Constructor: Brooke Husic and Hoang-Kim Vu
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME: none? I think?
Word of the Day: Gwen VERDON (45D: Tony-winning actress Gwen) —![]()
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This feels like one of those Friday puzzles with a stealth theme that I just don't see because I am not looking for it (it's Themeless Friday, after all) and because I am still IN A STUPOR from having only recently woken up. Speaking of "UP," what the hell? "UP" is probably the primary reason I feel like I'm missing something. I mean, four (4) "UP"s!?!?! I GOTTA SAY, under normal circumstances, that's about two "UP"s too many, at least. And it's hard *not* to notice the pile-"UP" when they appear in three crossing answers, two of which intersect *at the "UP"* (UPON x BUYING UP x POP-UP SHOP). By the time I hit "DON'T GET UP," I was definitely thinking "OK, what's the gag?" But I don't see a gag. Oof, you wanna know what feels awful? Staring at a grid that you *think* is hiding a theme from you. It's bad enough when you *know* it's hiding a theme from you (as in a meta-crossword, like Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest). But when you aren't even sure if the theme is actually there ... you can convince yourself that lots of things *look* thematic ("... well there's this odd mirror symmetry on the diagonal, is that something? Is the grid an arrow pointing "UP" ... and to the right? RED STATE *is* clued [It's right on a map], so maybe ... that means something?" etc.). But the answer to the question "Is there a theme here?" is a (tentative) NOPE (42A: Hit 2022 film ... or a possible response to whether you've seen it) (great clue there, and great film—read a great (great!) review of it yesterday in the new Cinéaste ... also a great review of the great film The Banshees of Inisherin, but that's probably beside the point).
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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: Gwen VERDON (45D: Tony-winning actress Gwen) —
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity and Roxie Hart in Chicago. She is also strongly identified with her second husband, director-choreographer Bob Fosse, remembered as the dancer-collaborator-muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death. (wikipedia)
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This played far more Saturday than Friday for me, either because it's hard, or because I've gotten so used to the NYTXW throwing me softballs on the weekends that I'm out of practice or because, well, see my IN A STUPOR comment, above. Managed to get YETI ERTE DNA (wrong) and TAY-TAY (hyphenated??) at first pass, but I wasn't sure about any of it, and that "R" for "D" error at DNA meant parsing PRAYER MAT was tough (after WELCOME MAT, I was out of ideas). PSI clue was brutal (1D: Abbr. at a pump) (not a gas pump but a tire pump), as was the ambiguous clue on RUG (2D: Runner, e.g.). No idea re: MOSSY (7D: Lime some stream banks—actually thought "stream banks" was some kind of internet thing. Even when I finally got going, I never got that whoosh-whoosh momentum, though eventually "APOLOGY ACCEPTED" dropped and that flowed easily into "LET'S DO THAT AGAIN," and that was sorta fun. The grid is solid but didn't have as many high points as I was expecting. Again, this makes me wonder if I missed a theme. Lots of crosswordese in that SW corner (incl. ELENA ENERO SRO), but mostly the grid stays clean and the cluing stays properly tough. Would've liked this better tomorrow, since I expect a slower, thornier experience on Saturday. But the puzzle doesn't decide when it runs, and it's not that much harder than an average Friday. Just harder than most Fridays have been lately.
After the NW, there were no specific trouble spots, just an overall feel of toughness. Every clue seemed tricky or vague (and thus tricky), except the proper nouns, which (by the grace of god) I happened to actually know today. All of them: TAY-TAY, NOPE, IFILL, ERTE, ELENA, and VERDON (though I misspelled her VERDUN at first). If I left a proper noun out of that list, oh well, I knew that too. I absolutely botched LOGOS because when reading the clue (30D: Greek for "word") my brain rendered "Greek" as "Latin" what the f*&$!? Seriously, just looked at the clue now and was startled to see that "Latin" wasn't in there at all, LOL. That's not IN A STUPOR, that's ... I don't know what that is. A ridiculous misreading. I kept trying LEX... something. So SWAB / BOTTOM / LOGOS was a choke point that really stopped my flow cold. SWAB and NUDES were both effectively hidden from me by make-up clues that I mostly (SWAB) or completely (NUDES) failed to understand. I had NEONS before NUDES (46A: options in some eye shadow palettes). Ooh, I just noticed that PEELER is a nice nod to NOPE, which is directed by Jordan PEELE and rated "R", which makes it ... a PEELE "R" ... and now I'm back to wondering if there's a theme again. Ah well, probably better just to leave it here and let one of you tell me what I missed (if anything).