Constructor: Charles M. Deber
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME:"It Was 50 Years Ago Today" — celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first live television performance in the US on "The ED SULLIVAN Show" (2/9/64). Circles make the rough outline of a GUITAR, and the circles spell out the names of THE FAB FOUR, with "Paul McCartney" and "John Lennon" running down the left side and "Ringo Starr" and "George Harrison" running down the right.
Other theme answers:
Word of the Day: LOLLOP (32A: Move in an ungainly way) —
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Probably the most impressive part of this grid is the way TEENAGERS lies across the center of the GUITAR in the middle of the grid. But that intense thematic density also highlights the very weakest part of the grid, fill-wise: AAU crossing NEUER! Yikes. I don't really know what AAU is (Assoc. of Amer. Universities?? Nope, Amateur Athletic Union) (66D: Junior Olympics org.), so that "U" was an educated guess based on my (crossword) knowledge that NEU is "new" in German. So … NEUER, sure, why not? (76A: More modern, in Munich). Anyway, this puzzle was far, far, far too easy. I've been seeing this anniversary heralded in print and on television for weeks now, so theme-wise, nothing made me think. I just filled in the blanks as fast as I could. Got the theme from the title and got most of the theme answers with very few or no crosses. Slowed up the most in the SE, where I just couldn't get SAFARI off the "S" (128A: Kind of jacket with pockets on the chest) or (more understandable) TROYES off the "T" (131A: City on the Seine upstream from Paris). Otherwise, cake. Fastest Sunday solve of all time, or close to it. Didn't hate it, but didn't love it. The circle-drawing is more sitar than guitar—fitting, if the time in question were later in the Beatles' career. But sure, GUITAR, why not? I'm sure some GUITAR somewhere has roughly those dimensions.
LOLLOP and "REALTV" were the big "????"s of the day. I'm sure I've seen LOLLOP before, but that didn't keep me from checking and rechecking all the crosses to make sure I wasn't missing something. There is a bunch of short fill one could complain about, but I don't think it matters much today, first because it's not Sooo bad (compared to NYT norms) and second because the crud didn't add to the difficulty in any way. Only thing worse than bad fill is bad fill that makes the puzzle harder to solve because of its badness. Do you just wear one EARPHONE? (67A: Announcer's ear) … OK, so it appears that "headphones" is always plural because it's essentially two EARPHONEs? I think of the things over your head as "headphones" and the thing in one ear as an "earpiece." But EARPHONE is a thing, because I looked it up, so … this has been "Musings on the Nature of the EARPHONE" by R.P.
Puzzle of the Week! This week was competitive, with Peter Broda continuing to kill it at his site with "Freestyle #28" and Jeffrey Wechsler bringing an impressive variation on the "answers-change-direction" theme to the latest Fireball puzzle ("Following Directions"). But the win, for cleverness as well as timeliness, has to go this week to Brendan Emmett Quigley for "X Word." It's not pornographic, despite the potential implications of that title. It's a basic theme concept, but it's done Just Right. I won't tell you any more so you can do it yourself.
Lastly, a big public thank-you to Cynthia and Olivier Kaiser who sent me a financial contribution all the way from France and then asked that instead of a thank-you card, I send my thanks via my Sunday blog post. So that is what I am doing. Right now! And while I'm at it, a big shout-out to all my International Herald Tribune solvers, wherever you may be.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
PS, in the battle of the tribute puzzles, I think this wins: Merl Reagle's "Beatles, on the Flip Side."
Relative difficulty: Easy
Other theme answers:
- 3D: Craze caused by this puzzle's subjects (BEATLEMANIA)
- 17D: Song sung by this puzzle's subjects on 6-Down's show on 2/9/64 ("SHE LOVES YOU")
- 86D: Song sung by this puzzle's subjects on 6-Down's show on 9/12/65 ("YESTERDAY")
- 70A: Much of the audience for 6-Down's show on 2/9/64 (TEENAGERS)
- 110D: 1965 and 1966 concert site for this puzzle's subjects (SHEA)
intr.v., -loped, -lop·ing, -lops.
- To move with a bobbing motion.
- Chiefly British. To lounge about; loll.
[Alteration of LOLL.]
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/lollop#ixzz2smHUmQXc
• • •
LOLLOP and "REALTV" were the big "????"s of the day. I'm sure I've seen LOLLOP before, but that didn't keep me from checking and rechecking all the crosses to make sure I wasn't missing something. There is a bunch of short fill one could complain about, but I don't think it matters much today, first because it's not Sooo bad (compared to NYT norms) and second because the crud didn't add to the difficulty in any way. Only thing worse than bad fill is bad fill that makes the puzzle harder to solve because of its badness. Do you just wear one EARPHONE? (67A: Announcer's ear) … OK, so it appears that "headphones" is always plural because it's essentially two EARPHONEs? I think of the things over your head as "headphones" and the thing in one ear as an "earpiece." But EARPHONE is a thing, because I looked it up, so … this has been "Musings on the Nature of the EARPHONE" by R.P.
Puzzle of the Week! This week was competitive, with Peter Broda continuing to kill it at his site with "Freestyle #28" and Jeffrey Wechsler bringing an impressive variation on the "answers-change-direction" theme to the latest Fireball puzzle ("Following Directions"). But the win, for cleverness as well as timeliness, has to go this week to Brendan Emmett Quigley for "X Word." It's not pornographic, despite the potential implications of that title. It's a basic theme concept, but it's done Just Right. I won't tell you any more so you can do it yourself.
Lastly, a big public thank-you to Cynthia and Olivier Kaiser who sent me a financial contribution all the way from France and then asked that instead of a thank-you card, I send my thanks via my Sunday blog post. So that is what I am doing. Right now! And while I'm at it, a big shout-out to all my International Herald Tribune solvers, wherever you may be.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
PS, in the battle of the tribute puzzles, I think this wins: Merl Reagle's "Beatles, on the Flip Side."