Constructor: Juliet Corless
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: DPT (11A: Childhood vaccine combo) —
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This is a very old-fashioned kind of grid, one you used to see a lot back in the day when 15 stacks were a kind of Friday/Saturday fad. Now, this grid is highly unusual, in that has been rotated 90 degrees from its usual position, so the 15 stacks are running Down, not Across, but otherwise, you can find grids that just like this (stack up top, stack down below) all over the first and early second decades of this century. Before the construction software boom, getting those stacks to work out was a real feat, but the results were often iffy, and could result in a good deal of ugliness in the short crosses. Nowadays, with the aid of computers, pulling off stacks like this isn't as hard, and the results are generally less clunky. Which is to say, I used to dread seeing these stack-based puzzles, back in the day, but now I just feel neutral. Maybe they'll work, maybe they won't. These stacks are remarkably clean, on both sides, and though the short fill is indeed unpretty in places (EME SES DPT CIR), it mostly holds up quite well. The problem for me was the interest was Entirely in those stacks, and since all the interesting answers are, well, stacked, there is no real flow in the grid. The middle is far clunkier and less interesting than the sides, and you have to kind of hack your way through it—no wonderful answers opening up new vistas for you, and the longer answers that await you are things like FERRITE and BERI BERI (mmm, diseases) and REDEPLOY. So essentially the middle portion of the grid is just filler between the much more delicious edges. The puzzle ends up a kind of reverse sandwich, where the bread is the highlight and the bread contents are just ... there. Taking up space. Fine, but not particularly tasty, and certainly not the primary reason you're eating the sandwich (with apologies to delicious sandwich bread).
I started in on the short stuff (per usual) and was less initially successful than I would've liked. Got ARE and CEY and (on the other side) RAE, but thought the [Childhood vaccine combo] was MMR, because, well, that *is* a [Childhood vaccine combo] (measles mumps rubella). DPT is weird because it looks like it's just short for "diphtheria" (DPT = first three consonants, if you misspell it, as I typically do, "diptheria"), but then the "P" and "T" end up standing for other things. Regardless, neither "vaccine combo" is what you'd call "great fill," and not having those initial letters for the long Downs held me up. Same on the other side, where I did not initially get JFK, though I probably should have (1A: "We choose to go to the moon" speaker, for short). Eventually I changed SIFT to SKIM (21D: Go through lightly), got "OK, OK!" off that "K" (24A: "I already said I would!"), and the west side of the puzzle opened up from there:
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Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: DPT (11A: Childhood vaccine combo) —
diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
I started in on the short stuff (per usual) and was less initially successful than I would've liked. Got ARE and CEY and (on the other side) RAE, but thought the [Childhood vaccine combo] was MMR, because, well, that *is* a [Childhood vaccine combo] (measles mumps rubella). DPT is weird because it looks like it's just short for "diphtheria" (DPT = first three consonants, if you misspell it, as I typically do, "diptheria"), but then the "P" and "T" end up standing for other things. Regardless, neither "vaccine combo" is what you'd call "great fill," and not having those initial letters for the long Downs held me up. Same on the other side, where I did not initially get JFK, though I probably should have (1A: "We choose to go to the moon" speaker, for short). Eventually I changed SIFT to SKIM (21D: Go through lightly), got "OK, OK!" off that "K" (24A: "I already said I would!"), and the west side of the puzzle opened up from there:
Had KEYNOTE SPEAKERS before KEYNOTE SPEECHES (3D: Conference highlights) ... hard to explain why KEYNOTE SPEAKERS is a much, much better answer, but it is. The draw is the speaker, often a big name. Yes, that speaker gives a speech. But somehow "highlights" suggested the *draw*, i.e. the person, not the speech. That said, KEYNOTE SPEECHES is fine. JACK OF ALL TRADES is great, and FREAKING AWESOME, well, as an actual spoken term, I hate it, as I hate FREAKIN' as a euphemism, but as fill, it's original and fresh. The stack on the other side of the grid is the stronger one, with all the 15s coming in bright and strong.
- 19A: Usher's offering (ARM) — I wanted RAP, even though he's more R&B crooner than rapper
- 40D: Hollow (DALE)— paused here, thinking "is it VALE?" What Is The Difference!? Not much. Both valleys. Just read, in a def. of DALE: "synonym of the word valley" and thought "Ooh, where is this 'word valley' of which you speak, I would like to visit!"
- 47A: "Shut up!" ("CAN IT!")— had the "C" and wrote in "CUT IT!" Was probably thinking "CUT IT OUT!" but who knows?
- 51D: Resting spot for some buns (NAPE)— it's "Resting" that's troublesome here. Really angles those "buns" breadward. I was like "why would you rest baked goods in the NAVE?"
- 34A: Truffle hunting option (GODIVA) — As with "Resting" in the NAPE clue, "hunting" is doing aggressive, sweaty work here. A little toooo desperate to misdirect you. Obviously "truffle hunting" typically suggests the pursuit of scarce and delicious mushrooms. Pigs do this, or help in it, I think. But for this clue, the truffle you need to think of is chocolate, and the brand ("option") is GODIVA.
- 63A: One backward musician? (ENO) — god help me, I approve this clue; made me genuinely smile (ENO = the word "one" ... spelled "backward")
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