Constructor: Michael Lieberman
Relative difficulty: easyish Monday, with a couple not-at-all-Monday clues/answers
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THEME: SHONDA RHIMES (54A: Creator of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal" ... or, when said aloud, a hint to the starts of 20-, 30- and 45-Across) — each theme answer's opening word "rhymes" with "Shonda":
Theme answers:
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Conceptually, this is pretty cute. A straightforward repurposing of a famous person's name. The RHONDAs and VONDAs of the world probably feel a little left out, but the fame factor on those folks isn't exactly Monday-level. Vonda Shepard is a singer and Vonda McIntyre was a scifi writer of note, but you couldn't use them on a Monday, and as for RHONDAs, turns out that name *feels* a lot more common than it really is. I blame the Beach Boys'"Help Me, RHONDA." The only well-known RH- RHONDA I can think of is RHONDA Fleming, an actress of yore (i.e. the '40s and '50s—my movie wheelhouse, but probably not yours). She played Jimmy Cagney's faithless girlfriend in the 1949 crime classic "White Heat" ("I made it, ma! Top o' the world!" [explosion!]). So anyway, you get the SHONDA rhymes that you get, and what you get is fine, though it was a little weird to get a TV series creator as the revealer and then a TV series she *didn't* create as one of the themers. Also, what the hell is the FONDA THEATRE? And why is it spelled Britishly? Man, I hate when American theaters do that. Feels weirdly pretentious. Leave the -re stuff to the Brits (and Canadians and what not). Am I supposed to know the FONDA THEATRE? I know FORD'S THEATRE (-RE again, what the hell, are all non-movie theaters spelled that way!?). I'm sure the FONDA THEATRE exists, but it doesn't strike me as famous. Not Monday famous. And speaking of not Monday famous, what in the actual heck is going on with the clue on "APACHE"!?!?! If you know the Sugarhill Gang, you know them for the ultra-famous early rap hit "Rapper's Delight." I have literally never heard of "APACHE," which is fine, I haven't heard of many things, but I really think this is a strange way to approach a Monday clue: to take an ordinary tribal name and turn it into a Saturday-level trivia question. Plus, you gotta wonder why you'd drive right into the whole cultural appropriation mess (see video, above). Just a bizarre cluing move.
Relative difficulty: easyish Monday, with a couple not-at-all-Monday clues/answers
Theme answers:
- FONDA THEATRE (20A: Los Angeles venue named for the star of "12 Angry Men")
- "WANDAVISION" (30A: Disney+ series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe)
- HONDA ACCORD (45A: First car from a Japanese manufacturer to be made in the U.S. (1982))
[warning: cultural insensitivity aplenty]
• • •
Outside the theme, the fill was decent, maybe even slightly better than the usual Monday fare. I enjoyed seeing CHAUCER (my old friend) and GUERNICA, and CINCO DE MAYO makes for a pretty lively long Down there in the SE. ARCO ACAI ERRS didn't have me too hopeful coming out of the NW, but the fill picked up after that. Not sure I'd put ARCO and ARCS in the same grid (since they're both related to bows) (from L. arcus, "bow, curve"). Not surprisingly, I had difficulty only when the cluing tried to get cute, which today came with the tie-in clues about the things brought home intentionally/unintentionally from the beach. SEASHELL was easy enough, but SAND was not. I guess you get SAND in your towel and various bags and garments and thus you "bring it home" but that clue is a stretch, and the stretchiness adds vagueness and thus difficulty. I thought the answer was SUN- something. Seriously thought (for a second or so) that there was some kind of rebus afoot, and the answer was SUN [BURN] ... I mean, those are *definitely* "unintentional," whereas maybe you *meant* to bring home SAND from the beach. As a souvenir. So SAND added unpleasant grit. But otherwise, this played like a normal easy Monday. Hope you found at least some of this puzzle enjoyable. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]