-SCALE is a perfectly normal musical thing* and you've gone and gunked it up with this dated / niche hobbyist clue (14D: Proportionate size for some model trains). I have only ever seen men and boys (always men and boys) playing with model trains on television and in movies. Never (ever) in real life. I'm fine with old men playing with children's toys, believe me, but it's bizarre to have a clue that's aimed at only roughly six such men on the planet. I hope they're happy.
I thought "The ROOM" was the movie that Brie Larson won the Oscar for. No? Ah, looks like that movie was just called "ROOM." I have no idea what "The ROOM" is, which means it's probably a horror movie ... nope, just a famously bad movie. Seems to have been popularized by the book (and then the movie) "The Disaster Artist." Huh. OK. Thankfully, that answer was not hard to infer. Never heard of MATT Bomer, and even after looking him up, despite his extensive resumé, it's really really hard for me to place him (48D: Actor Bomer of "Magic Mike"). Never saw "Magic Mike" (this is a hole in my pop culture knowledge I actually *do* feel bad about). Looks like Bomer is best known for his run on a TV show called "White Collar" ... which I couldn't even pretend to describe. Like "Suits" (LOL, "Suits"), it seems like a fictional fictional show to me. People say that it exists, and I believe them, but I know nothing. He was on "Chuck" for a bit back in the '00s. I watched that for a while. So I've probably seen him. I'm just glad I only had to get the MATT part today. BOMER might've killed me (though you are now encouraged to bring BOMER on! Lower the BOMER! I am ready).
- 7A: Tipping point? (JAR)— as in "tip jar," where you put ... tips. I got this one easily enough. Other question-mark clues, I was not so lucky with. Tried ESS for 35D: Stop start? (NON-) and ABC for 10A: Intro course? (APP). I also wrote in ACT for 8D: Word after bad or hard (ASS), though I'm less sure why I did that. "Hard ACT to follow ..." OK, but "Bad ACT..." no, not really. You can be a bad actor (in more ways than one), but "Bad ACT" is a loose observation about a comedy routine, at best. ASS makes much more sense.
- 47A: Bird found in the mud? (EMU) — Sigh. This is not a cryptic puzzle. I like cryptic puzzles, but this is not a cryptic puzzle. Seeing cryptic cluing in my standard xword makes me eyeroll.
- 11D: Benefit (PERK) — because of my ABC gaffe at 10A: Intro course? (APP), I wrote in BOON here at first.
- 45A: Travelocity spokescreature (GNOME)— I like "spokescreature" a lot. Beats the hell out of the AFLAC "spokesduck"