Constructor: Meghan Morris
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME:"Take Two"— you have to "take two" letters out of the theme clues to make theme make sense: specifically, the letters "ET," as articulated in the puzzle's revealer: WORKS WITHOUT A NET (121A: Has no plan B ... or, when parsed differently, what each of the starred clues does vis-à-vis its answer?) (i.e. "works without an 'et'"):
Theme answers:
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This played very hard for me. I had nothing in the NW at first past, as there was "?" clue after "?" clue and then WALE clued as the rapper ... I mean, I'm pretty sure that album is in my actual iTunes library and I *still* couldn't retrieve the dude's name (2D: Rapper with the 2011 hit album "Ambition"). 2011 is a long time ago now, and it's not like we're talking about NAS- or ICET-level fame here. Just brutal first pass at that corner. Honestly couldn't get much of Anything until somewhere in the NE ... "CATS," I think (14A: Musical whose name is an anagram of the members of a musical). Lots and Lots of musicals / operas today. "CATS,""TOSCA,""AIDA," maybe others, I don't really wanna go looking right now. Anyway, once I did get some traction, I never really could get going because the theme remained inscrutable for a long Long time. I eventually just went down and looked at the revealer clue, but since I had nothing down there, merely looking at the clue didn't help. I think I worked my way down the whole east side of the grid, getting answers like SHAVING CREAM and INFLATION and having no idea why they were "right," until finally WORKS WITHOUT A NET went in, and I could (mostly) see what was going on. At first I was like "I don't see any 'net' to take out" ... then I remembered I was supposed to parse the answer differently, i.e not "A NET," but "AN 'ET'."
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- ELECTRICAL OUTLET (23A: *What's in your wallet) (i.e. [What's in your wall])
- FAKE NEWS (32A: *Press junket) (i.e. [Press junk], etc.)
- SHAVING CREAM (43A: *Barbershop quartet)
- GEOLOGIST (49A: *Rocket scientist)
- USERNAME AND PASSWORD (68A: *Security blankets)
- INFLATION (92A: *A drop in the bucket)
- EXTERMINATOR (95A: *Ticketmaster)
- DRIBBLES (106A: *Ballet movements)
Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswanabranch of Zone S (S.30), and is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi language and the Lozi language.
Setswana is an official language of Botswana and South Africa. It is a lingua franca in Botswana and parts of South Africa, particularly North West Province. Tswana tribes are found in more than two provinces of South Africa, primarily in the North West, where about four million people speak the language. An urbanised variety, which is part slang and not the formal Setswana, is known as Pretoria Sotho, and is the principal unique language of the city of Pretoria. (wikipedia)
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The gimmick works brilliantly in places. [Security blanks] just cruuuuuushed me. Didn't help that I was coming at nearly every themer from the back end (because I did the east first—not the wisest move). My main problem with the execution is that the "ET"-less clues really really Really need "?"s on them ... most of the time. Clue on GEOLOGIST ends up working perfectly—yes, a GEOLOGIST is in fact a "Rock scientist." But the rest of the "ET"-less clues end up being punny and/or really ... forced, in a way that would normally earn the clue a terminal "?" ... but no such luck. I guess we were just supposed to take the whole gimmick as one giant "?" Anyway, the "ET"-less clues range from weak (e.g. [Barbershop quart]) to perfect (e.g. the aforementioned USERNAME AND PASSWORD clue). Didn't love that there was a conspicuous "-ET" in one of the themers (ELECTRICAL OUTLET). I know the theme is clue-related, so there's technically no foul there, but I'd get all "ET"s the hell out of the way if I really wanted my theme to pop. Also, NET gets duped (see 65A: NET GAIN), which seems really bad, since NET is the key word in your revealer. And the title isn't great. Doesn't seem to really capture what's going on except in the vaguest of ways (i.e. you do in fact take two ... letters out of the clue). So all in all this is really ambitious and imaginative. I just found the execution a little wobbly.
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| Cute ATARI clue you got there... (70D: Maker of the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game) |
So much hardness for me today. Even after the disastrous opening (NW) corner, with its "?"TWERK clue (1A: Do some backup dancing?) and its "?"EVES clue (3D: The before-times?) (YORE!?) etc., I kept falling into ditches. So hard to seem STOMACHS coming from the bottom up, with such a vague clue (9D: Stands). So so hard to even grasp the meaning of READER (7D: Circulation unit). Both clues are fine, just very tough. Wanted EONS for ERAS in that same area (31A: Stretches of time). Wanted HEAPS ON for DUMPS ON in that same area (28A: Burdens with). No idea about John Legend song titles, so "ALL OF" was tough, esp. alongside BUENA, which I want to come before "Vista," not "Park" (12D: ___ Park, city west of Anaheim). Couldn't grasp meaning of "chain" in 50D: Tool chain (LOWES). Thought OZARK was OSAGE (51D: Missouri county on the Arkansas border). No idea who this non-Tharp TWYLA is (66D: "Schitt's Creek" role for Sarah Levy). Continue to be repulsed by NON-PC, as I am by UN-PC, both of which have been deleted from my wordlists. The very idea of "PC" is a right-wing shibboleth, so I won't go near it. What is an ETON shirt? I collar, mess, rifles, I've seen all these preceded by ETON, but "Global (?) brand of men's dress shirts," that's a new one on me, a mostly non-wearer of "dress shirts." That said, I generally found the bottom of this puzzle easier than the top, but that may just be because the more grid you have filled in, the easier things get, as a rule, and also I understood the theme by the time I was finishing up, which helped enormously.
Struggled to come up with that "K" in "OPTICKS" (81D: Sir Isaac Newton work on the fundamentals of light). Thought maybe OPTICES was a word. We already got a "tick"-based theme clue (EXTERMINATOR), so more "ticks" felt unwelcome. I live in "tick" country, which is also Lyme country, so "ticks" are always unwelcome. Luckily the grid felt otherwise mostly clean and largely pest-free. Loved GOT WISE and "OFF WE GO!" Very zippy. That's all I've got for today. Gonna take the day off and go see "Don't Worry, Darling." Looks like it's going to be either legit good or campy good, and I'm down for either. See you later.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld