Constructor: Matthew Stock and Chandi Deitmer
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME:"Two-by-Two" — repeated-word phrase stacked atop another repeated-word phrase ... five times:
Theme answers:
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Light write-up today, as I just got my second booster and I'm already feeling it a little. Mostly sore arm, but also a certain torpor that feels familiar from the last time I got one of these shots. I just keep moving my arm like someone who has a weird tic or is half-heartedly doing calisthenics. Oh, and I'm drinking something close to my weight in water. I'm told it helps. I don't have the usual time and attention to give to the Sunday puzzle, and luckily (sorta) the puzzle obliged me by being very very easy, and by not being terribly comment-worthy. There is no twist, no real wordplay (except the title and the revealer, I guess). It's just stacks of repeated-word phrases. 2x2. It's an architectural gag. I have no idea how hard or how easy it is to pull this off. But I do know that solving it was dull. Once you grok the gag (which is probably early), then you know that every long 2-stack thereafter is going to be repeated-word phrases. This made all those answers so easy that I don't even remember them. There's hardly a one that I couldn't have gotten without any crosses, and with crosses ... there's just no resistance. Nothing there. Seems like there are a lot of phrases one could use for this theme: MONDAY, NEW YORK, WELL, PROMISES, CHOP, BUDDY ... lots of possibilities. I guess we got the phrases we got because they were easy to stack. They're none of them particularly interesting, and PEOPLE PEOPLE just feels wrong. You can be a "people person," but a group of such people seems only theoretical. Just sounds wrong. I will say that "PEOPLE PEOPLE"is a Donna Summer song, so in order that I can enjoy some element of this theme, I'm going to enjoy play that song now:
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- "SISTER SISTER" / MONACO, MONACO (19A: 1990s sitcom starring Tia and Tamera Mowry + 24A: Grand Prix city)
- "LOUIE LOUIE" / "EXTRA, EXTRA!" (41A: 1963 hit for the Kingsmen + 49A: Call from an old-time paperboy)
- ET CETERA ET CETERA / "SURPRISE, SURPRISE" (70A: "... you get the point" + 74A: "Well, lookie here!")
- NAMES NAMES / "KNOCK KNOCK ..." (97A: Sings, in a way + 104A: Classic joke start)
- PEOPLE PEOPLE / DOUBLE DOUBLE (121A: Extroverts + 129A: Basketball feat suggested by this puzzle's pairs of theme answers, informally)
Mofongo (Spanish pronunciation: [moˈfoŋɡo]) is a Puerto Rican dish with fried plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green and fried, then mashed with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil in a wooden pilón (mortar and pestle). The goal is to produce a tight ball of mashed plantains that will absorb the attending condiments and have either pork cracklings (chicharrón) or bits of bacon inside. It is traditionally served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.[4] Particular flavors result from variations that include vegetables, chicken, shrimp, beef, or octopus packed inside or around the plantain orb. (wikipedia)
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The fill is interesting in places, but there was also the completely ridiculous third-string spelling of Amon / Amen Ra (AMUN RA). Wikipedia tells me this is actually the first-string spelling, but sorry, crosswords, you can't foist the AMON/AMEN dilemma on me year after year and then all of a sudden decide "oh, no, sorry, today it's with a 'U'." I give this answer precisely one KUDO, which, contrary to the clue, is not a [Singular praise] but the antithesis of praise, a mockery of the very concept of praise, a crossword nonce word that belongs at the bottom of the sea where it will bother only the cephalopods. I was happy that DOSAS seems to have finally sunk into my crossword-solving brain (79A: Thin pancakes in Indian cuisine). The same cannot be said (yet) for MOFONGO, but I'm working on it. Pretty sure I heard it mentioned recently in a food podcast I listen to, but it didn't stick. I had trouble with this puzzle only in a few places. Had the -KEY but couldn't find the CRI- (75A: Quaint exclamation of dismay). Misspelled ANKE (93D: 1990s tennis star Huber) (got it immediately, but spelled it "ANKA"). I think APE was probably the answer that gave me the most trouble. A-E and still no idea (89D: Certain close relative). That clue is garbage. "Certain" ... come on. That's a non-clue.
Really liked "PEACE OUT!" (96D: "Later!") and UGLY CRY (47D: Weep in an unflattering way, in modern lingo). I also liked HIGH HORSE (35D: Perch for the self-important). Speaking of horses, apparently the Kentucky Derby was yesterday. The winner was RICH STRIKE. I will have forgotten this fact before I finish this sentence because nobody cares about horse racing any more. These are just facts. Horse racing and boxing reigned supreme on sports pages 100 years ago, but in my lifetime, less and less, and now ... pfft. I kinda remember American Pharoah but only because the "Pharaoh" part is misspelled. Before that, I gotta go back to, like, Alydar, maybe? I dunno. I also don't know why I'm talking about any of this, since it has nothing to do with the puzzle. I blame the booster shot. Good day to you all.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld