Constructor: Chase Dittrich and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. average for a Monday)
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THEME:"PIECE OF / MY HEART" (38A: With 41-Across, classic love song suggested by the ends to 18-, 24-, 50- and 60-Across)— theme answers are phrases that end with words that can refer to literal "pieces" of one's "heart":
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: FADE (40D: Haircut common in the Marine Corps) —
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I have some questions about this one. Like, why does the revealer not say who sang the song? I assume this is the Janis Joplin song, unless there are multiple "classic love songs" with this title, so ... why not say so? I don't think it makes the clue any easier. If anything, it just makes things more specific and clearer. It's bizarre to withhold the name, is what I'm saying. Also, are these "pieces" of "heart" really "heart-y" enough? I mean, the chambers have names that we all know, so "chamber" seems awfully broad / vague, and as for "veins" and "arteries," sure you can find them in the heart, but you can find them in every other part of your body too, so ... ??? I guess I'll give you "chamber" and "valve," but "vein" and "artery" seem pretty weak, as heart-specific answers go. And the phrase TRAFFIC ARTERY just feels clunky and off to me. I see that it is a term that exists, but on a technical level the much more popular term is "arterial road" (just google "arterial road" and then "TRAFFIC ARTERY," in quotation marks, and you'll see what I mean), and from a common usage stand point, we just refer to major thoroughfares being "arteries" -- it's a metaphor that doesn't really need the "traffic" in front of it because context alone is going to give you enough information. It's not like you're going to talk about a road being a "major artery" and someone's going to ask "you mean ... for the passage of blood?" No, I don't mean that, your question is ridiculous. Found this theme really conceptually clunky. Arrhythmic, even.
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. average for a Monday)
Theme answers:
- ECHO CHAMBER (18A: Environment that reinforces one's biases)
- TRAFFIC ARTERY (24A: Major thoroughfare)
- IN THE SAME VEIN (50A: "Similarly...")
- SAFETY VALVE (60A: Precautionary device in a pneumatic machine)
The "fade" hairstyle is a popular short haircut for men—it actually made Google's "Year in Search" trending data list for 2020—and it's sometimes also called "military reg." It simply means that your hair tapers from the bottom to the top and it can be as close to the skin as you like. // The term "fade" originated in Black-owned barber shops and has become the popular term for an aggressively tight taper in men's hair. Hair at the sides and back is cut as close as possible with clippers and "fades," or tapers, up into almost any length on top. (byrdie.com)
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TRAFFIC ARTERY was the only answer that slowed me down at all today, though the VALVE part of SAFETY VALVE took some crosses because I found the "pneumatic machine" part of the clue distractingly specific. "SAFETY ... ???? ... oh, it's just VALVE? Oh, ok." I was taken aback a little bit by the clue on FADE, mainly because I think of that as a Black haircut, not a military haircut, but I have since learned that the cut is sometimes referred to as "military reg," so OK, there you go. Still, the term "originated in Black-owned barbershops" (see Word of the Day, above), and the "hi-top FADE" in particular was made broadly famous by hip-hop and R&B songs and cultural icons of my youth (late '80s, early '90s). The haircut I associate with marines is the CREW cut. But again, the clue is accurate enough. The only other brief trouble spot was IMOVIE, which I forgot existed, despite its being installed on my own damn computer, the one I am writing on right now (49D: Video editing program from Apple). Sigh. Oh, and I had a little trouble with SPLIT (33A: Skedaddle), mostly because I had the -IT and though it was going to be a two-word phrase ending in "IT," like ... I dunno, BEAT IT (too long) or LAM IT (is that a thing?) or something like that. OK, that's all, see you tomorrow.