Constructor: Peter Koetters
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging?? (maybe a bit on the harder side because of the initially tricky theme...)
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THEME: "___between the ___" — theme answers follow this pattern, but are represented in the grid "Literally," i.e. by the spatial arrangement of the words, with the first word positioned "between" two singular versions of the last word:
Theme answers:
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There's a simple elegance to the *concept* here, but the execution of the concept ended up breaking down as the puzzle went along (i.e. as you descended the grid). The first two answers work perfectly, and work perfectly together—same 3rd person singular verb tense, same opening clue word ("Gets..."). Great. The third themer keeps the verb tense but now there are two words getting sandwiched "between" the end words instead of one, and gone is the opening "Gets..." (replaced by "Makes...") but OK, wobbly, but not fatal. And then comes the last one, and I guess the most charitable reading of the last one is that it is some kind of meta-answer, referring to what you, the solver, have to do (very metaphorically) in order to make sense of the theme as a whole ... so maybe it's almost a kind of revealer (????), but what it looks like is just a clunky outlier, with a present participle ("READING") where the 3rd person singular verb should be. So the opening clue words go: Gets, Gets, Makes ... Finding?! I know people's brains all work differently, but my brain is wondering how the puzzlemakers don't hear (or care about) the "clunk clunk" there. This puzzle is very reliant on the theme, as there's not much else of interest in the grid, so for me it was a bit of a miss. A good idea not very well realized.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging?? (maybe a bit on the harder side because of the initially tricky theme...)
Theme answers:
- 17A: Gets overlooked, literally (CRACK FALLS CRACK) (i.e. "falls between the cracks")
- 24A: Gets into bed, literally (SHEET SLIPS SHEET) (i.e. "slips between the sheets")
- 45A: Makes suddenly aware of something, literally (EYE HITS RIGHT EYE) (i.e. "hits right between the eyes")
- 58A: Finding hidden meaning, literally (LINE READING LINE) (i.e. "reading between the lines")
Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). Slivovitz is produced in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In the Balkans, slivovitz is considered a kind of rakia. In Central Europe it is considered a kind of pálinka (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine—pálenka, or Greece, Romania and Italy-pălincă), and similar to Romanian țuică, corresponding to the distilled spirits category. UNESCO put it in a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2022 on request of the county of geographic origin Serbia. (wikipedia)
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NICENE doesn't strike me as a very Tuesday word (4D: ___ Creed (Christian avowal)). I say this as someone who knew it, but also misspelled it (NICEAN) (!?). I sort of winced as I wrote that one in, as I did when I had to guess the letter in GO_ARTS (5D: Amusement park racers). And again when I had to guess the letter in OLA_ (11D: Father of Norway's King Harald). Brendan FRASER always seems like his name should be spelled FRASIER (like the Crane). I'm slightly surprised they just left the clue [Actor Brendan] and didn't even give you a movie to work off of / think about. He is probably going to win an Oscar in the coming months for his performance in "The Whale." He's definitely going to get nominated. I haven't seen it yet, but buzz is buzz and there is a lot of buzz. Whale buzz. FRASER buzz. Yesterday I pondered the seeming non-difference between CHAR and SEAR, and today I have a similar question about OVATE v. OVOID (62A: Like the shape of an eggplant). They both seem to mean (more or less) "egg-shaped." I think we should ditch one of them on account of redundancy. You all can decide which one goes.
I call b.s. on SAY AAH because once you open up (!) the "ah" beyond two letters, you're in free-for-all territory. Why stop at two "A"s? Further, why two "A"s and not two "H"s!? It's madness. Maadness I say. Outside the theme, the puzzle wasn't very HAIRY, except for HAIRY, which took me several goes to get (25D: Difficult to sort out, informally). SCHEMERS was also kinda hard, as I didn't know which kind of "plot" I was dealing with (35D: Plot developers). I enjoyed remembering EDDIE Rabbitt (26D: Country singer/songwriter Rabbitt), as I love a rainy night, but frankly the nights here in Dunedin have been a bit too rainy for my tastes. I mean, it's paradise otherwise, so I can't actually complain, but yeah, lotta rain since I landed down here about a week ago. I was promised summer! Or at least late spring! But the high has barely made it above 60 since I've been here, at the hottest. But again, as I say, my weather consternation pales beside my overall awe at how lush, verdant, liveable, and bird-dense this place is. Dunedin is one of my favorite places on earth, and not just because my wife and several cool NZ bands are from here. You should go. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld