Constructor: Lillian Simpson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: FRIED EGGS (58A: Breakfast order visually suggested three times in this puzzle's grid)— two eggs ("O"s) appear atop ("over") the words HARD, MEDIUM, and EASY ... thus you get your eggs over hard, over medium, or over easy, just like in a diner
Theme answers:
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I liked the way this one unfolded, in that the eggness (egghood?) of the whole thing didn't announce itself to me at all with the first two themers. If I had said what I was seeing, literally, out loud ("two Os over hard, two Os over medium", I might've noticed the theme. But it was all so Tuesday-easy that I didn't bother to stop and process. I like that EASY comes last of the three, since "over EASY" is by far the most common way to order your fried eggs, so that answer functions almost like a pre-revealer ... even though that's not how I actually experienced it (I hit the real revealer first and then backed into EASY TARGETS ... which I had first as SOFT TARGETS, since it seemed to fit the clue (45A: Ideal marks for scammers) and also seemed kinda eggy (over easy yolks are indeed soft). This is a cute theme, simple and neatly executed. I appreciate the OVER HARD representation, since that's how I order my eggs (unless I am eating bibimbap, runny yolks make me gag a little). I also really liked the clue on that theme answer—HARD CIDER (17A: Apple product that's not suitable for kids). It sounds like it's going to be an Apple product that only streams porn, or an Apple sex toy, but instead it's just an alcoholic beverage. Nice use of that initial capital letter, and the phrase "Apple product," to suggest the company and mask the actual fruit, is what I'm saying.
More things:
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- HARD CIDER (17A: Apple product that's not suitable for kids)
- PRINT MEDIUM (29A: Newspapers, books or magazines)
- EASY TARGETS (45A: Ideal marks for scammers)
verb (used with or without object), rif·fled, rif·fling.
• • •
It would be nice never to see LEONA Helmsley or the derogatory term WINO ever again. Both those answers were hard bumps in the road today. The fill is mostly fine, overall, though things get a little rough in the SW, with USONE and ALOU and LEMMA, which ... is a term I would never ever know if my best friend in college hadn't been a mathematician (56A: Helpful theorem, in math). Doesn't seem like a Tuesday-ish answer. It's NYTXW history is weird. It's relatively rare (this is just its sixth appearance since 2004—we actually went 11 years (!!) without seeing it at all (2004-2015)), but when it does appear, it appears on Monday and Tuesday as often as it does on Friday and Saturday. It's always weird to me the math stuff I don't remember learning despite having had math through Calc II. There are lots of math folks in crosswords, which might make it more grid-familiar than real-life familiar. The plural is "lemmata"—how/why did I remember that? My friend's mathiness must've rubbed off in odd, unpredictable, sporadic ways. But back to the fill. Really don't like APRS in the plural (34A: Credit figs.). Hadn't seen ALEUT in so long that I actually had No Idea what 52D: Language related to Inupiaq and Yupik was supposed to be, even with the "A" in place. You used to see ALEUT everywhere. You'd also see ATKA sometimes. Or even ATTU. Alaska was a crosswordese goldmine, is what I'm saying. Anyway, ALEUT frequency has been dialed back considerably, so now it's just a fine, regular term. One I semi-forgot. I also semi-forgot RIFFLE, which just sounds silly. I can't imagine saying it, and yet ... "riffling through a magazine" ... I guess that sounds OK. It sounds like a brand of toilet paper, though I may be crossing Charmin's Mr. WHIPPLE with the potato chip brand RUFFLES ("RIFFLES has ridges!"—that would be quite a slogan for a toilet paper brand).
[seriously what was wrong with people in '80s TV commercials!?
The first guy in this ad, yeesh ...]
- 9A: Audible response of contempt (SNORT) — I wonder how many times in my life I have tripped all over the SNORT SNEER SNOOT nexus of answers. Luckily, "audible" helped me out today.
- 47D: Expecting a baby, in slang (PREGGO)— interesting intersection of EGG and EGG here; pregnancy adds a whole new dimension to the "egg" theme (!). I prefer PREGGERS, since it makes me think of neither waffles (Eggos!) nor spaghetti sauce (Prego!). Actually, I think I prefer "pregnant." Just "pregnant" is fine.
- 25A: Certain spousal state (WIFEHOOD)— got the WIFE part easily enough, but ... WIFEDOM? WIFENESS? WIFERAGE? WIFEIOWA? Thank god for those thematic "O"s.
- 36D: Rock-paper-scissors, by another name (ROSHAMBO) — A WHILE (!) back there was a NYTXW puzzle with a ROSHAMBO theme and many people complained that they had never (ever) heard that term used for "rock paper scissors." Well, here you go—your hard-won crossword knowledge finally pays off! If Rambo worked for OSHA ... ROSHAMBO! It's a fun word.
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