Constructor: Alexander Liebeskind
Relative difficulty: Harder than the usual Monday, for sure
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THEME: NEW BEGINNINGS (37A: Fresh starts .. or, when said aloud, what 18-, 23-, 53- and 58-Across all have?) — each themer begins with the sound "new" (or Greek letter "Nu," if that's more helpful):
Theme answers:
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Notes:
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Relative difficulty: Harder than the usual Monday, for sure
Theme answers:
- NOUGAT BAR (18A: Nutty candy offering)
- NEUTRON STAR (23A: Ultradense galactic body)
- NOODLE BOWLS (53A: Soba servings, for instance)
- NUMERO UNO (58A: Top dog)
Ant-Man is the name of several superheroes appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Ant-Man's first appearance was in Tales to Astonish #35 (September 1962). The persona was originally the brilliant scientist Hank Pym's superhero alias after inventing a substance that can change size, but reformed thieves Scott Lang and Eric O'Grady also took on the mantle after the original changed his superhero identity to various other aliases, such as Giant-Man, Goliath, and Yellowjacket. Pym's Ant-Man is also a founding member of the super hero team known as the Avengers. The character has appeared in several films based on the Marvel character, such as Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. (wikipedia)
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I think this is a great theme idea. The execution, however ... I dunno. And by "I dunno," I mean I've never heard of half the themers. Let's just say that my never having heard of the term NEUTRON STAR is on me, that I'm a dummy, etc. It's Monday, the answer seems very un-Monday, but again, let's stipulate "dummy" and move on ... move on to NOUGAT BAR, what the hell? I can conceive of such a thing, kind of, but as someone who has consumed a number of nougat-containing bars in my lifetime, I can tell you in all sincerity that I have no recollection of ever having encountered the phrase NOUGAT BAR before in my life. The only reason I know that nougat even exists is because Snickers told me that it exists. It's some kind of nutty concoction, right? Peanuty, maybe? Anyway, wikipedia tells me that nougat "is used in a variety of candy bars," but not that it is, itself, the bar.
The nougat that appears in many candy bars in the United States and United Kingdom differs from traditional recipes and consists of sucrose and corn syrup aerated with a whipping agent (such as egg white, hydrolyzed soya protein or gelatine); it may also include vegetable fats and milk powder. Typically, it is combined with nuts, caramel, or chocolate. Some American confections feature this type of nougat as the primary component, rather than combined with other elements. Varieties of nougat are found in Milky Way, Reese's Fast Break, Snickers, Double Decker, ZERO bars, and Baby Ruth bars. "Fluffy nougat" is the featured ingredient in the 3 Musketeers bar. (wikipedia)
So I am familiar with all of the above-mentioned nougat-containing candy bars, but I wouldn't call any of them NOUGAT BARs. There are apparently "traditional recipes" of nougat that I guess come in bar form? All I can say is that it's Monday and NOUGAT BAR feels X-tremely made-up. NOODLE BOWLS and NUMERO UNO are right on the Monday money, good job there. I guess getting that fourth "Nu-" sound was probably pretty difficult. But I don't know if NOUGAT BAR was worth it. I had NOUG- and thought "well, it's NOUGAT ... something? Is there an alt-spelling? NOUGATTE? Nope, still too short. NOUGATELE?" The answer just hits my ears wrong.
Other things felt not quite Monday. The clue on STAFF, for instance (1A: Wizard's weapon). SPELL seemed more likely, and anyway how deep into the D&D rules am I supposed to get for a Monday 1-Across anyway? SPY had a "?" clue (1D: Intel employee?) which kept that NW corner briefly mysterious, and then TEA ... people I know who drink TEA drink it all the time. Doesn't scream "breakfast" to me, so yeah, slow going to start this one. Also had PAPAYA before BANANA (6D: Yellow fruit)—the "A"s are all in the same place!! And then I couldn't figure out what the hell the "!" was doing on the SPOILED clue (26D: This is not good!). I thought it was one of those clues like "Step on it!" and the answer would be, say, STAIR. But the "This" in [This is not good!] wasn't a thing—it was the meaning of "not good." Pretty screwy cluing (again, esp. for a Monday). In the end, because the puzzle was otherwise pretty Monday, these weirdnesses were easily overcomeable. But still, this felt more Too-Teu-Tu-Tew-Tuesday to me. Last thing about the theme: there is no need for the "when said aloud" part of the revealer clue. You've got a "?" on the clue, you're covered. It's clear. The "when said aloud" is just redundant. Or else the "?" is.
- 50D: Suni ___, Team U.S.A. gymnastics medalist (LEE) — this also seems pretty un-Monday (just ... "medalist?"), but there's nothing wrong with giving a common name a new / current twist like this. Crosses make it easy to sort.
- 31A: Spot for a mic clip (LAPEL) — the puzzle is weirdly fixated on LAPEL mics this past week (LAPEL MIC was an answer ... I don't know, very recently).
- 57A: Pollen gatherers (BEES)— this puzzle contains three plural letters ("when said aloud"): BEES, GEES, and SEAS. It's also got two more letters ("when said aloud") in ESSO. And then another ("when said aloud") with TEA. So all in all, that's B G C S O T, and if you anagram those, you get ... well, basically nonsense. Really wanted there to be a secret code.
- 8D: Australian bird that's a vowel change from 7-Down (EMU)— everything after "bird" here is gratuitous. Not that I don't like the idea of an EMO EMU, but the latter part of this clue adds no important information. It's not like I was unsure which "Australian bird" it might be. "Huh, do you think they want KOOKABURRA here?," I did not wonder.
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