Constructor: Paolo Pasco
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME:"Terminal Connections"— five different pairs of (Down) answers turn at right angles (one east, one west) and their ends ("terminals") eventually meet up (make a "connection") at two circled squares—those squares end up spelling out MAKE ENDS MEET. Also, the horizontal (Across) parts of each pair of theme answers form a separate, clued answer:
Theme answers:
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Well, it took me about half an hour just to type in the theme answers, so I only have so much energy left to give. I am really torn about this puzzle. The theme is ingenious. Intricate and complex and brilliant. It is one of those "feat of construction" puzzles that, in this case, really feels worth it. I don't know if I *loved* solving it, but I at least liked solving it, and I really am impressed by all of its layers—the right angles, the separate, third answer formed by the connecting themers, the message spelled out by all the "Terminal Connection"—all of it, really quite amazing. Perhaps because the theme is so incredibly dense and demanding, I felt like the grid got in trouble in a few areas. And it definitely got outside (repeatedly, way outside) my knowledge base. Let's leave my ignorance aside for a moment and just deal with the grid roughness. The iffiest part of the grid is that REL (?!) / LESTRADE crossing. If I had to name four characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories, that ... would not be one of them. I don't Really know who LESTRADE is. I think I'm confusing him with the vampire Lestat. My point is that I needed crosses to get all of the "LEST" part, and that "L" was an out and out guess. "L" really did feel right, and it was right, but it seemed cruel to give REL (which is not good fill to begin with) a not-terribly-famous partial name clue. Anywhere else in the grid, I wouldn't have minded learning the name of Lil REL Howery, but I kinda minded learning the name *there*, in that specific place. Crossing proper nouns at a letter that I can't infer is the definition of a "Natick." Now, I *could* infer it, or at least I pulled it out of somewhere, but still, yeesh. That felt like a design flaw. Otherwise, the theme was well nigh flawless.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- SIDE AR(M) (A)DAMAR (6D: *Baseball pitching style ... or a weapon = SIDEARM + 24A: Old-fashioned letter opener = DEAR MADAM + 14D: *Big name in hotels = RAMADA)
- BITEMAR(K) (E)TINGIER (36D: *Indentation on a chew toy = BITE MARK + 53A: Online promotions, collectively = E-MARKETING + 38D: *Light again = REIGNITE)
- LESTRAD(E) (N)AMESRON (40D: *Whom Holmes tells "You do find it very hard to tackle the facts" = LESTRADE + 56A: What businesses go by = TRADE NAMES + 43D: *Many a Viking = NORSEMAN)
- THOUSAN(D) (S)TONEUGUH (62D: *Grands = THOUSANDS + 89A: Rock commonly used in asphalt = SANDSTONE + 65D: *Early French Protestants = HUGUENOTS)
- US VS THE(M) (E)ROOM IMED (67D: *Basic rivalry = US VS. THEM + 91A: Part of a hotel with décor fitting a certain motif = THEME ROOM + 70D: *"G.I. Jane" star, 1997 = DEMI MOORE)
- ANOTHER ON(E) (T)TESSAB (100D: *"Encore!" = "ANOTHER ONE!" + 122A: "Be My Baby" group, 1963 = THE RONETTES + 106D: *Actress Angela (BASSETT)
: a street on which a vehicle must stop just before entering a through street (merriam-webster.com) [So it's just ... a street that has a stop sign on it perpendicular to one that doesn't? Is that it? This term is baffling to me]
• • •
The fill, on the other hand, gave me some grief. ILIADS? Plural? (68A: Long, tragic stories). Not really buying that. Sunday SCARIES? That is some infantilizing dopey terminology right there (112A: Sunday ___ (end-of-week anxiety, casually)). DOOMER? (75D: Fatalistic sort, in slang). Come on, do people actually say that? I know that there are BOOMERs who DOOM-SCROLL but are they really DOOMERs? Also, being "fatalistic" and believing you are / the world is "doomed" are very different things, actually. Moving on: the clue on WHEY, wh(e)y!? (80D: No ___! (punnily named dairy-free chocolate brand)). So unnecessarily hard and proper-nounified. If you stuff something into a hole (say) (41A), you CRAM it down. RAMS DOWN is something you with an idea or concept, to someone's throat. REHOUSE was rough, esp. coming so close on the heels of the themer REIGNITE. There were two times when cross-references were in the same small section (IN RE / MEMO and AQUA / LUNG), which always makes solving said sections awkward / tougher. I just grew WEARIER as the puzzle went on because of a pile-up of these little annoyances. Again, the big picture = amazing theme. But I felt like the non-theme stuff was slowly pecking me to death. A little.
I loved "Parasite" but confess that I know none of the actors names, so PARK SO-DAM was a toughie. But since her name was largely free of theme entanglements, I could pick it up from crosses just fine. Not a fan of the TMNT, so "COWABUNGA" didn't amuse me the way it will amuse others, but I really Really liked seeing THE RONETTES plastered across the bottom of my grid. Just an amazing connector phrase for those two final theme answers. TEA CEREMONY is another lovely long answer (45A: Ritual with bamboo utensils). Biggest mistake was writing in YEN for WON (never watched "Squid Game," though if I'd thought about it for half a second, I did know it was Korean, not Japanese). This made the already hard DOOMER and WHEY even harder. Don't think I had any other out-and-out errors. Found "AS A FOLLOW-UP" really hard, esp. as clued (69D: "Continuing where we left off last time ..."). I had the first few letters and could only think of "AS AFOREMENTIONED..." which wouldn't fit. Speaking of fit, HONDA FIT, nice. I mean, cars, boo, product placement, boo, but I thought getting the whole make + model in there was at least original.
Not sure I'd've kept MEN in the puzzle (1D: Bachelors, e.g.) when NORSEMAN is already there, in a theme position (I've definitely had editors flag less flagrant etymological dupes than that), but that's a very minor consideration, especially consider how big the grid is and how far away those answers are from one another. The clue on IDAHO was fantastic (84D: U.S. ID?), maybe my favorite of the puzzle. So deceptively simple. All in all, far more fun than I have most Sundays. Paolo is truly gifted, and I think my standards for him are thus very, perhaps unfairly high. Hence the grousing. Anyway, that's all. See you ... whenever you come back again, I suppose.
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]