Constructor: Trent Evans
Relative difficulty: This felt impossibly hard, but looking at my time (20:27) it was only medium hard
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THEME: Themeless
Word of the Day: PHASER (Fictional weapon of the 23rd century) —
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TINCAN is another example of that-- it's a fun phrase that I'm sure conjures up an image in your mind. Lovely consonance as well. And instead we get.... Military trivia. Not my wheelhouse! I would have clued this as [Communication device for Calvin and Hobbes*, occasionally].
Relative difficulty: This felt impossibly hard, but looking at my time (20:27) it was only medium hard
THEME: Themeless
Word of the Day: PHASER (Fictional weapon of the 23rd century) —
Phasers are common and versatile phased array pulsed energy projectile weapons, first seen in the original Star Trek series and later in almost all subsequent films and television spin-offs. Phasers range in size from small arms to starship-mounted weaponry. Though they seem to discharge in a continuous "beam", close observation reveals that phasers actually discharge a stream of pulsed energy projectiles into the target.
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Hey pals! This is your last day of Malaika, or as I like to call it, Malaika MWednesday: Part 3. After this you will be free of my "horrible" and "inane" reviews. (For one month. Then I will be back rambling about "systemic sexism" and "I don't know pop culture references from the 60s" and other Gen Z bullshit.) Today's random musical theater YouTube video is Eva. Sigh. I always end up at Eva.
A Friday! I always prefer a Friday to err on the side of "too easy" and this one did not. (Actually, I always prefer for all puzzles to err on the side of "too easy.") One of my things is that if I'm not enjoying a puzzle, I'll simply stop solving it. (Same with books or movies that I'm not enjoying.) If I were not reviewing this puzzle I would have stopped after five minutes, but I'm glad I stuck it out. I didn't love the overall cluing vibe (which seemed to be "hard and vague") but looking over the fill now that I'm done, there's sooo much good stuff in here.
Both of the stacks are truly flawless, at least going across. Six stunning answers. (The downs... hmm. ADIA.... PIU.... LEONI.... Hmmm......) I wish they had been clued in a way that was a little more.... Idk, Friday! Lively and light and sparkly and fun! Reducing SPACE CAMP-- such an evocative phrase-- to geography-based trivia is just not my idea of a Friday clue. I would have preferred something as cliche and easy and technically inaccurate as [Summer destination that's out of this world].
Other high parts were LIVE TWEET (*chef's kiss*) and I WONT ASK, which I literally said tonight at dinner, and FAKE TAN and BESTIES (... which I also said at dinner tonight). Low parts for me were MARSALIS (a name I'm unfamiliar with) and AMSCRAYS and ECT. Can someone explain NAVE for [Basilica section] please?
Oh, I guess I should say "ACED IT and YOU NAILED IT have IT crossing at the I" so there we go. I said it. It's done.
Bullets:
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Oh, I guess I should say "ACED IT and YOU NAILED IT have IT crossing at the I" so there we go. I said it. It's done.
Bullets:
- Have you ever had falafel made from FAVA beans? I've only had the chickpea variety.
- The clue for MORNING RITUAL slowed me down a lot because I shower and solve the crossword at night! I love to be clean when I get into bed, and my curls do better drying overnight.
- The first answer I put in was [Position in an array, to a computer scientist]. A gimme! I guess my nit is that I would have said "programmer" instead of "computer scientist."
- I love mathematical PARADOXes. My favorite changes, but right now it's Russell's-- a classic.
- KNEX was another gimme for me... Did y'all put "Lego" first? (I had the X from above which made it easy.) I had tons of these as a kid.
*I read enough C&H when I was younger that through early college I had every strip memorized. (This skill is now, alas, rusty.) A friend didn't believe me and I told him to pick a random strip, describe the first panel to me, and I would complete the rest. He picked this one, and indeed, I nailed (heh) it, and he literally was speechless.
Also, this comic is 10x funnier now that WAP actually means something.