Constructor: Lucy Howard and Ross Trudeau
Relative difficulty: Challenging
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THEME: TURNKEYS (48A: Jailers ... or a hint to "unlocking" four answers in this puzzle) — four Down answers intersect the letter string "KEY," which must be "turned" 90 degrees to become part of the Down answers in order for those answers to make any sense:
Theme answers:
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Several things conspired to make this the hardest Thursday I've solved in a while. First NOOB. Which was not spelled that way. Somehow (1A: Beginner, in lingo = NEWB) (side note: what lingo? maybe name it? as is, it looks like there's a word missing from the clue). But even after clearing that up, I was staring at WHISE JUG and thinking that there was simply a type of jug that I had not heard of before. Maybe the constructors have one of those ridiculously massive and not properly curated wordlists and the obscure WHISE JUG was some 19th-century holdover that had found its way onto said list. I dunno. I just accepted that the answer was WHISE JUG. Further, I've somehow never heard of a KISHKA, which ... how? (6D: Stuffed Jewish dish). KNISH, sure. KISHKA somehow got past me. So that just made me feel bad about myself (not the puzzle's fault, obv). Further further, the cluing was weird and had me writing in wrong answers frequently. UNIONIZES before UNIONISTS was bad (17A: Organized workers). Are UNIONISTS just ... union members? Like me? I guess that's an OK term, but not good enough for me to enjoy your obviously deliberately misdirective clue (when the misdirection answer is stronger than your own answer, then the misdirection actually works against you). Still not sure what the clue on BEAM is doing (13D: Big smile). BEAM is a verb. If I smile, I do not have a BEAM on my face. I'd sooner drink from a WHISE JUG than sport a BEAM. But the clue means the answer *has* to be a noun. So ... the puzzle was very much a slog up top. It got less sloggy when I finally got the theme and realized that WHISE JUG was not, in fact, a thing I was being asked to accept. But it remained pretty sloggy at the clue and (desperate-to-be-current) fill level. ROBOT KITS was absolutely joyless. Really expecting something new and fancy but just got ... two words that might go next to each other. Not even sure what these kits are, or why you are buying so many. I think the theme is clever enough, and certainly the bottom half was easier to enjoy / appreciate once I understood the theme. But only JOCKEY FOR felt properly original and interesting as an answer.
[Impostor syndrome feeling] is way, way, way too specific a clue for DOUBT. Without the SELF- in front of DOUBT, it actually feels just flat-out wrong. If I've heard of E-BOY, I forgot, and as I read about it (see "Word of the Day" entry, above), it was clear why I forgot. My brain was protecting me from things I shouldn't know. TikTok is a lot of rich tech guys getting richer by selling screen addiction and mental health problems disguised as youth agency (fun! empowerment! youth!). But I'm old so my opinions are easily ignorable. I do get it. But I'll take "old guy who is highly suspicious of TikTok" to "non-teen pretending to be down with TikTok in a desperate attempt to be relevant." Anyway, the deleterious effects of TikTok (and other forms of social media) are well known, even if you choose to ignore them. Here's Amanda Hess in the NYT:![]()
Relative difficulty: Challenging
Theme answers:
- WHIS(KEY) JUG (3D: Moonshine container)
- MON(KEY) PAW (9D: Jordan Peele's production company, named for a classic horror short story)
- DON(KEY) KONG (36D: 1981 video game that featured the first appearance of Mario)
- TUR(KEY) DAY (40D: Thanksgiving)
E-girls and e-boys, sometimes collectively known as e-kids, are a youth subculture that emerged in the late 2010s, notably popularized by the video-sharing app TikTok. It is an evolution of emo, scene and mall goth fashion combined with Japanese street fashion (such as anime, cosplay, kawaii and lolita fashion) and K-pop fashion.
Videos by e-girls and e-boys tend to be flirtatious and, many times, overtly sexual. Eye-rolling and protruding tongues (a facial expression known as ahegao, imitating climaxing) are common.
According to Business Insider, the terms are not gender-specific, instead referring to two separate styles of fashion, stating that "While the e-boy is a vulnerable 'softboi' and embraces skate culture, the e-girl is cute and seemingly innocent". (wikipedia)
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| [I was *this* far before I "got" the theme] |
[Impostor syndrome feeling] is way, way, way too specific a clue for DOUBT. Without the SELF- in front of DOUBT, it actually feels just flat-out wrong. If I've heard of E-BOY, I forgot, and as I read about it (see "Word of the Day" entry, above), it was clear why I forgot. My brain was protecting me from things I shouldn't know. TikTok is a lot of rich tech guys getting richer by selling screen addiction and mental health problems disguised as youth agency (fun! empowerment! youth!). But I'm old so my opinions are easily ignorable. I do get it. But I'll take "old guy who is highly suspicious of TikTok" to "non-teen pretending to be down with TikTok in a desperate attempt to be relevant." Anyway, the deleterious effects of TikTok (and other forms of social media) are well known, even if you choose to ignore them. Here's Amanda Hess in the NYT:
Besides the whole NOOB fiasco, the worst mistake-pit I fell in was the GAS / GEL pit ... which is to say I wrote in GAS and then "confirmed" it with GEL before ultimately realizing the answers were actually HAY and HAT, respectively (34A: Fuel for a mustang? / 34D: Solution to a bad hair day). The lowercase "m" on "mustang" should've clued me in that it wasn't the car, but ... I solve before 5am, so sometimes, the wires, the brain wires, they have connectivity issues. Last thing I'll say is that MURMUR is not a [Soothing sound]. It's an annoying inaudible speech sound. Or it implies rumor / gossip, which can suck. At best, it's an R.E.M. album. COOING is a [Soothing sound]. I guess a brook can MURMUR pleasantly, but unless I am standing right next to Wordsworth, I am not apt to make the MURMUR-"soothing" connection. See you tomorrow.